On Oct. 13, 2023, the Starbucks company sued a group of employees, a part of the workers’ union, for a post stating, “Solidarity with Palestine!” The workers’ union is made up of Starbucks employees who gather together to speak up and use their voices against their workplace. A political post by a workers union led to employees being sued by the food and drink corporation. In response, the workers union then countersued, according to Northjersey.com.
“Starbucks defamed the union by implying that it supports terrorism and violence,” the Workers Union said.
After hearing about what the workers union said, Starbucks responded to this issue with a statement.
“We unequivocally condemn these acts of terrorism, hate and violence, and disagree with the statements and views expressed by Workers United and its members,” Starbucks said.
The Workers United is a labor union similar to workers unions that battles for better conditions for workers.
The lawsuits of Starbucks and Workers United have caused a lot of trouble as customers are beginning to boycott Starbucks, especially Gen Zs. Many Gen Zs on the internet are sticking up for what they believe in in terms of their views on the Israel-Hamas War. Support has been seen mostly from TikTok where Gen Z is causing #freepalestine and #boycottstarbucks to trend.
“The TikTok data center shows that #boycottstarbucks has been used in about 5,000 posts generating over 42 million views in the past 30 days. Overall there are about 17,000 posts with this hashtag that have received over 175,000 views,” said an article by North Jersey.
Gia Meyers, a sophomore and a regular customer, loves all the drinks and food. The recent conflict has changed her perspective on Starbucks which before, was a must-have, and part of her daily routine. After hearing of the conflict’s problematic controversies, she is unsure if her routine of daily Starbucks will change.
“I was aware of this conflict and I decided that I should limit my daily purchases because I don’t know if I can continuously support them, although I have to hear about both sides before I completely decide to back away from Starbucks because I do really love it there,” Meyers said.
An article by North Jersey speaks about how the dispute sparked numerous boycotts across the nation of angry people disagreeing with Starbucks’ actions. Many protesters sided with the workers union and started to attend protests outside Starbucks saying that the company supports genocides.
Problems occurred when violent messages were directed toward customer service staff. Additionally, in the heat of this ordeal, Starbucks has lost $11 billion due to loss of traffic. Their sales have plummeted ever since October, slowing the anticipated first-quarter sales. This has driven Starbucks to suffer operational challenges in the market. The most detrimental thing for the company has been its loss of teenage customers who were hurt by Starbucks’ decisions during this conflict.
