by Documented: Email from Solidarity Campaign @VentiSolidarity from March 22
Friends,
Today [March 22] Starbucks workers at the Broadway & Denny store in Seattle made history, becoming the first Starbucks store to unionize on the West Coast – and in Seattle, the hometown of Starbucks! 
If you can, go there in the next few days, change your Starbucks app name to “Union Strong – Solidarity” when you pay with it. Be respectful to the workers and their workday, but enjoy a break in the first, but surely not last, unionized Starbucks in Seattle.
The Starbucks Workers Solidarity Campaign (@VentiSolidarity) stands shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with Starbucks workers in their fight for better pay and healthcare against the savage union-busting by Starbucks.
The workers at Broadway & Denny join 6 other stores nationwide to unionize, part of a movement of Starbucks workers that has spread like a prairie fire. At over 130 stores, Starbucks workers are attempting to form a union for a living wage, guaranteed healthcare, and stable scheduling. And Starbucks has met their attempts with draconian union-busting. From slashing hours, to intimidating workers with 2 on 1 and 3 on 1 meetings with managers to outright firing workers, for example the Memphis 7, engaged in the fight for adequate healthcare during a global pandemic that has claimed the lives of thousands of people and a living wage during the highest inflation in 40 years.
It’s not as though Starbucks couldn’t afford it. In 2021, Starbucks made over $4,000,000,000 in profits, to which it has lavished its top executives with massive pay packages. It’s previous CEO Kevin Johnson, who was just sacked over not being effective enough in union busting, made over $20 million a year in 2021 while baristas are scraping by on slashed hours.
Starbucks workers are the cutting edge of revitalizing the labor movement and are inspiring a whole new generation of young people and workers to fight for their interests.
The Starbucks Workers Solidarity Campaign (@VentiSolidarity) is a Starbucks worker-led coalition of community members and community organizations, like Seattle DSA, formed to spread the word and to take action in our communities about the unionization effort and Starbucks union-busting. We participated in the rally outside Starbucks headquarters in February demanding they rehire the 7 Memphis Starbucks workers who were fired for union activity. We’ve put up over 750 solidarity posters throughout the city promoting the Starbucks workers union effort and exposing Starbucks vicious union-busting tactics. We’ve also been tabling outside Starbucks stores where workers have gone public about unionizing to get the word out every weekend.
If you want to help get the word out, please contact us, @VentiSolidarity.
In solidarity,
Bryan Watson
Starbucks Worker Solidarity Campaign
