Program 6: 'Baristas vs Billionaires' - Starbucks Workers Unionize - Q&A

Baristas vs Billionaires tells the powerful and timely story of a new generation of workers taking on Starbucks—an iconic brand that publicly champions progressive values while secretly waging an aggressive, illegal campaign to crush union efforts.
Leaked videos from whistleblowers reveal the company’s playbook: deploying a "SWAT team" of out-of-town managers to intimidate and dismantle organizing efforts, retaliating against pro-union workers through harassment, surveillance, and termination.
Through exclusive interviews with front-line baristas like Michelle Eisen and Gianna Reeve, and veteran labor organizer Richard Bensinger, the film exposes a stark contradiction between Starbucks’ public image and its behind-the-scenes union busting. Bensinger, with five decades of experience, calls Starbucks one of the most ruthless companies he’s ever faced.
This fight has captured national attention, with congressional hearings and a Senate subpoena forcing CEO Howard Schultz to testify under oath. Even the U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in on a related case, underscoring the movement’s far-reaching implications for American labor.
Baristas vs Billionaires is more than a documentary—it’s a call to action. At its heart is a deeply American struggle: the fight for dignity, fair treatment, and a voice on the job..

(2025, 1 hr 12m, Director: Mark Mori, Narrated by Susan Sarandon) + Director Q&A

PRECEDED BY:

COVID Sourdough - A short subject documentary about the union organizers at Tartine Bakery in the San Francisco Bay Area who successfully won a tight NLRB election despite a brutal anti union boss fight that began just weeks before the worldwide closures of March 2020 dude to the global COVID-19 pandemic. (2024, 16m, Director: Michael Plewa) + Director Q&A
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Host or Publisher Workers Unite Film Festival, Inc.