Starbucks. Photo: Reuters
The famous US Coffee Chain Starbucks is stopping operations in the United States to train workers after racist behavior. For more than eight thousand branches of the company will be closed for one afternoon on May 29. The training will be given to buyers of anti-apartheid and discriminatory treatment of 1.75 million workers in Coffishop. This information was given by BBC Online and Exx Newsletter Report on Wednesday.
It is said in the report that these steps are being taken to prevent discrimination in Starbucks shops.
On Thursday, two blacks were arrested in a shop in Starbucks in Philadelphia, USA. The two of them were waiting to see another person there. They were not buying anything. They were told to go out of the shop just for the buyers if they wanted to use the toilet. Since they did not want to leave, the manager of the coffee shop called the police for the intrusion of the two. In this incident, in the video posted on social media, the police found that both of them were handcuffed.
Melissa Dipino, a white video, wrote on Twitter, "The other white people are surprised to see the incident, we too have done so many times, but we have never been treated like this."
Critical storm caused the video to spread. Demonstrations were held in front of the shop and the boycott of Starbucks was called. Later Starbucks pleaded for forgiveness for such behavior. The decision has been taken to train workers to discriminate on the basis of this incident.
Starbucks chief executive Kevin Johnson said the video is difficult to show. The work was wrong and condemnable. He said, 'We are learning from mistakes and we need to take some steps to fix it.'
Kevin Johnson said that the Branch Manager of Philadelphia was terminated. He was in Philadelphia for the past few days. He met with two black men arrested.
In a joint statement, the lawyers and starbucks of the two said they had constructive discussions. Kevin Johnson apologized to Starbucks. It is discussed how such a tragedy could become a vehicle for positive social change.
All branches and corporate offices owned by Starbucks will be closed on the 29th of the next month. 1.75 lakh workers will be trained. Starbucks's loss of 20 million dollars due to the closure of this way. The amount of money which is 168 crore 13 lakh 30 thousand taka (today as a dollar = 84.07 rupees on Wednesday).
As part of the efforts to limit the damage, the company has sought help from former US attorney general Eric Holder, on the issue of civil rights issues and employees to improve employee behavioral activities. Which will be useful to other organizations.
The organization said in the statement that there are issues to identify the underlying causes of bias in training, disparity in discrimination, and to ensure the feeling of feeling safe and welcomed inside Starbucks.