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Starbucks–More Cracking Down

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Starbucks employee Tim Swicord and Gailyn Berg pose for a portrait outside of a Starbucks in Springfield, Va on April 13, 2022. (Michael A. McCoy for NPR)

Last month was Pride Month. Now, Starbucks traditionally was a space that encouraged its workers to engage in acts of personal self-representation. Identify your preferred pronouns, show the tattoos, wear the Pride stuff. As I stated when the first Starbucks stores tried to unionize, Starbucks had set itself up for this because it had created an image of itself as a liberal space, both in terms of customers and workers. So as part of the crack down against the union movement, it has made the decision to crack down on the personal identity stuff too, part of what made the chain a place where liberals felt not only comfortable but where they loved to go. Workers are still fighting back on the unionization campaign, despite the unbearable attempts to crush it from Human Scumbag Howard Schultz. The new anti-Pride policies only made workers more angry. So they acted, back in late June:

Starbucks workers at more than 150 stores launched a week-long strike, alleging that employees at dozens of U.S. locationswere restricted or barred from putting up Pride decorations, a claim the company has denied.

Starbucks Workers United said the walkout involving more than 3,000 workers in at least 28 states began Friday at the company’s flagship store in Seattle. Employees at other locations will strike throughout the week, affecting less than 2 percent of company-operated stores across the United States.

“Starbucks is scared of the power that their queer partners hold, and they should be,” Moe Mills, a shift supervisor from Richmond Heights, Mo., said in a statement.

But company spokeswoman Rachel Wall accused the union of spreading false information, calling the strike a “tactic used to seemingly divide our partners” in an emailed statement to The Washington Post.

Last week, the union accused regional-level Starbucks leaders and store managers of blocking workers from putting up Pride flags and other decor commemorating LGBTQ+ rights. The union cited statements by workers who claimed they had been prohibited or limited in putting up decorations, as well as texts and a memo referencing guidance from regional managers to ensure stores adhere to a more “consistent experience.” The communications could not be independently verified by The Post.

The union says it is not alleging the actions were a result of a “corporate top-down national policy.” Still, it’s “very hard to believe that corporate was unaware” of the actions because the purported instances of it happening were so widespread, according to a statement to The Post.

I absolutely believe the workers here. Starbucks leadership isn’t dumb enough to officially act against Pride. But can they pressure certain stores–troublemaking stores for them–on this unofficially. Of course they can. They have all kinds of power to do so. And so they did. Will this eventually affect enough customers that it changes corporate policy. Well, workers aren’t asking for a boycott. And we should listen to the workers, not do stuff that just makes ourselves feel good while being counterproductive for their campaigns. But we can at least think about other actions in solidarity, at least when that is what the workers ask for.

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