There are important lessons for working-class internationalism embedded in the Starbucks organizing experience.
Protesters with a banner reading"veto genocide Joe," demonstrate in front of a Starbucks Coffee in support of the Palestinian people, in Paris, France, on March 9, 2024.Three years of rank-and-file Starbucks worker organizing has produced a historic union breakthrough: a commitment by the implacably anti-union company to bargain a national contract for 10,000 workers and negotiate a process for additional workers to organize.
To appreciate how workers got to this point, one must recognize the role of international solidarity. The mainstream and left press have almost entirely elided this aspect of the win. That is unfortunate, because there are important lessons for working-class internationalism embedded in the Starbucks organizing experience.
The union deleted the message within an hour, but not before it sent Starbucks executives into a lather — and lured them into what became a political trap. The company issued adenouncing Workers United, falsely claiming that the union tweet showed “support for violence perpetrated by Hamas” and alleging that workers’ pro-Palestinian statements would harm the company’s bottom line.
On January 30, Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan reported lower-than-expected earnings to investors and admitted that the pro-Palestinian boycotts and protests abroad had cut into the company’s profits, both domestically and overseas.. “Events in the Middle East also had an impact in the US, driven by misperceptions about our position.