Your Latte and Lesson is Ready: Starbucks Employees Pause Service to Protest Immigration Policies

We previously discussed how companies were barring political protests or paraphernalia at the workplace and how such rules are entirely enforceable. That made a recent story interesting when Starbucks workers across the country stopped working for a silent protest over the deportation of unlawful immigrants. Starbucks does not appear to be moving to stop such protests in the workplace, which is its prerogative. Customers, however, may find the extra shot of politics with their Mocha Java to be a bit much in the morning.

The protest itself was rather anemic, with a work stoppage lasting just a few minutes as workers stood in silent solidarity with those being deported.

It would ordinarily not be something that a commercial chain would relish. Prior polling shows that 83 percent of Americans support deportations of immigrants with violent criminal records and almost half support mass deportation of all undocumented persons. Even less pronounced polls reveal a majority supporting deportations generally with a third supporting deportations of all unlawful immigrants.

Postings show Starbucks workers leaving shops or reading statements denouncing the Trump Administration’s deportation policies.

With an increasingly competitive coffee market and Starbucks struggling to slow a drop in revenue, it would not appear an opportune time to tie the brand to a controversial political issue. Think BudLight with a shot of espresso.

The management either does not want to confront employees on the issue or supports the public opposition to the immigration policies. The question is how stockholders and the board view the protests as a corporate policy. As discussed earlier, shareholders and board members of these corporations have been raising the cost of such entanglement with political and social controversies. A boycott movement has already arisen after the protests.

The danger is that a company like Starbucks can become the BlueSky of coffee shops, serving a fraction of the population with high-priced beverages to enjoy in a political echo-chamber.