Good morning, everyone.
Thank you to the media who are here with us, and also those who are watching the live stream.
Starbucks executives like to talk about how woke they are.
I heard that at an event a few months ago, as he and other Starbucks executives were attempting to sweet-talk workers that the company is really pro-worker, billionaire, and former Starbucks CEO and Seattle District 3 resident Howard Schultz talked about the crisis of capitalism.
How very woke.
Unfortunately, that wokeness does not extend to supporting decent pay for workers, and it does not extend to the simple right to a union.
And I don't think that someone who has nearly $5 billion in wealth is feeling any crisis.
There's no crisis for Starbucks CEO, Kevin Johnson, either, who paid himself nearly $20 million last year.
But for Starbucks workers and tens of millions of other American working people, yes, we are certainly experiencing the brunt of this historic crisis of capitalism.
Workers faced a crisis in their living standards and their workplace rights even before the pandemic, and it has gotten dramatically worse and more brutal since.
The world's billionaires became $5 trillion richer last year while workers were struggling to keep COVID infections at bay, pay their rent and put food on the table.
But the crisis of capitalism has also led to the beginnings of a labor uprising.
We saw powerful strikes last year, such as by the John Deere workers and by union carpenters right here in the Pacific Northwest.
We saw important union drives, such as by Amazon workers in Alabama.
And now we are seeing a historic movement of young workers beginning.
Starbucks workers are rising up.
Congratulations to the Buffalo Starbucks workers who succeeded in unionizing two stores despite intimidation by the bosses.
Workers at more and more stores around the country are announcing their decision to unionize.
We're here today in front of Starbucks corporate headquarters because, of course, Starbucks started in Seattle.
Seattle Starbucks workers are now fighting for a union here.
Starbucks workers have already demonstrated the value of having a union and a fighting approach around concrete demands.
Soon after winning their union, the Buffalo workers went on a five-day strike and forced the company to concede on a major demand for a company-wide paid time for workers for quarantine and self-isolation if they test positive for COVID.
This is a huge victory.
We win.
We win.
We win.
We win.
As a socialist, a four-time elected representative of Seattle's working people, and a rank-and-file member of the American Federation of Teachers, Local 1789, I am honored to stand alongside these courageous workers and to bring forward a resolution in solidarity with them.
By voting yes on the resolution, Seattle City Council members would take a stand with Starbucks workers rather than just saying woke things when they don't matter.
They would call on Starbucks Corporation to accept card check neutrality, which is recognizing a union when the majority of a workforce signs union cards and committing to allow employees to discuss unionization free from threats, intimidation, anti-union propaganda, anti-union meetings, and lawsuits.
If Starbucks workers in Seattle unionize, the resolution further urges Starbucks to bargain a fair contract such that the workers can have good standards of living and the company's overwhelming wealth does not just flow to the top executives and shareholders.
Last but not least, the resolution recommends all workers in Seattle organize into unions to collectively fight for better wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Now, I have heard most of the eight Democrats on the city council say in different ways that they support workers, or they support unions, or they support marginalized communities.
But let's not forget, seven of the eight Democrats currently on the city council voted just last month to end, yes, end the $4 an hour hazard pay for our grocery workers.
And by the way, that hazard pay bill is back on the city council agenda for this afternoon.
The Democratic Party politicians get one more shot to get this right.
I joined the hundreds of working people who have emailed the city council Democrats saying, don't you dare eliminate the hazard pay for grocery workers.
And in fact, you need to extend it to all frontline workers.
It's very simple with this resolution also.
If you as a politician claim to be pro-worker and pro-union, then you should vote yes on it and not attempt to water it down.
If you vote no or water down the resolution, then you are showing yourself to be anti-worker and anti-union.
You are siding with the exploitative billionaires and multimillionaires.
So what's it going to be?
Workers want to know.
Which side are you on, council members?
I urge all workers and community members who support the resolution and who want the City Council to uphold the grocery worker hazard pay to sign up online at 12 noon today for public comment and then speak in public comment at the City Council meeting at 2 p.m.
Let's take a moment this morning to understand what's at stake here.
Starbucks has nearly 9,000 stores nationally that are directly company owned or over 15,000 if you include grocery stores and other affiliated locations.
It is a behemoth of a corporation with $29 billion in revenue last year.
If Starbucks workers succeed in building a union and not just building a union but winning a fair contract, this will be nothing short of an earthquake.
It will be unprecedented in the massive fast food industry and the first successful union drive on this giant scale in the private sector in decades.
Let's also understand what it will take to rapidly organize as many Starbucks stores as possible.
We will need a class struggle approach to win.
There can be no illusions that the bosses will be on our side.
They will fight ferociously against us.
The bosses will tell you that you don't need a union, that you're a partner in this company, that unions just want your dues money and don't do anything.
But what does it mean to be a quote-unquote partner with a CEO who made $20 million while you struggled to pay rent?
And if unions allegedly don't do anything, then why is Starbucks terrified of them?
In Seattle, our working class movement has beaten Amazon and Starbucks and Seattle's wealthiest corporations and corporate landlords again and again, not by trying to convince them to be kind, but by getting organized and fighting back.
As both history shows and the Starbucks workers are showing, power at the bargaining table comes from power outside.
We are talking with Starbucks workers about a national day of action to help spread the unionizing struggle to hundreds of stores because that is what is needed to win unions at hundreds of stores.
for workers to coordinate in a nationwide campaign with powerful demands and in unity against the billionaire Starbucks bosses.
Unity with workers, not with the bosses.
And we need strike actions and walkouts such as we have already seen.
Toward this end, I am donating $10,000 from my solidarity fund to Starbucks workers organizing.
As many of you know, as a representative of Seattle's working class, I take home only the average worker's wage and donate the rest of my six-figure salary into this solidarity fund.
Tonight, my office is hosting a rally alongside Starbucks Workers United Socialist Alternative, and local unions UAW 4121, Protech 17, WUFC 1488, CWA 7800, and the Book Workers Union.
The rally will be held COVID safe and masked at 6 p.m.
in Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill.
Together we'll be talking about how we can rebuild a fighting labor movement in the United States and internationally.
In closing, we've seen the lengths Starbucks executives will go to prevent workers from unionizing.
It is extremely critical that we build on the success of workers in Buffalo for a nationwide almighty battle to unionize and follow that up with a class struggle based approach to winning contracts.
Now, it is my distinct pleasure and honor to invite Casey Moore and Gianna Reeves, who, being among the leaders in the Buffalo successful unionization struggle, and they're going to come here alongside their Seattle partners, and the Seattle workers are going to share with us some exciting announcements, and then after that, we have a few more speakers, so stick around.
Thank you.
Get off it!
Put partners over profit!
Get off it!
Put partners over profit!
Hi, thank you so much for being here.
My name is Casey Moore, C-A-S-E-Y M-O-O-R-E.
I am a partner on the organizing committee in Buffalo, New York.
And the reason that me and my fellow partner Gianna have come out here today is to support our Seattle partners who have an exciting announcement they're making today, but also to call on the Seattle City Council to pass this resolution.
In Buffalo, when we organized, we are trying to become true partners at this company.
We're trying to make Starbucks ultimately a better company and a better place to work.
When we launched our organizing efforts in late August, Starbucks responded with an unprecedented union campaign, anti-campaign.
They not only sent in hundreds of managers from around the country to spy, intimidate, and threaten workers, but they also closed down the Walden and Anderson store, which is now going to a union vote in the coming weeks, and turned it into a training center where they're hoping to lower the union support at these stores.
Imagine what it's like to be in our shoes, where you're having people who are responsible for your paycheck coming in and telling you personally in one-on-one meetings that they would be heartbroken if you voted for a union.
It's unacceptable what Starbucks has done.
This is a company that says that they have progressive values and that they care about employees.
This is not what a pro-partner company does.
You cannot be pro-partner and anti-union.
It doesn't work like that.
So we're here today to call on city council members to pass this resolution and say in the home of Starbucks we won't accept union busting here.
You can't, it's not going to be tolerated.
Hi, my name is Gianna Reeve, G-I-A-N-N-A R-E-E-V-E, and like Casey, I am a Buffalo partner and organizer with Starbucks Workers United from Buffalo, New York.
We are here because we support our Seattle partners, and we need to stand together.
We cannot do this divided.
That's why we are here.
We need to be here to demand this resolution.
This is not an option.
They will do exactly what they did in Buffalo, where they are closing stores, threatening partner benefits.
They will do this anywhere.
They take pride in Seattle being their hometown, but they will absolutely rake their partners through the mud unless we tell them no.
So let's do it.
We cannot stand for this anymore.
Let's have Starbucks be what they say they want to be, progressive, pro-partner, and pro-labor.
Thank you.
We're so excited for our fellow Seattle partners to have an exciting announcement today.
And as Gianna said, ultimately, we're here to make Starbucks a better company, a better place to work.
We love what we do, and we're trying to make it better in the home of Starbucks in Seattle here.
Thank you for coming.
And I'm excited to introduce some partners in Seattle.
Hi there, my name is Micah Lakes.
I am representing the organizing...
Screwed up.
Hi, my name is Micah Lakes, and I am representing the organizing committee at store number 60580 on the corner of 5th and Pike Street in downtown Seattle.
I have three points that I want to go through real quick just to sort of give a heads up to the people in charge of us to let us know why we're doing this.
We're organizing to have a collective voice to negotiate because we've seen frequently that our individual voices just aren't enough for people above us to listen to us.
And we think that that's a big problem and it's always seen as like a hierarchy sort of issue.
And I think that if we can have a level playing field through unionizing, then we will be able to see an end to a lot of the problems that we have a lot quicker.
Starbucks Union busting tactics.
Frankly, we find them disgusting.
We will not be tolerating any sort of irrational behavior on the part of corporate.
And we think that that's important for you to know.
The partners at Buffalo have thankfully been letting us know a lot of the tactics that are used.
And so we'll be watching for them and we will not be tolerating them.
Third point is Starbucks started in Seattle to be a different kind of company and through some amount of effort we've seen that they care to an extent.
But we have seen time and time again that they put profit over people.
over the health and safety of their employees and that is just not something that we agree with at all.
So, store number 60580 on the corner of 5th and Pike, today we're announcing that we are unionizing.
Thank you.
What's disgusting?
Union busting!
What's disgusting?
Union busting!
What's disgusting?
Union busting!
What's disgusting?
Union busting!
Hello everybody, my name is Brent Hayes, B-R-E-N-T, H-A-Y-E-S.
I am today representing store number 2810, the Westlake Drive-Thru Starbucks.
I am joined today with some of my fellow partners who are joining my committee because we are also announcing the unionization of the Westlake Drive-Thru.
This is especially important because a drive-thru store does not function in the same manner as a cafe store.
We are given less resources for the amount of work that we need to do.
We are given less hours.
We are given less coverage.
Yet we are expected to continue to perform in these stores in unfair conditions, unsafe conditions, and at time under so much pressure that we have partners cycling out on COVID leaves that we are not able to continue to pay for.
We are pressuring Starbucks to send partners home on paid leaves during points in which our stores cannot run because we have too many members out during a pandemic.
We are also pressuring Starbucks to continue to maintain the pandemic benefits that they have pulled out from beneath us with no warning.
We will not be blindsided.
We will not have any change in our stores that we do not have input in and we will have a seat at the table.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Sydney Durkin, S-Y-D-N-E-Y-D-U-R-K-I-N, and I'm representing store number 304 at the corner of Broadway and Denny.
As you may already know our store has been in a unionizing effort for the past few weeks since December 20th and we are continuing that fight in solidarity with our fellow co-workers here at Westlake Drive-Thru and 5th and Pike.
We are signing on to this resolution because we firmly believe that it is a pressure that is necessary to place on the council in the city of Seattle as the hometown of Starbucks.
They've already continued their union busting tactics here and they'll continue to do so no matter how many stores unionize unless we put on this pressure.
Broadway and Denny, they've already started on the same anti-union tactics they've used in Buffalo, and they'll continue to use those at other stores.
That is why we are standing up in solidarity together to demand better, to demand that this company listen to us, and demand that this company not engage in union-busting tactics that demean workers.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Sarah Pappin, that's Sarah, S-A-R-A-H-P-A-P-P-I-N.
I've been a partner for eight years and I have been so proud of this company for so many of those years.
But ever since this anti-union busting campaign started, I have been so ashamed, so ashamed of this company and their disgusting behavior towards these people who deserve to be treated with respect and dignity as Starbucks' own mission and values claims.
Let us go through this process.
Sign the fair unification...
what is it called?
Sign the fair election principles.
Let us do this.
Let us be your partners.
What do we want?
Unified Starbucks!
When do we want it?
Now!
Say what do we want?
Unified Starbucks!
Now!
What do we want?
Unified Starbucks!
When do we want it?
Now!
Thank you to all the Starbucks workers from Buffalo and from Seattle who just spoke.
We have one more Starbucks barista from Seattle, Star Willie, who works at the Starbucks on 1101 Madison.
Welcome, Star.
Yes, Star!
Hi, my name is Star and I've been a Starbucks worker for almost four years.
I'm so inspired to see the victories in Buffalo and I'm incredibly excited to see the fight to unionize Starbucks come to Seattle.
But I'm not just a worker and an organizer, I'm a socialist.
I became a socialist while fighting for racial equity and police accountability during the Justice for George Floyd uprising.
As a socialist, I know that our fight for a better world will be won by workers, and it's all one fight.
That's important because across stores, across industries, across this country, we see the same union busting tactics time after time, and we need to be organized and prepared to struggle.
Socialists bring lessons from the labor movement to this struggle.
The solidarity actions from customers ordering their lattes as union strong is important.
but the workers also have to take action.
We need the kind of solidarity I see between partners every day while we support each other at work.
That's the solidarity that keeps me coming back to work no matter how tough it can be.
Like the West Virginia teachers who all wore red shirts into work to show their commitment to fighting.
Like the organized walk-ins, hundreds of Unite Here workers have organized on managers and bosses unwilling to listen.
As partners, we deserve to have a real say when it comes to our working conditions and safety.
Our message to one another needs to be very clear.
We need a union because that is the only way we can have our needs met to win a real living wage, to have a democratic say in scheduling and shifts, to win COVID safety, and to seriously address workplace harassment.
As a barista and as a Seattle renter, I strongly support Councilmember Sawant's resolution demanding that Starbucks bosses immediately stop their shameful union busting and accept card check neutrality.
I don't have any illusions that the executives will do this because it's the right thing.
We as workers need to fight to force them to concede.
Fighting to win this resolution from the City Council is part of that.
My message to all the eight Democrats on the City Council is this.
The one socialist City Council member has brought forward this resolution in solidarity with Starbucks workers.
You politicians keep saying you support workers and you support unions.
Well, we want action, not words.
Let me be very clear, if you do not vote yes on this resolution, if you vote no, or you try to water it down, then no, you are neither pro-worker nor pro-union.
You are pro-exploitation of workers by the wealthy.
It's very simple.
Thank you to Councilmember Sawant and to all my fellow baristas at Starbucks.
I'm ready to fight.
Thank you, Star.
We have Sam White, who's a worker at the Darwin's Coffee Shop chain in Boston.
Welcome, Sam.
Hi, y'all.
My name is Sam.
Like Shama said, I use they, them pronouns.
I'm a barista from a Boston area coffee shop chain called Darwin's Limited.
And I just want to shout out my incredible coworkers and union siblings back at Darwin's.
Boston has six Starbucks locations that have filed for union elections, plus 15 stores over three local chains, like Darwin's, that have won voluntary recognition with Unite Here.
And at the rate that we're moving, both of those numbers could be out of date by the time I'm done talking today.
But I'm so excited to be here in Seattle because this right here, outside of the Starbucks headquarters, this is the heart of the struggle.
No matter whether your coffee shop boss is a multi-billionaire like Howard Schultz or a wannabe local celebrity in their community, they have a few key interests in common.
Tamping down labor costs, extracting more from their workers like the drive-thru workers, keeping doors open no matter the health risks, and busting unions by exploiting every fault line on the shop floor, all for the purpose of maximizing profits.
The way that we respond to that, and I mean baristas, counter staff, back of house, front of house, workers and socialists, is by building a fighting working class movement.
The bosses have their class agenda, and it's up to us in our union drives to get organized and fight back on a clear set of concrete demands that wins over every one of our co-workers to the need to unionize, and after that to the contract battles ahead.
And when I say concrete demands that draw workers in, for starters, a living wage before tips, full health care coverage, including gender affirming care, democratic decision making on the job, including around COVID safety, and a demand that Buffalo workers just one through their five day strike, paid isolation days after COVID exposures on the job.
I am so proud to be a barista, and I'm also a proud member of Socialist Alternative.
Socialist Alternative and Shama Sawant know that forming unions and winning strong contracts, or winning anything to improve the lives of working class people, that takes a movement.
Building a movement.
That's why Shama, like she said, only takes home the average worker's wage and donates the rest of her city council salary to a solidarity fund for social and labor struggles.
That fund, that solidarity, that material solidarity, that's the reason that rank-and-file coffee shop workers like myself from union drives around the country could fly in today and rally together and discuss demands, strategies, and tactics.
And that's what real working-class leadership looks like.
So I'm urging the Seattle City Council to pass Shama's resolution and stand unequivocally on the side of workers against Starbucks union busting.
And I'm also looking at the progressives and socialists back home in Massachusetts You know, we have Democratic Socialists of America, DSA candidates who just won a bunch of elections back there.
So, DSA city council member in Boston, Kendra Hicks, the Somerville DSA slate that just won the elections back there.
Are you going to pass a similar resolution?
What are you going to do to support CAFE workers through the tough contract battles ahead?
Will you follow Shama's example?
I'm in this for my co-workers and for all food service workers.
We're done with having to accept abuse by management or harassment by customers whose tips we need to pay rent.
We're fed up with unsafe COVID policies, unpredictable schedules and unlivable wages.
And we're fed up with growing up into an era of constant crisis.
In coffee shops, we're a disproportionately young workforce, disproportionately queer, around two-thirds women and diverse in every way.
And every one of those things means that every worker has a stake in putting forward the demands we fight for.
You know, abortion rights are under attack in this country, but real reproductive freedom doesn't just mean access to safe, legal, and free abortion.
It also means unions, contracts, job security, livable wages for families that keep pace with inflation.
You know, rent's gone up 25% just this year in this city.
Paid leave, full health care, so much more.
trans lives are under attack in this country and there is no safety for trans workers at Starbucks or anywhere without economic security so that we can afford safe housing, transportation, and health care.
And our unions are strongest when we fight boldly as one for health benefits for all workers that cover gender-affirming care.
So to every coffee shop worker, get organized, get involved in your union drives, in the decisions around what demands we fight for, and our rank and file strategies for winning them.
Every one of us has a place in building this national movement of coffee shop workers, because it comes down to this.
It's us, the working class, who run the food service industry and every industry.
And it is us, if we get organized on a basis of clear, concrete demands, that has the power to shut it all down and change it.
There's never been a more exciting time to be a coffee shop worker and I am so grateful to be a part of this union movement as both a barista and as a member of Socialist Alternative.
So if you agree with the need for a bold working class movement to fight against not just the greed of our own bosses, but against the whole rotten capitalist system, then I encourage you to consider joining Socialist Alternative.
Thank you and solidarity.
I echo Sam's demand to all the DSA elected representatives throughout the nation, please fight the fight alongside the Starbucks and all coffee shop workers and fight to pass the kind of resolution that we have brought forward for the Seattle City Council.
We now have Ilan Axelbank, who is also a member of Socialist Alternative and who has stood alongside the Boston workers who are fighting to unionize and many of whom, as you heard from Sam, have already won some key victories.
My name's Elon Axelbank and I'm a labor organizer with Socialist Alternative.
This November will be 10 years since 100 McDonald's workers in New York City walked out on strike demanding a $15 minimum wage and a union.
For years following that, the Fight for $15 was a huge movement nationwide, with fast food workers, including Starbucks workers, at the forefront.
And of course, this press conference takes place right here in Seattle, the first major city in the country to win a $15 minimum wage, in no small part due to the socialist leadership of Shama Sawant.
And Seattle was the jumping-off point, setting off a domino effect of $15 minimum wages passing in cities and states across the country.
Though let's be clear, we still have much work to do to win $15 everywhere, and by now, in many places, it should be higher.
Wherever $15 was won, it was due to the hard work of our movement, not Democratic Party politicians, who most often opposed it, and when they did support it, only did so verbally, but did nothing concrete to help us get there.
So let's think back to the early days of the 15 Now movement here in Seattle back in 2013 and 2014. Who was one of the fiercest opponents of the $15 minimum wage?
Howard Schultz.
Where does Howard Schultz work?
Right there.
Howard Schultz is the former CEO of Starbucks, and they say he's, quote, worth $5 billion.
But that's a lie.
Starbucks workers are the ones who are worth $5 billion, and actually probably 10 times that, because they're the ones who actually do the work that made all that money.
But let's not forget, we beat Howard Schultz and his corporate CEO friends in the fight for 15, and we're going to beat Howard Schultz and his successor, Kevin Johnson, in the fight for a union.
I flew across the country to be here, all the way from Boston, because this is the most important thing happening in the country right now.
I'll say that again.
The unionization wave at Starbucks in city after city is the most important thing happening in the country right now.
At least that's how Socialist Alternative sees it.
Because when workers in one workplace stand up and fight back, it inspires workers everywhere to stand up and fight back.
And the only thing that's ever made actual gains in the workplace is when workers stand up and fight back.
As we begin to take on one of the largest fast food megacorporations in the country, it is crucial that we learn the lessons of past labor struggles, both long ago and recent.
First, the union is not a service provided to workers from the outside.
The union is workers acting together collectively in our common interests.
There is strength in numbers.
When only a few workers are actively involved in the union and union activity, it's much easier for the bosses to dismiss what the union is fighting for, drag things out and stall, and single out the most active workers for retaliation.
But if every worker is active in the union, and the union takes strong action, this becomes impossible.
One of the best ways to get as many people as possible regularly involved in the union is to have clear demands, what exactly are we fighting for, and a plan of escalating actions that everybody can take part in.
Second, once a union is won, the union's power in the bargaining room comes from the union's power outside the bargaining room.
A strong contract has never been won through clever arguments at the bargaining table or convincing management and their union-busting lawyers through moral appeals, because these people have no morals.
Strong contracts are won by using our power as rank-and-file workers through militant rank-and-file organizing and taking workplace action, including strikes.
Nothing could possibly have shown this more clearly than what the Buffalo Starbucks workers at the Elmwood store just won through their five-day strike.
As was already mentioned, they won paid self-isolation for all workers who were exposed to COVID, not just for those who test positive for COVID, but all those who were exposed.
While the deal may have been sealed in the bargaining room, and despite what Starbucks may say that it didn't have anything to do with the strike, this enormous company-wide victory was won on the picket line.
And if this can be won through well-organized strike action, what else can we win?
Finally, it's a class struggle approach that will get the goods, not class snuggle.
I'll say that again, class struggle, not class snuggle.
Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson made $10,000 per hour in 2021. That's almost 700 times what a Starbucks worker making $15 an hour makes.
Not to mention all the Starbucks where workers aren't even making $15 an hour, and there are many.
It's the workers who actually make Starbucks rich in the first place.
Not just baristas, but the kitchen workers who make the food before it gets shipped to stores.
The truck drivers who transport the food and coffee.
The workers in 30 countries who produce the coffee beans.
This is how capitalism works.
Workers all over the world make our society run and the owners and bosses get rich off of it.
I just want to finish by saying it is no coincidence that the one elected official standing here today and who organized this press conference is Socialist and Socialist Alternative City Council Member Shama Sawan.
The resolution Shama is announcing today for Seattle City Council, home of Starbucks HQ, to officially support the unionization of Starbucks and call on Starbucks to immediately stop all union busting activity is a model for the type of working class leadership we need from elected officials who consider themselves progressives and socialists.
I'm a member of both Socialist Alternative and Democratic Socialists of America.
For all the DSA members who are watching this right now, let's fight for DSA's 150 elected officials to also propose resolutions like this all across the country, too.
Shama got the ball rolling, but we can't stop there.
Ten years ago, fast food workers demanded 15 and a union.
Well, in many places we got 15, and now we're coming back for the union.
Howard Schultz, you can't hide.
Howard Schultz, you can't hide.
Howard Schultz, you can't hide.
Howard Schultz, you can't hide.
Well, we're now, before we finish up, we have a couple of really important solidarity statements to read.
But before that, we're not only talking about the greed of the Starbucks executives, we are also talking about the greed of grocery store executives.
And importantly, we are joined here today by a worker from Trader Joe's, Jonathan Bischofsky Cruz, who is here fighting to demand that the City Council Democrats who eliminated hazard pay or attempted to eliminate hazard pay for grocery workers in December today stand with the workers and try to correct their scandalous decision in December and uphold grocery worker hazard pay and extend it to all frontline workers.
Welcome, Jonathan.
All right, thank you.
I'm Jonathan Bischofsky-Cruz.
I'm thankful to be here today.
So I'm a Trader Joe's employee, and I'm standing in solidarity with the Starbucks unionization efforts here.
I really appreciate them having me.
So all of us have watched Swans efforts over the past year, noticing the venom in opposition towards the elimination of hazard pay.
And that's something that has not gone unnoticed amongst me and my crew.
That is all last minute for me Yes, all right, so um now I'm one of I I'm employed at Trader Joe's one of four Trader Joe's in Seattle.
That's that's Receiving security in the form of four dollars an hour hazard pay under the city's City Council's current ordinance And as it currently stands, the COVID scare or the frighteningly common occurrence of a positive case presents workers with a difficult choice.
Stay at home, keep my colleagues safe, keep the public safe, keep my family safe, or get paid.
Unfortunately, people are coming to work knowingly with COVID every day.
I've seen it, no one's happy about it, but a lot of my co-workers can't afford not to.
This extra little $4 we receive is a thin buffer, allowing folks like myself to choose the safety of our community over a full wage.
It's a travesty to take that away from us, especially from the warm security of a telecom meeting and in the same breath say the danger is gone.
Now, I'm not an employee appointed spokesperson or anything of the sort for my crew, but I would like to read a letter signed by this hour nearing 30 of my coworkers to the city council.
Seattle City Council.
Trader Joe's crew invest their time, safety, and well-being to feed Seattle during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The continued development of the ongoing health crisis has renewed the urgency of maintaining hazard pay for grocery workers.
We are asking the City Council maintain hazard pay for grocery workers for the following reasons.
One, following COVID safety guidelines often requires workers to sacrifice wages.
Two, Grocery workers continue to be in extended contact with the public, protected with little to no enforced safety measures.
Three, the increased labor, stress, and danger that necessitate hazard pay have persisted despite fluctuations in the pandemic.
Please provide a response to this urgent request.
And this is not just for us, this is for all frontline hazard care.
It's unfair that we're the only ones that have been getting it this far.
Everyone needs it.
and we can't be taken away from us thank you so much
Thank you so much, Jonathan.
I want to share with everyone that my office and workers like Jonathan have asked other city council members repeatedly, are you going to vote today to uphold hazard pay for grocery workers?
Not one council member has bothered to come out and give us a public response.
This tells you where things are and that we cannot stop fighting.
And so you all who are watching, if you stand with the Starbucks workers and the grocery store workers, you need to join us at public comment.
Sign up online at 12 noon and speak at 2 p.m.
We have two very important solidarity statements to share with you.
I'm going to share one of them and Ilan will share the other one.
We have one of the unions that is supporting the Starbucks workers tonight at the rally is Protech 17, which represents public sector workers in Seattle and King County.
And I'm going to be reading and I'm proud to be reading the solidarity statement from Karen Estevanian, who is the executive secretary treasurer of, executive director, sorry, of Protech 17. She says, Starbucks Workers United, Protech 17, a union of over 9,000 public employees in Washington State and Oregon, is proud to stand alongside Starbucks Workers United as they make organizing history.
We strongly support the new wave of unionization led by workers in both the public and private sectors.
They, along with our existing unions, are rebuilding a labor movement that is fighting to raise standards and expand rights for all workers and to challenge the power of corporate and political elites.
That's why we fully support Starbucks workers everywhere who are organizing and petitioning for union recognition so they can bargain good pay, benefits, safe staffing levels and rights on the job.
We are proud of Starbucks workers at stores in Seattle, Washington and Eugene, Oregon who have petitioned for union recognition and want to let you know that PROTECT 17 members in your community support your efforts to win union recognition and a good contract.
The company's union-busting mentality is unacceptable.
It is shameful that Starbucks executives have resorted to a relentless campaign of mandatory anti-union meetings, harassing texts, and attempts to divide and intimidate workers.
They are doing that, of course, because they know that as a union, you'll have power and a voice.
When workers organize into our union in places like the city of Seattle, they enjoy the basic democratic rights that every worker deserves to have.
The right to talk about the union without harassment, intimidation, or threat from the employer.
The right to have a voice in decisions that impact their jobs and their lives.
Starbucks workers deserve the same basic rights.
That is why we call on Starbucks executives to sign on to the fair elections principles that SBWU has proposed.
We also urge Seattle City Council to lend their support as well and adopt the resolution to support Starbucks workers and their rights to form a union.
We stand in solidarity with Starbucks Workers United and with all workers.
We have, as I said, another solidarity statement.
This one all the way from a union organizer based in Northern Ireland.
Elan.
So as Shama said, this is from a barista and the leader of the hospitality branch of Unite the Union's Northern Ireland section.
This is what she says, her name is Amy Ferguson.
The past, and I'm not going to read it in an Irish accent.
That would be funny.
The past years in our industry have been really tough.
A lack of trade union organizing has meant low wages and precarious conditions have prevailed, all alongside a culture of fear and victimization crafted by our employers and weaponized against anybody who wanted to raise complaints.
Then COVID struck.
Many of us were squeezed even further, either put out of a job and left without our incomes, or pushed to work in incredibly dangerous conditions, coming into contact with hundreds or thousands of strangers a day, mid-pandemic, just to keep a roof over our heads.
We've had years of high-pressure, bone-crunching work, years of understaffing, doing the jobs that should be done by two or three others, years of surviving under brutal working conditions that are fueling a mental health crisis, all with no thanks or acknowledgement from the bosses.
But things are changing.
We are fed up.
Our fear is transforming into anger and we are demanding better.
In this context, your campaigns at Starbucks have taught all of us incredible things.
Almost daily, our group chats in Northern Ireland have been buzzing with updates from your campaign since you went public.
She said since yous went public, but I don't say that.
You've shown us that we can do more than getting stuck in a cycle of quitting jobs in a search for better conditions in other venues that never materialize.
Because, spoiler alert, profit-hungry bosses treat us with nothing but contempt regardless of the logo above the door.
You've shown us that unionizing is possible.
Having a say in the place you spend most of your week can be possible.
You've shown us that tokenistic gestures from worried employers don't cut it.
That we as workers are the ones with the potential power to transform our working and living conditions for the better right now.
You've shown us that we don't have to put up with the BS from the bosses.
You've shown us that when our venues are putting workers' and customers' health at risk in the middle of a pandemic, we can act collectively to organize the affairs of our workplaces far better than the bosses can.
So congrats on your unionized stores, and know that on the other side of the Atlantic, we are standing strong in solidarity with you for the battles to come.
As a barista and union leader myself, I call on the Seattle City Council to pass socialist Shama Sawant's resolution to officially support the Starbucks unionization drive, and call on Starbucks to immediately cease all union busting activity.
If these city councilors are pro-union, they will vote for the pro-union resolution.
and to the Starbucks workers in America, you may not realize it now, but you have inspired thousands of hospitality and service workers globally.
You've shown us that better is possible when we fight as a collective.
Your campaigns have been the first winds of a hurricane that is coming after our industry bosses.
It's invigorating.
We are union strong.
In solidarity, Amy Ferguson, barista and branch secretary of the Unite the Unions Northern Ireland Hospitality Branch and member of International Socialist Alternative.
We're going to take questions now.
I suspect we have one from Erica, one from Lauren, and then we have one to be read aloud from Hannah.
So if you, Erica, want to start.
OK, great.
And if, Lauren, you have a question, then we can repeat it back into the microphone.
OK, great.
So if you want to ask your question, then Shama will repeat it into the microphone.
So you were saying this movement is rapidly growing.
You've got a number of new stores joining it here in the Seattle area.
Are you talking to more stores in the Seattle area that could be theoretically joining this within the next few days?
The question is, are we going to be talking to more workers at more stores in Seattle in the coming days?
Absolutely, we will be doing that.
I have no doubt.
And we will have more announcements from my office and from Starbucks workers in the coming days.
Because every day as we speak, we have more and more stores, workers at more and more stores saying, I'm inspired by my fellow workers, so I'm going to unionize too.
And so I have no doubt that that's going to happen.
I will also say, though, that nothing is automatic.
We have to fight to make this happen.
And that's the purpose of this resolution and this press conference, to inspire all the workers out there at Starbucks who might feel isolated and demoralized, might think that they might not be able to do it in their store.
I'm here and your fellow workers are here to tell you, you can absolutely do it.
Start talking about unionizing with your fellow workers and come and talk to us.
What we've seen throughout this country is partners reaching out to other partners and really wanting to know what we did in Buffalo and how they can replicate that.
So I can't tell you how many stores we're talking to or anything like that, but I do know that this is really a worker driven grassroots movement that we're seeing.
And like Kshama said, we have people reaching out almost every day wanting to get involved.
So it's a really exciting thing and it's really inspiring.
And it's incredible to stand next to our Seattle partners today.
And I'll also say, one of the reasons that the workers have to be very careful before they announce is precisely because of the intimidation and threats and union busting.
So a very simple way that these, you know, these elite can make it easy for workers to announce that they're unionizing, send out a press release saying that you're not going to bust unionizing anymore.
And then workers will announce immediately.
Sorry, I'm gonna have you come up to the microphone.
So our next question comes from Hannah, who's watching the stream on The Stranger, and I'm gonna have you come up and read the question into the mic.
Thanks.
Thanks, this is from Hannah Krieg at The Stranger.
So Councilmember Sawant, in solidarity with Carpenters last year, you put forward an ordinance to get their demand for free parking met.
So why, for Starbucks workers, are you putting forward a resolution demanding that bosses not union bust instead of a sort of binding ordinance?
That's a really good question.
I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anybody who knows what my office has stood for for eight years, that I would jump at the opportunity to pass an ordinance to mandate that companies cannot bust unions.
I am not aware that that is possible to do.
If those of you who are watching this know that we can do this, that this is possible, then absolutely I want to have that conversation.
But for now, this resolution is extremely critical and the message to the city council members is easy.
This is a resolution and if you are not willing to vote yes even on this resolution to Hannah's question, then what do you stand for?
Because this resolution is simply saying, we stand with unions, we are asking Starbucks to stop union busting.
It's that simple.
So just vote yes on the resolution if you have any kind of pro-union, if you want to pretend to be any kind of pro-union politician.
Thank you everybody who was here from the media, really appreciate it.
Everybody who's watching on live stream, but please don't go because we are now as workers going to picket the Starbucks headquarters.