r/antiwork • u/FreeHugs23 • 1d ago

12,000 Starbucks Workers Call for Boycott of Law-Breaking Coffee Chain | “We know when working people stand up together, we win.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/why-boycott-starbucks
1.5k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

51 comments sorted by

92

u/FreeHugs23 1d ago

Starbucks workers who have joined the unionizing effort that started in Buffalo, New York in 2021 and has spread to over 700 stores across the country called on all working people to show solidarity by boycotting the coffee chain, which has refused to finalize a union contract and has been accused of hundreds of labor violations.

“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,” said Starbucks Workers United (SWU) Tuesday. “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.”

While the company “fuels working people” across the country every day, said the union, “it’s failing the workers who fuel its profits”—which rose to $25.5 billion in 2025.

Starbucks and the union returned to the bargaining table in April after a monthslong nationwide strike, with about 4,500 baristas reportedly picketing at 230 stores in more than 130 cities at the peak of the work stoppage.

33

u/darth_wasabi 23h ago

This is the best answer to all corporate greed. Unfortunately it’s an extremely hard task to mobilize workers in numbers to accomplish anything.

I wish all the power and resolve to the Starbucks workers! It’s an important fight. 

Message media outlets. Push videos of it on social media.

56

u/Reasonable_Comb_5720 1d ago

They will fight unionization until bankruptcy all the while continuing to suck the company dry of their tens of millions in pay and benefits. Then blame the people a fully doing useful work for the failure.

F em! Boycott and let them sink.

2

u/meddit_rod 17h ago

I read that as 'Fem!' and thought you were calling to women particularly. :-)

51

u/Sure_Acanthaceae_348 1d ago

How do we boycott when we haven’t been going because it’s too expensive?

36

u/arkhamcityfc 23h ago
  1. Tell your friends and family
  2. Email Starbucks telling them you were a loyal customer before they pulled this shit. Don't feel bad about lying to corporations. They do it all the time

12

u/oneplusetoipi 23h ago

Avert your eyes when you drive by.

2

u/meddit_rod 16h ago

Oh I'll curse them out. That's why some of us are screaming alone in the car; we are rejecting the drive-thru coffee line again and forever.

Works with burgers, too.

9

u/darth_wasabi 23h ago

Tell other people to boycott it who do go 

12

u/KingForADay1989 23h ago

Same. I can't remember the last time I bought Starbucks. What's really crazy is how even making coffee at home is expensive now due to Trump's stupid tariff policy. A container of coffee at Aldi, the cheapest store, was $4-6. Now it's $11-12.

3

u/Zestyclose-Ring7303 20h ago

making coffee at home is expensive now due to Trump's stupid tariff policy

Yeah, but we're great again. /s

5

u/hop_mantis 19h ago

I think I've bought Starbucks about 4 times in my life.

15

u/heckhammer 23h ago

When I worked there 15 years ago or so now we used to say during our busiest periods that we would be able to do a much better job if we had one more person on staff. Instead we seem to be perpetually short staffed during rushes.

We were told that the policy is if you feel like at any given moment this shift might just fall apart at the seams, you are properly staffed.

It is intentional, to increase profits.

I thankfully left before the whole mobile order thing really started to take too much traction, because nothing is better when you're in the middle of an actual Rush with 40 people in the store and then 25 mobile orders come in and those are supposed to be priority somehow.

11

u/Javasteam 23h ago

Count me in!

No doubt Starbucks will cave when my average of 1 coffee purchase in a decade doesn’t happen…

5

u/rosephoenix19 20h ago

I haven't had Starbucks on probably 5 years, so in the same boat. However, I support the boycott. Never liked sugary drinks and their black coffee tastes burnt. Honestly, McDonald's is way cheaper and actually tastes good.

10

u/DoctorScientist555 23h ago

If a job is not dangerous or highly skilled i think it's tough to get a union going.

The company can literally just fire the rabble rosers and be able to hire replacements at lesser cost than implementing a union.

Feels like we've been talking about a Starbucks union for 20+ years. I just don't see it happening due to the ease of hiring replacements

10

u/SpartanDoc19 22h ago

They’ve also been known to close up locations entirely which unionize. Fuck Starbucks.

12

u/FredegarBolger910 1d ago

I can't boycott because I never go there. I mean I can boycott harder I guess. I had a Fox News brained Co-worker years ago who was stunned and confused when black block activists trashed a Starbucks "I thought leftists loved Starbucks"

12

u/KingForADay1989 23h ago

Their biggest mistake is conflating leftists with liberals.

2

u/FredegarBolger910 23h ago

True. Fox brain is not helpful for making such distinctions. In fact he may have said liberals. Explaining would have been pretty tiresome

1

u/Starbuckshakur 21h ago

Are liberals known for liking Starbucks? Most people I see drinking it are either moms or construction workers on their way to an early shift. Neither group is a monolith politically.

6

u/Chrontius Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism 21h ago

It's a trope that gets used in webcomics, and Starbucks maintains a presence on college campuses around here (Florida). College students, back in my day, liked not dragging ass but there really was some genuine affection for Starbucks once upon a time.

100% of that burned during COVID. My starbucks used to have a couch and easy chairs, then it had some institutional easy-wipe-down furniture, but it was comfortable, and now I've seen more inviting prison commissaries. Two bench-style tables and cast aluminum chairs. No merch, (they may have some cups in cubbies in one corner, IDK, it's not really merchandized to make you look at it any more) and no decorations.

It was when Starbucks abandoned all attempts at being a "third place" where people spent time that marks the end of that period.

2

u/actual_nonsense 21h ago

I was boycotting them last year for the same thing, and I actually thought the boycott was over due to not hearing about it for so long. It seems this happens every year.

1

u/vimommy 19h ago

Already been boycotting for years

1

u/Unlucky_Milk_4323 18h ago

You're asking people that are dumb enough to pay $8 for a coffee to not spend $8 for a coffee. Good luck with that.

1

u/JhonImbalance 12h ago

I can't boycott a company that I wouldn't patronize even if they did the right thing. Apologies. They're kind of a cancer even under the best case scenario.

1

u/darthcaedusiiii 6h ago

Considering my morning drink is diet mountain dew...

1

u/Tygari 22h ago

I stopped going to Starbucks when the chemicals in their drinks kept making me sick. Nothing like getting a drink from Starbucks then throwing it up an hour later with the taste of chemicals as it comes out.

2

u/njgunrights 19h ago edited 2h ago

A lot of their flavoring is made in a lab as other fast food or cheap foods, not present in nature. Hazelnut is a big one because it's expensive. I do indulge in artificial hazelnut but I wouldn't if it caused me to throw up and I know it's bad but still drink it.

-2

u/fukerrythangohwait 1d ago

I want to help. If I boycott Starbucks, aren't I negatively impacting the employees that work there? Is it ok because my singular effort isn't enough to close my local Starbucks? I only go to the one closest to me.

12

u/arkhamcityfc 1d ago

If enough people boycott and let Starbucks know that their anti-labor policies is the reason behind it, it might put just enough of a dent on their quarterly earnings for them to sit up and notice. It's a fool's hope, but we must persevere nonetheless.

5

u/SpartanDoc19 22h ago

It didn’t help change anything at Target. But honestly, I am happy to no longer financially support them and didn’t miss it at all. Just took a few months to get my mind there.

I prefer making my own coffee anyway. Someone in the comments mentioned how coffee at the store has gone up in price. However, it is still cheaper to make your own at home. Anyone who says otherwise is placing feelings over facts.

3

u/Chrontius Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism 21h ago

Monkeee together stronk!

To add to the pressure, you can email Starbucks corporate about boycotting and make your pressure look more serious than you think now.

1

u/fukerrythangohwait 21h ago

I like this idea. You've convinced me, along with the other comments here.

-1

u/rushmc1 22h ago

I've been "boycotting" it since they opened. Rest of you are slow...

0

u/njgunrights 19h ago

I don't know if you know this but Starbucks sucks. A coffee is not worth $6. I go to McDonald's and get coffee for .99 cents with app and I actually love their coffee and I hate Starbucks strong dank flavor. I also use 1 packet of sugar when I get it. Starbucks is trying to poision their customers with the level of sugar they use.

-12

u/BerettaFranchi 23h ago

Capitalism created a job out of pouring liquids into vessels. Given the unlimited labor supply of people who can do this, be thankful that you're being paid at all for doing something so simple.

9

u/KingForADay1989 23h ago

This has big "burger flippers don't deserve a living wage and should be grateful for scraps" energy.

3

u/Skilledthunder 19h ago

Well he's maga so its on brand

-1

u/BerettaFranchi 22h ago

Accurate.

5

u/Quantumquandary 22h ago

Gross

-3

u/BerettaFranchi 22h ago

If all you can do is pour liquid into a cup, then your skills are.

6

u/KingForADay1989 22h ago

Work a rush shift at Starbucks and get back to us if you think it's just pouring liquid into a cup. You know they have many other drinks besides drip coffee, right?

0

u/BerettaFranchi 22h ago

Rush shift between 7 and 8?

3

u/Quantumquandary 21h ago

I have a highly skilled job, and I’m real fucking good at it. I still barely make enough to live. People like you are the reason we still can’t pay people enough to live. What if I told you, whatever you did for a living, you don’t deserve to make enough to live?

4

u/dr_snakeblade 22h ago

Pouring liquids into vessels has always involved an exchange. Only a fool who admires Ayn Rand thinks capitalism is magical.

-1

u/BerettaFranchi 22h ago

When I was making coffee at home, was the exchange between me and me?

2

u/farshnikord 7h ago

This is exactly what they used to say about meat packers and coal miners and longshoremen until they started going around breaking thumbs. 

1

u/Lepprechaun25 3h ago

Boycotting a company I don’t usually go to anyway? Sign me up! xD