XPost: rec.food.drink.coffee, alt.society.labor-unions, alt.poli   
   ics.homosexuality   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: back.into.closets@queers.stink   
      
   Coffee giant Starbucks is caught up in a row with a labor union over   
   claims that workers at some of its stores in the US have been told they   
   cannot put up Pride decorations this year.   
      
   The dispute comes as a rightwing backlash against many American businesses   
   sweeps across the US, with conservative activists and consumers attacking   
   expressions of support for LGBTQ+ Americans. Some of the biggest corporate   
   names in the US – such as retailer Target and beer giant Anheuser-Busch –   
   have been hit by boycotts.   
      
   It also comes as a wave of legislation has been passed in many Republican-   
   run states eroding the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, especially around   
   the teaching of gay or trans rights issues in schools. According to the   
   Human Rights Campaign, over 520 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in   
   state legislatures in the US so far in 2023, a record high, including a   
   record passage of 74 of the bills.   
      
   The Starbucks dispute erupted after a petition on Coworker.org, a labor   
   organizing website, was launched in the beginning of June that claimed   
   Starbucks managers have told workers they cannot put up Pride decorations   
   this year.   
      
   A Starbucks worker in Virginia at a non-unionized store who started the   
   petition, but requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said   
   they came into work in the beginning of June and noticed all of their   
   store’s Pride and other decorations had been taken down. The petition is   
   directed at their regional manager.   
      
   “I was told that they had just implemented a new no-decorations policy.   
   And I was like, ‘Right before Pride?’ That’s really suspicious and kind of   
   weird. I was pretty sure it wasn’t just our store, because our store   
   managers are very supportive of LGBT stuff, most of our employees are LGBT   
   community members, and I was told that it was the regional manager’s   
   decision,” the worker said.   
      
   “This is so ridiculous, because it’s just a little quality of life thing   
   that we can do, it doesn’t have any impact on corporate, it doesn’t reduce   
   their profits – even the customers like it. We get a lot of compliments on   
   decorations and lots of our customers are also LGBT community members, and   
   I found that really frustrating and, honestly, pointless.”   
      
   The worker criticized Starbucks’s initial denial that Pride decorations   
   were being removed in stores and claimed the company was circumventing the   
   claims by citing the decoration removals weren’t part of any corporate   
   policy change because it was a regional management decision that affected   
   their store.   
      
   Starbucks Workers United, the union representing Starbucks workers at more   
   than 300 locations in the US, also posted a thread on Twitter on 13 June   
   claiming that workers in at least 21 states, including at unionized   
   stores, have reported their store management banning Pride decorations.   
      
   The union has also pushed back on Starbucks’s denials, citing numerous   
   reports on social media and TikTok videos from workers of the removal of   
   Pride decorations at their stores.   
      
   Starbucks has denied any corporate policy changes, claiming it is not   
   aware of any corporate store that has banned decorations related to Pride   
   month. It said it is waiting to hear back from the regional manager   
   mentioned in the petition on what disconnect exists between workers and   
   management on decoration policies.   
      
   https://finance.yahoo.com/news/starbucks-pride-decorations-removed-   
   because-090009016.html   
      
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