The labor union representing approximately 9,000 Starbucks baristas, Starbucks Workers United, expressed “solidarity with Palestine” in the wake of the recent conflict that saw over 1,300 Israelis killed.
This stance triggered calls for a boycott of the popular coffee chain. Starbucks Workers United, based in Buffalo, NY, represents 340 Starbucks locations across the United States and shared this message with its nearly 100,000 followers.
The tweet read, “Solidarity with Palestine!” However, Starbucks Workers United subsequently removed the controversial post, although their account did “like” a tweet from one of its members stating, “Once again, free Palestine.”
US Senator Rick Scott from Florida strongly criticized the union for its tone-deaf tweets and urged a boycott of the Seattle-based coffee chain, which boasts over 16,000 locations throughout the country. Scott tweeted, “This is disgusting. Every American should condemn the atrocities that Iran-backed Hamas terrorists committed in Israel. Boycott Starbucks until its leadership strongly denounces and takes action against this horrific support of terrorism.”
Starbucks was swift in distancing itself from the union, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which has more than 2 million members working across various industries in the US and Canada. The company stated, “We unequivocally condemn acts of terrorism, hate, and violence, and disagree with the statements and views expressed by Workers United and its members. Workers United’s words and actions belong to them, and them alone.”
Starbucks Workers United, along with SEIU, “do not represent the company’s views, positions, or beliefs,” according to Starbucks.
Upon contacting Starbucks Workers United for comment, the union directed attention to a statement by SEIU president Mary Kay Henry. She tweeted, “The violence in Israel and Palestine is unconscionable. @SEIU stands with all who are suffering, while strongly condemning anti-Semitism, Islamophobia & hate in all forms. I pray for a swift resolution and a future where all in the region can be happy, safe & live with dignity.”
One of the founding organizers of Starbucks Workers United, Jaz Brisack, has previously expressed support for Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who was involved in bombings in Jerusalem in 1969 and 1970. In a 2017 op-ed for the Daily Mississippian, Brisack referred to Odeh as a “political prisoner” and labeled Odeh and her fellow members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the US in 1997, as “freedom fighters,” as reported by the Washington Free Beacon. Odeh was released by Israel as part of a prisoner exchange in 1980 but was arrested in the US in 2013 for illegally entering the country in the 1990s. She was deported to Jordan in 2017.
