Friends,

Yesterday was a big day! 

The Seattle Starbucks Roastery workers voted to unionize! They join Starbucks workers from nearly 30 other Starbucks stores to unionize, becoming the second store in Seattle to unionize and the 2nd of 3 Roasteries nationwide to unionize.  Roasteries hold a special place in Starbucks, they are the brainchild of Howard Schultz, there are only 3 in the US, and they employ far more than the average store - 100 versus 20. 

Also yesterday, Starbucks workers at the 5th and Waller store went on a 2 day unfair labor practice strike, joining workers from the Eastlake and 5th and Pike stores last weekend and Marysville earlier.

Sarah, one of the striking workers at 5th & Pike in Seattle, reported: “We’ve been experiencing really severe [union busting] tactics. They’ve cut out hours severely. A lot of people have lost hours. I am an eight year supervisor I pretty much always gotten around 38 hours a week. I’ve been getting scheduled for 26 hours a week. That’s a 32 percent reduction in my income. We live paycheck to check. We can’t weather that kind of thing.”

Katie McCoy works at a Starbucks in Maryville. “We kind of started backwards I’ve noticed,” Katie says, “We started with the strike – the big bang – and then we filed for a union election. But I feel that is how you create that credible strike threat. That’s how you show corporate you’re not fooling around and not willing to play their games anymore.”

Seattle DSA members marched in all the pickets from the early morning until they ended. We brought food, drinks, and solidarity!  We also held a very successful Weekend of 500 posters that 50 SDSA members attended with striking Starbucks workers and Seattle DSA members speaking. 

Watch the video below from the picket lines and for more videos from the strikes and to keep up to date on this exciting campaign please follow @VentiSolidarity on Twitter.

This is all the more remarkable given Starbucks campaign of economic terrorism being waged here in Seattle and across the country to crush their workers efforts to win a starting wage of $20/hour, guarenteed healthcare benefits, and guarenteed hours.

Starbucks, led by billionaire Howard Schultz, has remorselessly cut barista hours, subjected them to intimidating “captive audience” meetings with management, and unleashed punitive actions up to and including firings.  Its no mystery why Howard Schultz and Starbucks are determined to defeat their workers - Schultz’s billions are made through exploiting to the max Starbucks workers and the farmers who grow the beans. The more Starbucks can under staff, the more they can keep wages low, the more they can keep benefits out of the reach of their workers, the more profits Starbucks makes for Schultz, the hedge funds, and the majority shareholders to buy their next super yacht. For Starbucks doesn’t make coffee, they make profits.

Join Starbucks workers from Seattle and across the country and community supporters this Saturday at 1pm at Cal Anderson Park for a rally to demand Starbucks stop union-busting and to demand a starting wage of $20/hour, guaranteed healthcare benefits, and guaranteed hours and more for its workers. 

**Seattle DSA members will be at the rally to talk with people about the Starbucks Workers Solidarity campaign, linking the struggle to unionize to the struggle against the capitalist system and for socialism, and to talk to people about DSA and joining us.  We’ll be arriving early, at 12Noon, to set up our tables, canopy, and banners.  If you can get there early - or any time - to help out, that would be great!**

In solidarity,
Bryan W and Sunny R
SDSA Starbucks Workers Solidarity