Students Protest At Rutgers Starbucks Thursday

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — A group of Rutgers students say they will protest Thursday morning outside the Rutgers campus Starbucks (38 College Ave./The Yard, New Brunswick), in support of Starbucks employees across the state who are forming unions.

The students will protest from 8 - 9 a.m. Thursday, as part of what they call the day of "Red Cup Rebellion." Unlike at other Starbucks across New Jersey, they say no Rutgers Starbucks employees plan to walk off the job Thursday.

"This particular event is a student-run action in solidarity with Starbucks stores that are striking on Red Cup Day," said one of the student organizers, Raisa Rubin-Stankiewicz.

"Red Cup Day (November 16) is Starbucks’s biggest sales event of the season — and also one of the most infamously hard, understaffed days for the baristas that work them," said the national Starbucks union, Starbucks Workers United.

They say they are fighting for a contract for all Starbucks workers nationwide, and what they say are fairer hours, among other demands.

Not all Starbucks employees are unionized: Starbucks Workers United says on their website they represent about 9,000 Starbucks employees across 360 Starbucks that have unionized across the U.S. In New Jersey, these five Starbucks voted to unionize in the past year: Ledgewood, Montclair, Summit, Hopewell and Hamilton, the Bergen Record reports.

Workers at the Rutgers Starbucks are not unionized, but they may try to become so in the future.

They are calling on customers to join them in support:

"Starbucks workers are calling on customers and allies to stand in solidarity with them on Red Cup Day — the company’s biggest sales day of the year — and demand that Starbucks respect workers’ right to organize a union," union organizers wrote on this website. "Join us on November 16 for Red Cup Rebellion to make sure Starbucks hears worker demands loud and clear. We’ll meet outside of the Starbucks with banners, signs, and flyers to engage customers and passerby in support of Starbucks workers."