Workers from a variety of unions and their allies rallied today in Civic Center Park in support of Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) and Colorado’s labor movement.
“Workers across Colorado are standing up, organizing, and demanding better,” said Kylie Anderson, SBWU Worker-Organizer, in a news release about the first-ever Unite the Unions event, which was supported by unions, nonprofits, and others. “We want elected officials and the public to know that the working class must be the top priority in upcoming elections. Workers are uniting to pass the Worker Protection Act and move our state forward together.”
When the strike began, baristas at 17 Starbucks stores across Colorado went on strike, as well as more than 150 stores nationwide, according to organizers. At many of those stores, the workers are back on the job.
“Right now, corporate executives and union-busters get to control our lives, our schedules, our paychecks, and whether we can speak up without being punished. If we want Colorado to be a union state, elected officials can’t just cheer from the sidelines; we have to update statutes, pass the PRO Act, enforce real penalties for retaliation, and stop rewarding lawbreaking companies with public dollars,” said state Sen. Julie Gonzales (D-Denver), a U.S.Senate candidate who attended the rally. “I’ve seen what happens when people get organized: you can break a rigged system. I’ll always fight for workers’ freedom to unionize, to stand together, and to demand more than crumbs, without their jobs being used as a weapon against them.”
“This movement is growing every day,” Raven Caruth, SBWU Worker-Organizer, said. “When workers come together, we are unstoppable. One brick at a time, we will build a firm foundation for unions to flourish in the land of the free once more because our voice matters.”
“The union has called for an unconditional return to work at most of the coffeehouses on its strike list,” said Starbucks spokesperson Laura Frank via email. “We see this as a positive step and hope it signals a willingness to return to the bargaining table. With more than 30 tentative agreements already in place, we’re confident we can move to a reasonable contract — one that reflects that Starbucks offers the best job in retail, with pay and benefits averaging over $30 an hour for hourly partners. Throughout the strike, more than 99% of our 17,000 U.S. coffeehouses stayed open and continued welcoming customers. Fewer than 1% were ever affected, and more than half of the locations on the strike list never closed or reopened quickly.”
Today’s rally was organized by the Starbucks Workers United strike team at the Garden of the Gods Starbucks in Colorado Springs. Starbucks baristas have been on strike for 10 weeks.
All photos by Beth Schneider.
UPDATE JAN. 29: A statement from Starbucks was added.
CORRECTION: Figures initiailly included in this story reflected the number of stores on strike when the strike began, not currently.
