Help works get a fair contract from Starbucks
Int'l Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations. IUF
More than 12,000 baristas have organized with Starbucks
Workers United, winning more than 700 union elections nationwide, adding more
workers to their ranks each consecutive month for nearly five
straight years.
Starbucks is the second largest fast-food company in the
world, and they have the resources to settle a first contract. It would take
less than one day’s sales to settle a fair and reasonable contract that meets
baristas’ demands. Instead, the company chooses to be the biggest U.S. labor
law violator in modern history and stonewalls and stalls progress in
negotiations.
Starbucks’ flagrant disregard for labor law isn’t just an
attack on their own workers, it’s an attack on all working people. When union
baristas—backed by a coalition of allies—prove that they can take on the
biggest bosses and win despite rampant union busting, it will put all employers
on notice about the power of the labor movement.
That’s why Starbucks baristas are calling on labor
unions, federations and other allies to support the boycott, including
through:
- Not
purchasing Starbucks products for offices, meetings, or events, and to
blacklist Starbucks from catering and sponsorships.
- Publicly
amplifying the boycott, and encouraging members to do the same.
- And
demanding that Starbucks settles a fair contract with union baristas.
When workers take on one of the biggest corporations in the world, they shouldn’t have to do it alone. Solidarity has been the force for the greatest improvements in society, and solidarity is what’s needed most today to protect all our communities.
In a statement, Starbucks Workers United said: “Starbucks is
banking on customers’ blind loyalty to the integrity and values this company
once stood for in order to keep squeezing them for profits. At a time when
working-class people across the country are struggling in a challenging
economy, it is no longer possible to be both a Starbucks customer and
in support of workers; choosing to spend money at Starbucks is choosing a
law-breaking corporation over the baristas who make your coffee everyday
exactly as you ask for it.”
Read more and sign the boycott pledge here.
