This year's official Pride Guide will not carry an ad from Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), the union that represents the coffee giant's employees, even though the union submitted ad copy by the deadline.

The ad featured artwork inspired by the Starbucks signature siren logo, and said, in part, "Starbucks: You can't say you're pro-queer and be anti-union! It's time to stop union busting." In addition to SBWU, 23 other labor and community organizations signed on to the ad.

According to an email thread obtained by the SGN, Encore Media, the ad agency working for Seattle Pride, declined the ad after sending it to Seattle Pride for "review." In the email thread, Encore Media admitted that "review" of ads is not standard procedure.

"My concern is that Starbucks is one of their sponsors," a representative of Encore said in email to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the parent union of SBWU. "It is Seattle Pride's publication, and I sell the ad space on their behalf. I do not want to jeopardize our relationship in any way, so I flagged the ad for their approval."

Starbucks is a platinum-level sponsor of Seattle Pride, meaning that they have given the Pride organizers at least $150,000.

On May 9, Encore notified the SEIU and SBWU that "Seattle Pride has opted to not run your ad." No explanation was offered.

According to Seattle Pride, however, it did not opt to drop the ad, "and the assertion hurts us to our core," interim Executive Director Noah Wagoner told the SGN in an email.

"The ad itself wasn't declined, but rather when our publisher brought the ad to our attention, we were in the process of reviewing the final print layout in which all pages were accounted for — so there was simply no space remaining for a full-page ad," Wagoner explained.

"In addition to the ad in question, we similarly had two other potential advertisers [for whom] we were unable to provide an ad due to space availability...

"There was an unfortunate series of miscommunication[s] between us and our publisher, and between our publisher and SEIU, which led to the incorrect assumption that the ad was declined due to its content."

A version of the ad will run in the SGN's Pride Guide.

Support for the cause
Wagoner also expressed support for SBWU's organizing efforts.

"We want to be clear that as an LGBTQIA+-led-and-focused organization, Seattle Pride has no qualms with the content of their ad, which advocates for Starbucks workers to organize and form unions; in fact we have always staunchly supported efforts to ensure equity and inclusion in the workplace," he wrote.

"We regret the miscommunication, and we are taking steps to correct our communications processes with our publisher moving forward. In the meantime, we have offered SEIU the opportunity to march in our parade [by] waiving their registration [fee], to insert their ad in the digital edition of our magazine at no cost to them, and to meet with them to better understand their position and learn how Seattle Pride can add our voice to this vital movement. Sadly, they have not responded.

"We sincerely hope that they will accept our apology for this honest mistake, and that they take us up on our offers to support their cause."

SBWU's union campaign has been remarkably successful, with more than 300 stores in the US currently represented. Even more locations have filed for union elections with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency that oversees federal labor laws.

The union has accused Starbucks of multiple violations of these labor laws, including intimidation and retaliation against union activists, and failing to bargain for contracts with the union in good faith.

The artist
Arthur Pratt, the artist who made the ad, told the SGN that he had been the target of retaliation by the company. Pratt, a Trans man living in Portland, was fired from his Starbucks job in November 2022; the union says this was for his union activism. He recently completed an NLRB hearing on his complaint of retaliatory firing — which is illegal — and is waiting to see if he'll get his job back.

Speaking about his drawing of the signature siren, Pratt said, "I intentionally drew her not happy. Because she's feeling rage. Rage and grief. And that's the rage and grief I feel about Starbucks treating [its] workers like this.

"In my store, workers are denied raises, they're denied credit card tips, they're denied access to training. Oh, we talk about it, but management doesn't deliver.

"They make you stretch beyond your limits and beyond your job description. Then when they want you gone, you're gone."

Pratt went on to describe numerous safety violations at his Portland Starbucks store, from flooding during the rainy season to burns suffered by baristas while heating food.

Ironically, when Pratt first drew a Queer-themed siren, she was a hit with Starbucks management.

"The siren has a history," he recalled. "In 2020, I drew a siren with rainbow hair and the tagline 'All Together Now.' That was the company tagline for Pride.

"My manager used it in our store, and then it got passed around to other stores, and eventually printed up for use all over the country. They even published it on Starbucks' Instagram."

"It's a very emotionally manipulative company," Pratt added. "They say we're all in this together, but we're not. They even put an empty chair out at board meetings to represent the 'partners' [Starbucks' word for its workers]."

Asked if workers ever tried to go sit in the empty chair, Pratt laughed. "Yeah. They wouldn't even let us in the building."

Community support
Every one of the 23 organizations that participated in the original ad have reaffirmed their support for it and SBWU.

Dustin Lambro, first openly Gay president of MLK Labor, representing some 150 unions and 100,000 workers in King County, noted that "the fights for workers' rights and LGBTQIA+ rights are intrinsically linked; Queer people are present in workplaces across all industries and experience compounding oppression as workers. Too often we are used for our labor, and businesses that employ us profit off of our identities as trendy.

"And yet when we rise up to be seen, heard, and respected like the humans that we are, we are met with retaliation, illegal terminations, and other union-busting scare tactics.

"Starbucks heralds [itself] as a progressive employer," Lambro continued, "but unionized Starbucks workers have faced intimidation and a scorched-earth union-busting campaign that cuts hours, which can cut workers' access to healthcare, including gender-affirming care for Trans workers. We've also seen that Starbucks management in some stores have been taking down Pride flags. And yet, Starbucks is throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars into sponsoring Pride events here in Seattle and across the nation.

"Here in King County, we are proud to be part of the labor movement where workers and LGBTQIA+ people are empowered to challenge those who are seeking to exploit, silence, and harm us."