Starbucks employees around the country held brief work stoppages on Tuesday in solidarity with members Rümeysa Öztürk and Lewelyn Dixon, both of whom are in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.
Starbucks Workers United members in Ellicott City, Maryland, read a statement in support of detained SEIU members Rümeysa Öztürk and Lewelyn Dixon. © Screenshot/X/@EC_SBWU
"We are stopping work for a few minutes to read a statement in protest of actions against our fellow workers," Starbucks Workers United members at the Ellicott City location in Maryland said in a during their work stoppage.
The baristas called out the ICE detention of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) members Rümeysa Öztürk and Lewelyn Dixon, among other students and activists arrested in recent weeks as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and Palestine solidarity activism.
Öztürk, a Tufts University PhD student and member of SEIU Local 509, was in Massachusetts after she published an article in the school newspaper criticizing the administration's response to calls for divestment from Israel.
Dixon, a 64-year-old UW Medicine lab technician and member of SEIU Local 925, was detained in Washington last month after living in the US for over five decades. She had a green card.
"More people every day are being kidnapped by ICE for the 'crimes' of seeking to build a better world, or just existing," the Ellicott City Starbucks workers said. "Our message to ICE, the Trump administration, and any other fascist-minded organizations is that we are strong in our union, and we won't back down. We stand with our siblings Rümeysa, Lewelyn, and everyone targeted by this bigoted government."
"We have a message for Starbucks, ICE, and the Trump administration: if you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us," Starbucks workers in Iowa City , while also calling out the coffee company's unfair labor practices and refusal to bargain in good faith.
The Starbucks actions were part of the broader #4the1st campaign to oppose the Trump administration's ICE detentions and escalating attacks on the First Amendment rights to free speech and protest.
"These two, y'all this is hitting really, really close to home," said SEIU President April Verrett in a , referring to Öztürk and Dixon's arrests. "But now is the time for real solidarity."
"Solidarity isn't just a nice word. Solidarity is about standing together and taking action. It's about saying an injury to one of us is an injury to all of us," Verrett continued.
"This administration is just getting started, so we have to stand together united, to stand up for our members, for our community, for our people, for the values of our country."
