Starbucks workers are striking over the chain's new dress code

Starbucks' new dress code for baristas has sparked a strike at 75 U.S. stores, with more than 1,000 workers protesting the new policy, a union representing the coffee giant's workers said Wednesday.

The new dress code, which went into effect on Monday, 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 their green apron.

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 for customers as it tries to establish a warmer, more welcoming feeling in its stores.

The new dress code comes as the company works on its "Back to Starbucks" mission, aimed at revitalizing its cafes and boosting sales. CEO Brian Niccol, who was brought on from Chipotle to lead the coffee chain last year, has said "there's a shared sense that we have drifted from our core."

But Starbucks Workers United, the union that represents workers at 570 of Starbucks' 10,000 company-owned U.S. stores, said the dress code should be subject to collective bargaining.

"Starbucks 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," said Paige Summers, a Starbucks shift supervisor from Hanover, Maryland. "Customers don't care what color our clothes are when they're waiting 30 minutes for a latte."

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.

Starbucks said Wednesday that the strike was having a limited impact on its 10,000 company-operated U.S. stores.

"[B]y their own measure, less than 1% of stores have participated in their attempts to cause disruption," a Starbucks spokesperson told CBS News.

The company added that more than 99% of its stores are open and serving customers. In some cases the strikes closed stores for less than an hour, the company noted.

"It would be more productive if the union would put the same effort into coming back to the table to finalize a reasonable contract," Starbucks added.

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 National Labor Relations Board alleging Starbucks' failure to bargain over the new dress code.