In case you haven’t heard, the “Red Cup” season looked a little different this holiday season. Starbucks workers across the country are on strike.
Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), the union representing workers at over 600 stores nationwide, has walked off the floor during the company’s busiest season. Their goal? To protest illegal union-busting and secure the fair pay and consistent hours they deserve. But while workers are on the picket line, a new documentary, Partners: How Starbucks Baristas Started a Labor Revolution, is catalyzing community solidarity in union halls and theaters across the country.
The film, funded through Working Films’ Docs in Action program, tells the origin story of how workers founded SBWU in Buffalo, New York, and overcame extensive union-busting to do so. Working Films is coordinating screenings with local labor groups that have strengthened their ties with each other, laid the groundwork for future collaborations and rallied community support behind Starbucks workers at this crucial time.
For many organizers, screening a contemporary labor film has helped longtime union allies remember why these fights matter, and how much effort it takes to secure wins that can feel taken for granted by well established unions.
According to Aaron Daum, with North Carolina State AFL-CIO, “It was as much of a learning experience for allies that have been with unions for a long time, as it was for the Starbucks workers. I think a lot of the folks in our area haven’t seen a big fight to build a new union in a while, and so learning that there is all this energy around the country and that it has now come to their own city as well, was a big thing for them.”
Partners set out to showcase the collective power of this movement, and the historic moment we are in. By platforming narratives of workers joining together for better labor conditions, these screenings are providing a rare space for striking workers to feel the scale of the community behind them.
Hunter Richau, with Atlanta DSA, reflected on the profound emotional and financial shift the film screening in December 2025 catalyzed in their community: “We want more people to get involved in the struggle. Doing events like this so workers actually feel heard and then connecting them to their support network on the outside is the inevitable future of successful strikes. Workers that were part of the Q&A were literally shocked to see how much support they had. They were giddy, and their jaws were on the floor.”
The Atlanta screening didn’t just boost morale; it provided the financial floor needed to sustain a long-term fight. Through the event, the community raised over $5,000, boosting the local SBWU strike fund to $15,000. Audience members also signed up for shifts in the local “strike kitchen,” helping to keep workers fed on the picket line.
Screenings have also encouraged more baristas to take up the fight even in the South where historically labor organizing conditions are much tougher, like at a screening we held in Wilmington, NC with a local DSA chapter and Starbucks workers. According to Abby Overby, with Wilmington DSA, “I work at the only unionized Starbucks in Wilmington, NC. I got a lot of my coworkers to come to the screening, and we got a lot of them to sign the strike authorization card after the screening. Those who signed also joined us on the picket line during our strike!”
At its core, Partners is a film to strike to. It highlights the humanity of the baristas behind the counter and the continued union-busting they face when they demand the pay and hours they deserve. By partnering with Working Films to show the film, communities are not just watching history, they are participating in it.
Help us build the support network that Starbucks workers need to win their first contract. Fill out the form below to host a screening of Partners in your city!
