Starbucks union leader says 'Tank Day' fiasco deepened strain on workers

The leader of Starbucks Korea’s newly formed union says the company’s recent “Tank Day” marketing failure not only damaged the brand but also intensified pressure and uncertainty for workers already struggling with heavy workloads and unstable schedules.

Lee Yong-bin, head of the Starbucks branch of the Korean Chemical, Textile & Food Workers’ Union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said the union’s creation emerged out of frustration with years of one-way communication — a dynamic he thinks helped pave the way for the marketing fiasco.

“I heard that after the ‘Tank Day’ marketing, frontline partners had to deal with customer complaints and other issues that they would not have had to respond to if there had been no controversy,” Lee said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

“The impact of the boycott differs by store, but in locations where customer numbers have dropped sharply, the overtime work some workers used to do as a routine part of their job has disappeared, and their monthly pay has declined as a result.” His comments came after S ...