Eight people who labored on a Brazilian coffee farm that supplies beans to Starbucks are suing the coffee giant, demanding compensation for alleged forced labor and unpaid child labor. The suit comes less than a year after a raid on a Starbucks-affiliated coffee farm in Brazil's Minas Gerais, per the Guardian. A minor rescued from the farm described laboring for 12-plus hours each day under the hot sun without boots or gloves—or pay. An official report concluded he was subjected to "child labor in hazardous conditions" and that he and others were "trafficked and subjected to slavery-like conditions."
The civil lawsuit, backed by International Rights Advocates, was filed in the US. It came shortly before NGO Coffee Watch filed a complaint with Customs and Border Protection on Thursday, aiming to block coffee products produced with forced labor in Brazil from being imported by Starbucks, McDonald's, Dunkin', Nestlé. and other companies. It said reported cases "are only the tip of the iceberg—examples of widespread exploitative working conditions on coffee plantations in Brazil that are far too common." Both the complaint and lawsuit claim Starbucks and other companies continue to import coffee from farms on a government list of employers linked to forced labor.
This isn't just a problem in Brazil. A recent report alleged child labor and excessive work hours at Chinese farms in Starbucks and Nestle's supply chains, per the Wall Street Journal. "The fact that Starbucks charges like $6 for a cup of coffee, where most of that has been harvested by forced laborers and child laborers, is really beyond a criminal act. It's morally repugnant," says IRA Executive Director Terrence Collingsworth, per the Guardian. Starbucks counters that it uses ethical sourcing standards that measure farms "against economic, social, and environmental criteria," designed in part to protect "the well-being of coffee farmers and workers." (More Starbucks stories.)
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