Florida Republicans, including U.S. Senator Rick Scott, are calling for a boycott of Starbucks after the coffee chain’s union called for support of Palestine.
In a now deleted post on social media, Starbucks Workers United wrote “Solidarity with Palestine!” following the deadliest terrorist attack in Israeli history. On Sunday, Jaz Brisack, an original organizer with the union tweeted “There’s no ‘two sides’ to apartheid. Free Palestine.”
According to The Washington Free Beacon, Starbucks Workers United’s chapters in Iowa, Chicago, and Boston promoted rallies in support of Palestine.
Starbucks has condemned the statements made by the union saying, “To be clear: We unequivocally condemn acts of terrorism, hate and violence, and disagree with the statements and views expressed by Workers United and its members.”
In the same statement, Starbucks also encouraged people reach out to “Workers United International President Lynne Fox and SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry to share your concerns.”
The union is an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
The Center for Union Facts, which runs SeiuExposed.com and WorkersUnitedFacts.com, compiled a list of Starbucks Workers United chapters that have shown support for Hamas:
Boston Starbucks Workers United
- Issued a solidarity message via its X account
- Claimed Israel is “an apartheid state” that is “currently committing the same and worse war crimes as Hamas.”
- Reposted a Palestinian Youth Movement flyer for a march outside Cambridge City Hall, exclaiming, “Victory Is Ours.”
Workers United Upstate
- Accused Israel of “apartheid occupation”
Iowa City Starbucks Workers United
- Reposted “Palestine will be free”
- Reposted a flyer for a “Palestine Resists Occupation” protest outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago
Starbucks Workers United Greektown Chicago
- Reposted a statement about ending the so-called “occupation.”
- Reposted messages seemingly justifying terrorist violence
- “It’s going to be a long struggle. But emancipatory politics aren’t about expediency and short-term calculations. Empires have fallen, and they’ll fall again. Long live the struggle for a free Palestine!”
- “Decolonization is not a metaphor: it’s action, it’s land back…”