Starbucks workers at 150 stores launch strike over Pride décor
The coffee chain denies allegations that some stores banned or restricted decorations commemorating LGBTQ+ rights
I haven't got time to summarize the
entire article, but I don't know about this, guys.
[Run-on sentence alert:]
When you're complaining about something extraordinarily vague -- they can put up Pride decorations but maybe not the ones they wanted to??? or as many as they wanted???? or????? -- alleged to have been done by a company that seems pretty progressive, particularly where LGBT people are concerned. (The company extended full healthcare to same-sex partners in 1988 and added coverage for gender-reassignment surgery in 2013.) And one of your chief complainers identifies as “asexual” -- are asexual people being denied rights, jobs or housing? -- and admits he hasn’t experienced any of what’s being alleged, it’s hard not to see these “queer” (whatever that means) workers as being guilty of refusing to take yes for an answer.
Don't get me wrong. I’m pro-labor and don't support the company’s attempt to prevent unionization. But I’m also pro-rationality.
Are these young people sure they're not just misguidedly "envious" of the activists who came before them, who fought actual discrimination, and that they're not trying to look for trouble where little exists? Because at the rate we're going, I don't think we can afford to alienate any more allies.
In a letter to employees posted Friday on Starbucks’s website, CEO Laxman Narasimhan noted that a Pride flag is currently flying over the company’s Seattle headquarters, just as it has in past years.
“We want to be crystal clear: Starbucks has been and will continue to be at the forefront of supporting the LGBTQIA2+ community, and we will not waver in that commitment,” Narasimhan said. “As such, we strongly disapprove of any person or group, seeking to use our partners’ cultural and heritage celebrations to create harm or flagrantly advance misinformation for self-interested goals.”
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