Recently, Starbucks, a large coffeehouse chain, has been facing a controversial boycott. What started with workers going on strike for a better work environment has evolved into federal lawsuits between Starbucks and the worker’s union, Workers United. Without immediate action, the future of Starbucks looks bleak. Unless the company takes serious action now, they may not be able to recover from the damage of customer and worker riots.
There are many reasons for the worker’s strike: need for better benefits, better wages, the right to negotiate, and right to wear apparel expressing support for the LGBTQIA+ community. Worker’s have gone on strike several times, once during the company’s ‘Red Cup Day’, a promotional event.
Tensions between the Starbucks company and the workers union grew after the union posted a message on the social media site ‘X’ expressing their sympathies towards Palestine during the Israel-Hamas fight. This post led Starbucks to sue Workers United for trademark infringement, since the account that posted the pro-Palestine message uses Starbucks’ name and logo. The union proceeded to sue the company back for defamation for a post Starbucks had made implying that Workers United supports terrorism.
The customer boycotts began after their anti-union actions and mistreatment of their workers. But, pro-Palestine customers began to boycott the company after being put under the impression that Starbucks supports Israel in the Israel-Hamas war due to the company’s response to the union’s pro-Palestine post. According to several news sources, Starbucks has lost around 12 billion dollars of its market value because of the boycott.
The boycott and worker’s strikes that are currently hurting the company need to be resolved before Starbucks goes under. The first action that needs to be taken is resolving the issue of the mistreatment of their workers. Starbucks is known for underpaying employees and not treating them well. The best way to end the workers strike is to try and meet a compromise. The demands include a higher wage, more working hours, and free healthcare. While the company may not be able to meet all demands, they can try to come to a compromise with the union so that the worker’s strike can end. After meeting demands or at least negotiating with their workers, Starbucks will need to settle with Workers United outside of court. If Starbucks and the union were to go to court for their defamation case and trademark infringement lawsuit, the company would receive bad public relations. Starbucks has already received bad press because of their response to the Worker’s United ‘X’ post. The best move for Starbucks would be to settle with the union outside of court to avoid receiving more bad press than they already have in recent months.
The second issue that Starbucks needs to address is the boycott the customers are taking part in. Starbucks has already issued a statement saying that they condemn acts of terrorism and does not take a side in the Israel-Hamas conflict. However, their reaction to the Workers United ‘X’ post led people to believe that the company supports Israel, and in turn Palestine supporters began to call for a boycott. This is a hard issue to resolve, as the Israel-Hamas war is very controversial, and the only move that Starbucks might be able to take at the moment is double-down on their claim that they do not support anyone in the Israel-Hamas war.
The popular Starbucks coffeehouse chain is in trouble. While nobody wants to see the company’s delicious food and drinks disappear, nobody wants to support a company that mistreats workers or does not align with their political views. Without serious action taken by the company to meet demands of workers, settle lawsuits, and improve their public image, Starbucks may never recover from the serious losses they have had in recent months.
