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Happy Halloween and welcome to a spooky Solidarity Saturday, your weekly highlight reel and shortcut to staying plugged in. 
We’re handing out the full-size candy bar first this year. 
New boycott-themed union merch just dropped, from “Corporate greed tastes disgusting” tees to Boycott Starbucks sticker packs. Grab something that scares Brian. 
Now for the scary stuff. This week we’re digging up a few of Starbucks’ scariest moments. Ghost staffing, vanishing hours, union busters lurking in the shadows. A haunted house, but it’s just orders coming through the app, the drive-thru, DoorDash, and the cafe. 
Starbucks would love for everyone to forget it’s the biggest violator of labor law in modern history. We’re not letting that happen. 
You can’t bury a movement this big.
We’re skipping the brew this week and taking a stroll through Starbucks’ House of Horrors instead. 
Remember that silica-based blending powder Starbucks put in the Blended Refreshers? Baristas were reporting getting rashes, migraines, and trouble breathing after working with it. That’s what baristas had been dealing with since this powder showed up. Baristas kept sounding the alarm, and the internet was listening. Video after video, store after store, the story kept spreading. And then? Starbucks pulled it.
The bone-chilling health care deal
Starbucks nearly doubled what baristas pay for health insurance while quietly lowering its own contribution. The Seattle Times reported that when benefits enrollment opened for the new fiscal year, workers got hit with nearly double the price tag for health insurance. One remote corporate worker told the paper her weekly premium more than doubled, from about $25 to about $55, for the same plan. 
All while hours keep getting cut. Now that’s a horror story. 
The union busters hiding in plain sight
Starbucks pays their “Labor Relations Business Partners” to spread misinformation about unions in stores. That’s real money spent fighting baristas instead of paying them. The call was coming from inside the house. 
Brian Niccol called a $9 latte an “affordable premium experience,” and the internet roasted him harder than a dark roast. 
Fortune wrote about the backlash, and the comments were brutal. One person asked, “It’s just one tall black cup of coffee, how much could it cost? $9?!” 
Affordable for who, Brian?
Those were the tricks. Now for the treats. 
Sam, a 4-year partner in Seattle, won a settlement from Starbucks after their hours were cut. Nashville’s mayor, Starbucks’ new backyard, sat down with baristas to hear what’s really happening in their stores. And over 12,000 partners have joined our union. 
Every one of those treats happened because workers stood together. Now help us spread the word. 
Forward this to a friend who’s still under Starbucks’ spell. Four horrors should break it. 
In solidarity,
Starbucks Workers United
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