Solidarity Picket at Starbucks

 

On July 30, the ZSP held a solidarity picket in front of a Starbucks cafe in Warsaw. The action was meant to express solidarity with Starbucks workers organizing for better working conditions and to draw attention to both the strike of Starbucks workers in Chile and the continued anti-union practices of Starbucks in the US, where a member of the IWW, Tiffany White-Thomas, was dismissed the day after revealing her union affiliation.


Informational flyers were handed out to customers and passersby describing the situation. The manager of the cafe acted aggressively towards the picketers, trying (unsuccessfully) to prevent them from leafletting the customers. The picketers held signs in Polish, English and Spanish expressing solidarity with the Chilean workers and demanding the reinstatement of Tiffany. A banner read “Enough repression of unionists”.

The strike of over 200 baristas in Chile started on July 7th. Currently the baristas, have not received a raise in 8 years, make 2.50 USD per hr. while the drinks are sold for US prices. They are demanding raises and money for lunches.

The picket was part of an international solidarity campaign called by the IWW.
More detailed information about the strike and its the demands and the history of workers' organization in Starbucks and incidences of repression on the part of the corporation has been translated into Polish and the main paper in Poland wrote about the picket, although only mentioning the strike in Chile, For those who would like more information in English, please see here.