Starbucks and the Guatemalan Coffee Question

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at how Starbucks is combating an increasingly negative image, which neither its campaign for social responsibility nor its highly publicized charity and philanthropic activities have been able to negate. It explains that the negative image did not emerge from activities or strategies directly associated with the corporation, but with conditions plaguing Guatemalan coffee farmers.

From the Paper:

"In early 1995, the U.S Guatemala Labor Education Project, a human rights group based in Chicago, reported that Starbucks' Central American suppliers were underpaying workers. Wages on the farms were about 33 cents per hour. Although, Starbucks does not own the plantations, UGLEP has threatened public protests unless the company uses its leverage to improve conditions (Simons 44). In October 1995, Starbucks drew up a code of conduct for the farms, but a year and a half later, "the conditions are still rotten, " says Rhett Doumitt, a UGLEP staffer based in Guatemala. Starbucks says that it commissioned a study of the Guatemalan farms to test the feasibility of enforcing standards (Simons 44). To date, it has done little to actively improve conditions despite claims of trying."

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