St. Louis Starbucks workers join national strike over removal of Pride decorations

Starbucks workers at four unionized stores in the St. Louis region walked off the job Monday, joining a nationwide strike at the coffee chain over the company not allowing dozens of stores to decorate for Pride month.

Workers at some local stores say they’ve been pushed to remove decorations celebrating gay pride.

“To come into a job every day that is supposed to have your back and they tell you to take down your Pride decorations, it’s kind of like a slap in the face,” said Jasper Berry, a barista at a Starbucks at Hampton and Wise in St. Louis.

They said they had to take down Pride decorations a few weeks ago, despite the majority of employees being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

This development troubles Berry, especially since Starbucks was one of the first places they felt they could comfortably and safely explore their gender identity, they said.

“It’s really scary because Starbucks was the first place that I thought was a safe space for me to be able to grow and figure out who I was,” Berry said.