National Student Campaign for Starbucks Workers

Labor Campaign for Starbucks Workers

Student-Led Strategy

Background and Vision

A group of Starbucks workers organizing with the Industrial Workers of the World have sparked a national campaign to unionize the world’s largest coffee chain. The workers and their allies have a vision of a groundbreaking union campaign that seriously challenges prevailing organizing paradigms. Instead of a select group of staff organizers taking on Starbucks, it will take a social movement to defeat this company. Imagine for a moment a fighting union of retail workers and what a constructive force in society that would be.

There is no doubt that a multi-dimensional approach to organizing Starbucks must include a student-led strategy. Given the characteristics of Starbucks’ employment model, students are uniquely positioned to make a substantial contribution to this campaign.

Action Plan

Existing student groups can take on the Campaign for Starbucks Workers or groups can be founded specifically for the campaign as is appropriate based on local campus conditions to carry out one or more of the following actions:

1) Utilize an outreach flyer to initiate conversations with Starbucks workers on campus and in campus communities about organizing a union to rise out of poverty and achieve respect and dignity on the job. 2) Demand on-campus Starbucks outlets sign union neutrality agreements or be forced off campus through pickets, student resolutions, civil disobedience, etc. 3) Participate in a National Day of Action for Starbucks Workers by holding rallies and contacting campus/local media. 4) Carry out coalition work with Fair Trade organizations to demand Starbucks carry increasing amounts of Fair Trade-certified coffee, beginning with 5%. 5) Participate in demonstrations outside Starbucks outlets and offices in cities hosting major mobilizations, beginning August 28 in New York City.

Get Connected

A national student coordinating body is forming to set the overall strategic direction of the effort. Please sign on to the campaign list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/starbuckscampaign to get involved. For more information, please contact the campaign at starbuckscampaign [at] yahoo.com. To learn about the Starbucks Workers Union, check out http://www.starbucksunion.org.