Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

So don’t go to Starbucks. They went on strike today and it is open-ended. Don’t go to Starbucks. Don’t buy Starbucks stuff.

The open-ended strike begins with 65 stores across 40+ cities and comes after six months of Starbucks refusing to offer new proposals to address workers’ demands for better staffing, higher pay, and resolution of hundreds of unfair labor practice charges. 

Sign the pledge to support the striking workers – Sign Here.

“No contract, no coffee is more than a tagline—it’s a pledge to interrupt Starbucks’ operations and profits until a fair union contract and an end to unfair labor practices are won. Starbucks knows where we stand. We’ve been clear and consistent on what baristas need to succeed: more take-home pay, better hours, resolving legal issues. Bring us NEW proposals that address these issues so we can finalize a contract. Until then, you’ll see us and our allies on the picket line.”

Starbucks is the biggest violator of labor law in modern history as Administrative Law Judges (ALJ) at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) have found that Starbucks has committed more than 400 labor law violations.

Finalizing a fair union contract would cost Starbucks less than one average day’s sales and less than Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol’s $96 million compensation for just four months of work in 2024, which is the biggest CEO-to-worker pay gap in the country and 6,666 times the average barista’s salary.

So I’ve always thought Starbucks was incredibly stupid for their labor tactics. Had they leaned in, they’d be the darlings of the left without being so radical that they alienate their right winger caffeine addicts. Because a fair workplace, workers rights, and so forth are not really that radical, or they shouldn’t be.

Starbucks could have been the good guy, the company that did the right thing. I wonder how much more money they would have made if they had just done the right thing?

I love Starbucks, but I can find other good coffee. And the longer the company resists, the less likely I’ll go back. That’s just common sense. I haven’t shopped at Target in nearly a year and I don’t miss it at all. Since I have no car, only a very large Land Rover Defender, I cannot go through drive thru so I don’t go and don’t miss that either. I used to love Wendy’s. Again it has been well more than a year since I’ve been to any such place.

I’m not some perfect labor ally. But I’ve learned that I can adapt perfectly fine when I feel compelled to do so. These union members are part of a new generation – no backroom white men only drinking buddy mentality. They are a whole different sort of union, different values, more inclusive and respectful.

The Starbucks union and perhaps this ‘Red Cup Rebellion’ will change the face of labor.