Shut down Trump - Boycott Starbucks.

Pseudo-dictator Donald Trump of the United States caused the government shutdown to get his Big Ugly Bill through, which will strip health care from 15 million US Americans, while handing give-aways to billionaires. Starbucks is not on the list of those ugly companies that donated to Trump's presidential campaign or his inaugural committee. Many companies, such as McDonald's and Amazon, have swiftly changed their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs under pressure from right-wing activists and the Trump administration. Starbucks didn't follow their example and the company's Chairman and CEO, Brian Niccol, even had the courage to reaffirm during a shareholder meeting in March that the company will continue focusing on diversity, calling it a key part of the coffee giant's strength. Starbucks opposed the deportation of immigrants as a response to the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. Starbucks workers across the country stopped working for a silent protest over the deportation of illegal immigrants in April. Managers didn't stop such protests in the workplace right away. Just a few days ago, Starbucks announced to cut around 900 jobs and pull down the shutters on some 100 cafes, across North America as part of a 1-billion USD restructuring plan to revive the world's largest coffee chain. Again, workers have to pay the bill and billionaires earn more millions.

Starbucks is a US-American coffee company and coffehouse chain. It is one of the world's most popular and widespread coffeehouse brands with more than 30,000 cafes in 78 countries. Starbucks built its reputation on delivering high-quality coffee, putting a lot of energy into telling the story of its coffee from field to cafes. The company has around 16,000 corporate employees worldwide, including 10,000 in the United States. In 2024 the median pay for a worker at this company was 14,674 US dollars. CEO Brian Nicoll was paid 6666 times this amount, about 100 million USD, in income in his first year leading the company. The economy would suffer no harm if CEOs were paid less (or taxed more) but for workers it makes a big difference how much they earn compared to the costs of living. The firm's US sales have dropped during the last year. Starbucks, much like other big fast-food brands, including McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King, experience weaker sales in the shrinking Trump-economy.

Starbucks is known for aggressive union-busting tactics and has massively tried to prevent that workers unionize at stores. This includes mandatory meetings with the management, corporate leadership convincing workers to vote no for the union or otherwise lose benefits, temporarily transferring workers into the store to sway the vote, threatening to shut down stores or even firing employees because of their unionization activities. The union Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) has been fighting for a first union contract at the company since the first store won its union election in late 2021. SWBU has successfully unionized over 11,000 workers at 500 stores in the United States. In late 2024, negotiations for a first union contract broke down with workers holding strikes over the holiday season, demanding economic improvements.

Troubles for Starbucks started to escalate in October 2023, when the company sued SBWU over a pro-Palestinian message posted on a union social media account. Starbucks Workers United counter-sued Starbucks, alleging that the company had defamed the union by implying that it supports terrorism and violence. The swift corporate response sparked a series of boycotts, with calls to action resonating across social media platforms. Between November to December 2023 the company lost 11 billion USD in market value, partially as a result of the boycotts expressing solidarity with Palestinians. The boycotts continue despite the company is not an official boycott target of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Starbucks is not the only US American brand to face a backlash over boycotts over the Gaza war, but more than other fast-food players, the company is confronted with a mixture of new resistance from costumers weary of inflation, fights over unionisation with their barristas, and protesters that boycott the brand as a sign of opposition to Israel's war in Gaza.

Starbucks is a milk company more than it is a coffee company. Most of the company's milk is sourced from industrial-scaled dairy farms. Dairy production in the U.S. is concentrated in the hands of a few large corporations that control the majority of the milk supply. One large dairy factory farm with more than a thousand cows produces as much sewage as a large city. Cattle manure and gases, such as methane, have a drastic impact on ambient air quality and are a major contributor to global warming. Dairy products rely heavily on genetically engineered crops. The US animal feed industry is the largest purchaser of US corn and soybean, most of which is genetically engineered. Starbucks Corporation has a very low ranking among global food companies regarding their farm animal welfare policies, practices and performance - because they just don't have any commitment on animal welfare.

The "to-go" coffee culture - once introduced by Starbucks - is a big part of the global plastic pollution crisis. Starbucks uses more than 8,000 paper cups a minute. For all of those paper cups, about 1.6 million trees are harvested every year. Since the paper cups are lined with plastic, they are not really recyclable. The company distributes about 6 billion single-use paper and plastic cups worldwide each year, most of which end up in landfills or in the environment. In February, the coffeehouse chain announced to replace plastic cups for Frappuccinos and iced espresso drinks in 580 of its stores in the U.S. by paper cups. The silent transition away from the polypropylene (PP) plastic cups may be connected to Starbucks goals set last year to make all of its packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2030. PP cups don't get recycled in practice, as demonstrated in an undercover investigation of CBS News last year. CBS Reporters placed plastic cold drink cups, embedded with metal Bluetooth trackers, in 57 in-store recycling bins at Starbucks cafes across the U.S. to see where the cups went. Of the 36 cups CBS News dropped, 32 did not go to a recycling facility but pinged at locations that appeared to be landfills, incinerators, or waste transfer stations. Only a handful of Material Recovery Facilities recycle PP plastics like the cold drink cup into new material, but of the 160,000 tons of single-use plastic waste generated in the U.S. each year, less than 1% is recycled.

Public criticism against Starbucks has come from around the world, over issues ranging from tax avoidance in Europe, anti-competitive practices in the United States, human rights issues in multiple countries, unfair labour practices including union busting, up to questions about pay equity and ethics in partnerships in Africa. Many of SBWU's actions and strikes over unfair labour practices involve customer participation, opening the avenue to a large-scale boycott, as an intuitive way for consumers to show their solidarity. A global boycott could hit the coffee giant where it hurts, as a tarnished reputation could adversely affect the company's business. With our global boycott even bigger losses could be ahead for the company that claims to "inspire with every cup".

Our worldwide boycott of Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Starbucks, and Amazon to stop Donald Trump continues until he leaves the White House. If you live in the U.S. visit a unionized Starbucks and ask the workers how you can support their fight for a first union contract. Drop Coca-Cola for healthier drinks, visit McDonald's without ordering something and support your local dealers instead of online shopping at Amazon. Of course our ultimate boycott of International Food Companies continues. Check the Buycott app and avoid their food products. There are plenty of healthier choices for your meals.