Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich is expressing solidarity with baristas and other Starbucks workers, calling the famous coffee chain a “union buster” and getting his caffeine elsewhere these days.
Reich, who ran the Labor Department under President Bill Clinton during a time of broad economic growth in the U.S., has been a strong voice for decades against what he sees as a harmful concentration of wealth at the top.
“I have been boycotting Starbucks,” Reich writes, “because of their union-busting tactics. I urge you to join me in standing with Starbucks workers.”
Workers at 150-plus Starbucks locations have gone out on strike this week to protest their working conditions and the impediments they’ve faced in trying to organize.
[NOTE: There are more than 15,000 Starbucks locations in the U.S. alone.]
Starbucks workers at more than 150 stores have gone on strike this week to protest unfair labor conditions.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) June 28, 2023
I have been boycotting Starbucks because of their union-busting tactics. I urge you to join me in standing with Starbucks workers. pic.twitter.com/ZBYOLLpVjh
Reich says the National Labor Relations Board has filed “over 80 complaints against Starbucks for violating federal labor law, including illegally firing more than a dozen Starbucks workers for exercising their right to form a union.”
Reich slaps billionaire Starbucks founder Howard Schultz with the charge that the company has taken “no meaningful steps toward negotiating a contract” with the 300 Starbucks locations that have unionized. As Reich speaks, Schultz’s smiling face — a photo chosen to show the owner looking pleased and satisfied — flashes on the screen.
Reich urges other Americans to respect the workers’ position and says it is “time for all of us to boycott Starbucks.”
