By COLE SINANIAN | news@queensledger.com
Starbucks workers protesting against unfair labor practices in Gowanus on Monday, December 1, received a welcome show of solidarity when Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani and Senator Bernie Sanders showed up to address the crowd.
The protesters, members of the union Starbucks Workers United, had been striking around the country since November 13 in the longest unfair labor practices (ULP) strike in Starbucks history. Workers are on strike for a union contract that would boost staffing levels and to draw attention to the ULP charges the union has filed related to the Starbuck’s union-busting activities. The strike has been called the “Red Cup Rebellion,” and has affected some 95 Starbucks stores in 65 cities.
The protest comes as Starbucks, which pulled in $37 billion this year, is being fined $35.5 million by the City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for violating NYC’s Fair Workweek Law.
Among the protesters was City Council Member and fellow Democratic Socialist Tiffany Caban.
Mamdani addressed the crowd amid signs with slogans like “What’s Disgusting? Union Busting!” and “No Contract, No Starbucks!”
“I’ve said this to many of the unions that are here today, many of the rank and file, which is that we want to build an administration that is characterized by being there for workers every single step of the way, “ he said.
Sanders’s speech stuck to his typical themes of America’s high wealth disparity and the increasingly powerful oligarchic class: “We are living in an economy where the people on top have never, ever had it so good,” he said. “You have one man owning more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households. The CEOs made unbelievable salaries, 60% of our people in Vermont, in New York City, all over this country are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay the rent, struggling to pay for health care, struggling to put food on the table.”
