Human Rights Day 2025: Solidarity with striking Starbucks workers!

On December 10, Human Rights Day, the IUF sends its solidarity to the thousands of Starbucks baristas on ULP strike across the United States. The theme this year is "Our Everyday Essentials" - a reminder of the importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 23 of the UDHR says that "Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests."

Today, around 3,000 Starbucks workers are striking against unfair labour practices across hundreds of cities in the United States, demanding that Starbucks returns to the table and negotiates a collective bargaining agreement in good faith. Since 2021, when Starbucks workers in the United States began organizing, hundreds of union activists have been victimized by Starbucks because of their union activities.

Since the earliest days of the Starbucks Workers United campaign, the IUF has built international support for the U.S. baristas' fight, helping to bring the campaign to the world stage through international days of action, cross-border organizing exchanges, through international complaints mechanisms, through engagement with transnational companies who are in business partnerships with Starbucks, and more.

On this Human Rights Day, the IUF sends its solidarity to the Starbucks workers in the United States, and calls on the company to respect the fundamental right of workers to organize.

"Starbucks' ongoing anti-union behavior in the U.S. falls well outside accepted international norms and belies the company's claim of being socially responsible. Under Brian Niccol's leadership, Starbucks' treatment of the U.S. baristas has earned the company an international reputation as a recidivist union-buster," said Kristjan Bragason, Acting General Secretary of the IUF. "Instead of retaliating against union activists through firing workers, closing stores and other forms of reprisals, we urge Starbucks to respect the rights of its workers and negotiate a fair collective agreement with the U.S. baristas."