Starbucks employees stage two-day protest for better management

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Starbucks employees stage two-day protest for better management

Published: 28 Oct. 2024, 18:40 Updated: 29 Oct. 2024, 13:10

KIM JU-YEON
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

A Starbucks iced drink is pictured in front of a Starbucks store in Seoul on Monday. [YONHAP]

Employees of Starbucks Korea staged a protest to pressure the coffee chain to overhaul staffing and management policies after several quarters of slumping profits.

The protest was organized on Blind between Oct. 17 and Oct. 27 by employees not associated with any particular union or organization, its anonymous ringleader said on the platform. Employees said the action would take place from Monday to Tuesday at the central Seoul headquarters of SCK Company, which operates Starbucks Korea, and would involve trucks equipped with signs.

The protesters demand that the coffee chain change policies that they argue are impacting its sales and customer satisfaction. The employees also cited a “reckless reduction of labor force” across stores, alleging that the brand has been cutting down on labor costs.

Starbucks Korea has seen a drop in operating profit over the past few years despite an increasing number of stores. Its operating profit represented 10 percent of its revenue in 2021, the year that Shinsegae Group’s Emart became the brand's majority shareholder, but dropped to 4.7 percent in 2022 before slightly rising to 4.8 percent in 2023 and 5.1 percent in the first half of 2024.

A protest truck accusing Starbucks Korea of "inefficient workforce reduction" that leads to "poor service quality" is parked in front of a Starbucks store in Changcheon-dong, western Seoul, on Monday as shown in SBS's news report. [SBS]

The SCK Company employee who organized the truck protest blamed Starbucks Korea’s poor management for the slowdown, outlining their demands in a post on Blind, an anonymous community website where employees have to be verified through their company email to join.

The post accused Starbucks Korea of running complicated events that management failed to handle properly, leading to disorganization in the stores; of failing to supply ingredients for promotional events; of limiting stores’ orders of popular products; of reducing store employees while introducing more service performance benchmarks; and of poor communication with floor staff.

Around 96 percent of the 1,700 SCK Company employees who participated voted to proceed with the two-day truck protest in an anonymous survey posted to Blind, according to the Kookmin Ilbo. SCK Company employs around 23,000 workers.

Starbucks Korea employees, referred to as "partners" by the company, stage a truck protest in October 2021. [YONHAP]

Starbucks employees staged a similar truck protest in 2021, demanding the hiring of more staff and improved working conditions, following a giveaway of reusable cups. Following the action, the company announced that it would hire 1,600 additional employees and restructure its compensation scale for baristas.

After the announcement of the truck protest, Starbucks said in a statement that it has “regularly communicated with partners through its company communications channel, Happiness Council, on maximizing efficiency for operations.”

A Starbucks spokesperson said the brand has been implementing automation systems within its stores to reduce employees' workloads and that it has increased yearly recruitment.

The protest's organizer stated on Blind that partners' requests on Happiness Council often went unanswered and that Starbucks Korea gives out notices, and does not communicate, with its stores.

Earlier the same day, the coffee chain announced that it would raise the prices of the tall sizes of 11 355-milliliter (12-ounce) beverages — two blended drinks, six Frappuccinos, one Fizzio and two Refreshers — by 200 won (15 cents).

A spokesperson for Starbucks Korea denied any correlation between the protesters’ claims of reduced labor costs and the upcoming price hike.

BY KIM JU-YEON [[email protected]]