I've never been a fan of uniforms at the workplace. It's a gross way of forcing corporate branding onto free-thinking, individual human beings. It just further dehumanizes them in the face of the company, customer, and themselves. A uniform change in Starbucks has sparked a huge strike as they feel their individuality slipping away to the corporate leviathan.
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The Starbucks strike involves more than 1,000 employees at over 75 stores. This is the power of unionization. More than 11,000 Starbucks employees are members of hospitality-related unions such as Workers United. This had empowered them to stand up for their rights when it comes to executive decisions directly affecting them.
Starbucks is trying to change the uniform worn underneath the aprons that the employees already have to wear. They are proposing that staff should be restricted to wearing only a solid black shirt and khaki, black or blue denim bottoms under the apron.
This is in an effort to make the green apron stand out more. Using human beings as product branding is something that has become far too socially accepted. People are not walking products, to be used for corporate advertisement. The staff of Starbucks have kicked back and are now going on strike.
Starbucks Problems Run Deeper Than Uniform Problems
Anyone with a taste for decent coffee knows that Starbucks should be avoided. With the rise of fantastic indie coffee shops and local competitive chains, people have more options for coffee than ever.
I have always found that getting regular coffee from Starbucks to be a disappointing experience. They may serve the largest size around, but the burnt beans and overcaffeinated drinks only serve to make my hands shake.
It's not a good coffee. Like many others, I usually opt for a local joint, or one of the smaller, local, competitive chains. The only thing Starbucks is good for is if I want to spend $15 on a blended, sugar packed, coffee milkshake.
The Starbucks uniform change that has sparked the strike is part of a rebrand. The CEO seems to think that people aren't going to Starbucks because people can't see the green aprons enough. But, as Paige Summers, a Starbucks shift supervisor, said, "Customers don't care what color our clothes are when they're waiting 30 minutes for a latte."
