My name’s Liz and I'm a barista at the Starbucks Roastery

Hi all,

 

My name is Liz and I've been a worker at the Starbucks Roastery in Seattle since the beginning of the year - the place Howard Schultz once called the next generation of Starbucks is now being defined by us as we bring that vision into our own hands and show him what it truly means to be the next generation, a worker-led union of baristas!

Huge thanks to Seattle DSA for all of your hard work and support throughout this campaign, we couldn't have done this without you! (The work y'all do has inspired me to join Seattle DSA btw)


To me, Labor Notes means gaining solidarity and support with the larger labor community. For many worker organizers, and especially those in “unorganizable industries” as we’ve been called, these kinds of resources and networking opportunities can have barriers to entry that limit our ability to build connections, and this directly impacts our ability to win as a grassroots rank-and-file campaign going up against the anti-worker, anti-union corporate behemoth that is Starbucks.

 

We’re having to build from the ground up in our region as the first Workers United members in the PNW, and as such we rely almost entirely on the community and other organizations to have our backs and help us succeed in going up against a multi-billion dollar company in It’s home town. My coworkers and I are fighting for a seat at the table and for our voices to be heard, while Starbucks is fighting to protect it's $4,000,000,000 (that’s billions!) in profit. They can afford to pay us a living wage and benefits, but they are choosing not to.

 

The opportunity that this conference provides us is not quantifiable in terms of dollars, but the costs of attending very much are. We are committed to attending (Labor Notes) to be able to best serve our fellow baristas and the labor community back home, but we need all the help we can get to make that vision a reality :)

Can you chip in $15, $27, $100 to help us attend Labor Notes to bring lessons and skills back to our fight here so we can win?