Thousands of Starbucks workers are striking across the U.S. today.

Dubbed the Red Cup Rebellion, approximately 500 actions are being staged on Starbucks’ biggest sales day of the year. Workers hope it will bring the coffee giant to the table for contract negotiations with more than 9,000 workers represented by the Starbucks Workers United (SBU) union.

Each year, Starbucks kicks off the holiday season with Red Cup Day, a promotional event where customers receive a free limited edition cup.

“It’s an absolutely brutal day for workers,” former Starbucks employee William Suarez said. The 31-year-old endured 11 Red Cup Days at the Starbucks in Hialeah, Florida but was fired shortly after workers at the location lost their union election in 2022. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is reviewing his termination.

Today, he stood alongside workers picketing at the Miami Springs, Florida Starbucks. Workers there have called on the company to address low wages, understaffing and repair broken equipment. 

The store became the first in the state to unionize last year, despite Starbucks’ “relentless” union busting campaign, Suarez said.

The NLRB has found Starbucks guilty of a slew of labor violations, including worker intimidation, discriminatory rules and unlawful discipline and termination of union organizers. The NLRB ordered Starbucks to provide back pay to several employees this year after the company granted raises and other benefits to its non-union employees. A federal labor judge ordered the company to reinstate seven workers and to reopen a shuttered location in March, after finding the company violated labor laws “hundreds of times’’ during a unionization campaign in Buffalo, New York.

“They’ve been waging the most disruptive union busting campaign in a generation,” Suarez said. “Other corporations now look to Starbucks to learn how to unionbust effectively. It’s disheartening.”

Today’s rebellion coincides with growing calls to boycott the company over its retaliation against SBU after the union issued a statement in solidarity with Palestine on social media site X  last month.

Starbucks sued the union, saying the statement damaged its reputation and put workers at risk. The company demanded the union remove the post and stop using the company’s name, logo, and intellectual property. 

SBU responded with its own lawsuit, accusing Starbucks of defamation for suggesting the union supports terrorism and violence, and asked a federal court in Pennsylvania to rule that SBU can continue to use Starbucks’ name and a similar logo.

Other organizers within the labor movement, including those with the United Auto Workers, Teamsters, Amazon employees and hospitality workers, have sent messages of encouragement and solidarity to Starbucks workers as they press for a strong contract.

A Starbucks spokesperson disputed SBU’s claim that the company is delaying bargaining and accused the union of delaying negotiations.

“As we join together to celebrate the joy of the holiday season,” they said. “We call on Workers United to come to the bargaining table and do the work of negotiating a first contract on behalf of the partners they represent.”