Starbucks rightly gets petard-hoisted

Former Philly area regional Starbucks manager Shannon Phillips rightly got $25M from StarBux. As with unionism, a reminder that most companies that appear socially conscious will always throw someone under the bus as needed. Given that the manager of the actual individual store where Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were arrested was Black, and his assistant was the one who actually called Philly cops, and faced no actions, the suit was reasonable.

Starbucks, in this piece by the Philly Inquirer, claims she was fired because she didn't do anything afterward to address community issues. In the first link (Daily Mail) Phillips expressly not only denied that but listed what she DID do. And, most the stories of several note a Black district  manager spoke up for her.

Here's her claim in more detail via the LA Times:

After the arrest, Phillips, who as a regional manager oversaw nearly 100 locations across Philadelphia, south New Jersey, Delaware and parts of Maryland, said in a 2019 complaint that she had taken steps to allay the community’s concerns and to keep staff and customers safe. She said those efforts included arranging a roundtable meeting with CEO Howard Schultz in Philadelphia and organizing teams of management-level employees to work at the approximately 20 Philadelphia locations because hourly workers feared going to work amid all the protests.

Versus Starbucks on CNN:

Starbucks, which denied the claims at the time, said in a 2021 court filing that after the incident, “senior leaders and members of Partner Resources all observed Ms. Phillips demonstrate a complete absence of leadership during this crisis.” Phillips, the company argued, “appeared overwhelmed and lacked awareness of how critical the situation had become.” Phillips’ manager ultimately decided to dismiss her “because strong leadership was essential during that time,” according to the document.

Given the fullness of the trial, and given what I noted above about Starbucks and union-bashing, I don't believe it. (And, two days later, the WaPost has a longish read about a fired former Starbucks union activist.)

Sadly, among #BlueAnon types, the fact that Hot Air, Red State etc are all playing this up means they'll all downplay it.