by Starbucks baristas protesting the company's grew Thursday.
More than 2,000 Starbucks baristas at 120 U.S. stores have gone on strike since Sunday to protest the new dress code, according to , a union representing the coffee giant's U.S. workers.
put new limits starting Monday on what its baristas can wear under their green aprons. The dress code requires employees at company-operated and licensed stores in the U.S. and Canada to wear a solid black shirt and khaki, black or blue denim bottoms.
Under the previous dress code, baristas could wear a broader range of dark colors and patterned shirts. Starbucks said the new rules would make its green aprons stand out and create a sense of familiarity as it tries to establish a in its stores.
But , the union that represents workers at 570 of Starbucks鈥� 10,000 company-owned U.S. stores, said the dress code should be subject to collective bargaining.
鈥淪tarbucks has lost its way. Instead of listening to baristas who make the Starbucks experience what it is, they are focused on all the wrong things, like implementing a restrictive new dress code,鈥� said Paige Summers, a Starbucks shift supervisor from Hanover, Maryland. 鈥淐ustomers don鈥檛 care what color our clothes are when they鈥檙e waiting 30 minutes for a latte.鈥�
Summers and others also criticized the company for selling styles of Starbucks-branded clothing that employees no longer are allowed to wear to work on an internal website. Starbucks said it would give two free black T-shirts to each employee when it announced the new dress code.
On Wednesday, Starbucks Workers Union said a total of 1,000 workers had staged walkouts at 75 U.S. stores. Starbucks said at the time that the strike was having a limited impact on its 10,000 company-operated . In some cases the strikes closed stores for less than an hour, the company said.
鈥淚t would be more productive if the union would put the same effort into coming back to the table that they鈥檙e putting into protesting wearing black shirts to work," Starbucks said in a statement. "More than 99% of our stores are open today serving customers 鈥� and have been all week.鈥�
Associated Press readers who shared their opinions had mixed views of the dress code. Some said they didn鈥檛 think Starbucks鈥� baristas had much to complain about, noting that many retailers require their workers to dress a certain way. Others said they thought Starbucks should focus on improving the quality and prices of its beverages, and keeping workers happy instead of worrying about what its employees wear.
Maddie Mucklow, who manages a Starbucks store in Seattle, said she's in favor of the new rules.
鈥淚鈥檒l be honest, I think the dress code was a difficult change for the partners at my store," Mucklow said. "But the dress code gives us a more consistent boundary for how to show up best for each other while still expressing our individuality.鈥�
Starbucks Workers United has been unionizing U.S. stores since 2021. Starbucks and the union have yet to reach a contract agreement, despite agreeing to return to the bargaining table in February 2024.
The union said this week that it filed a complaint with the alleging Starbucks' failure to bargain over the new dress code.
Dee-ann Durbin, The Associated Press
