Starbucks Workers United Calls for Boycott

Starbucks Workers United, the union of over 12,000 baristas, is this week officially calling for a Starbucks boycott. Starbucks Workers United baristas have inspired people all over the world in their fight for a better future at one of the biggest global brands. Five years and 700 union wins later, Starbucks is still refusing to finalize a fair, first union contract with reasonable pay, hours, staffing, and protections.

"We, the 12,000 and growing members of Starbucks Workers United, call on everyone who stands with working people to boycott Starbucks until they finalize a contract with union baristas and stop union-busting," the workers said in a statement. "What we’re fighting for is simple: a minimum $17 per hour wage, enough hours to live on, better staffing in our stores, and basic workplace protections. Every year, our living costs rise but our wages don’t keep up – a growing pressure many American workers are feeling as corporate greed accelerates unchecked in our country.

"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."

Starbucks has violated U.S. labor law more than any other company in modern history—the NLRB and its judges have found that Starbucks committed hundreds of labor violations and there are currently more than 550 unresolved unfair labor practice charges still pending against the company. Instead of finalizing a fair and reasonable union contract, Starbucks has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of care for the workers who fuel the company’s profits by wasting millions of dollars on AI and technology that doesn’t work, launching countless gimmicky drinks designed to distract from real problems, and inventing pointless policies that do nothing but make workers' jobs harder.  Click here to learn more and sign the Starbucks boycott pledge!