Starbucks employees from around the Pacific Northwest came together for a bike parade and rally in support of fair contracts for University of Oregon student workers and Starbucks baristas in Eugene. 
Just one day earlier, Starbucks workers at the Erb Memorial Union were forced to close early due to short-staffing and an inability to continue running the store.
The parade, which started with a strike at the Starbucks on the corner of 7th Ave and Washington Street, made a nearly two-mile trek to UO. 
The rally was held in the heart of UO’s campus, one of a handful planned around the Pacific Northwest this summer, in the EMU Amphitheater. It’s a stage that’s been the centerpiece of many rallies over its decades of existence.
In a press release, Starbucks Workers United noted that Oregon is home to 29 unionized Starbucks locations, giving the state the “highest density of organized stores in the nation.” 
Rez Alexander has lived in Eugene for nearly four years now. Alexander worked at the West 11th Ave. and Acorn Park St. Starbucks for a few years before being terminated in late March of this year. 
She is one of the many workers who believe they’ve been fired from Starbucks because of their vocal support and role in helping organize workers to unionize. “This rally is about solidarity not just Starbucks employees,” Alexander said.
In Eugene, seven of the eight Starbucks stores have become unionized. 
Skylar, a worker at the Pioneer Plaza Starbucks in Springfield, Oregon, attended the rally out of solidarity with other workers’ strikes and rallies, such as the Writer’s Guild of America strike and United Parcel Service’s recent rallies. “The rest of the 99% that get screwed over by corporations that hoard money and that’s all they care about,” they said. “We’re out here fighting for the right to live and have normal happy lives. Be able to eat every day and pay our rent.”
It’s not just local workers from the Springfield and Eugene area who attended, either. 
Mari Cosgrove, a Starbucks employee for six years who is based out of Capitol Hill Roastery in Seattle, journeyed to Eugene because of “solidarity between all wage workers,” Cosgrove said. “[The undergraduate student workers of UO] have been a huge help to the Eugene Starbucks workers. It’s a thing of solidarity. All workers need better living conditions and working conditions. That’s something we can really get behind,” Cosgrove said.
The stop in Eugene was a collaboration between Starbucks Workers United and Student Employees of UO. 
Ian Mohr, a journalism student at UO and a student employee of the University Recreation Center, has worked for over a year helping students around the campus organize. He was at the rally today speaking to the crowd in support of “all workers fighting for a living wage,” Mohr said.
Union workers from the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF) were also on hand to show their support.
The President of UO’s GTFF, Leslie Selcer, who represents over 1,500 graduate employees at UO and has been at the school for six years, helped organize graduate teachers to show up in support.
 “We’re really disappointed to see the University of Oregon insist that raises for GEs are not in the budget the same week they passed a $45 million contract for a single football coach,” Selcer said.
The Starbucks workers in Eugene wanted to add something unique to their rally: biking.
“Biking is one of the biggest parts of the city so we wanted to incorporate that,” Alexander said.  The bike parade had a group of nearly 30 people travel the two miles to UO, and was a way for organizers to incorporate the essence of the community and workers of Eugene
This rally was one stop of 13 that Starbucks Workers United will be holding throughout the summer in efforts to stop union busting and getting “fair contracts” signed for Starbucks workers. 
“We’ll be busing to Portland, Oregon next and then on to Seattle,” Alexander said.

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The Starbucks Workers United Tour Bus drives near the Erb Memorial Union. Earlier in the day, local baristas and allies went on strike at a Eugene Starbucks location and held a bike parade. (Jonathon Media/Emerald).