What We Have Done to Support Coffee Workers

What We Have Done, with Support

USLEAP’s Starbucks campaigning that began in the mid-1990s helped bring the issue of corporate responsibility to the coffee sector and the plight of workers abroad who produce for U.S. consumers, much like the anti-sweatshop campaigns did for the apparel sector and clothing workers.

In late 1994, USLEAP (then called the U.S./Guatemala Labor Education in the Americas Project) initiated a campaign to persuade the Starbucks Coffee Company to adopt a code of conduct that would set minimum standards with respect to working conditions and basic rights for the company’s suppliers. After a brief campaign, Starbucks agreed to do so in 1995, setting in a motion over a decade-long process that has led to a comprehensive if not yet adequate approach by the world’s most recognizable coffee brand to improve conditions and respect for the rights of coffee workers. 

If Starbucks builds on the commitments it has made, it will raise the floor for wages and working conditions of thousands of coffee workers around the world.