Work Reform @lemmy.world Flying Squid @lemmy.world 10 mo. ago

FYI: Ed Sheeran is a scab.

jezebel.com Starbucks Workers on Ed Sheeran Picking Up Shift at Union-Busting Store: 'Straight Up Embarrassing'

The scabby singer slung pumpkin spice lattes at the anti-worker coffee chain in Seattle to promote his upcoming shows there and new album, Autumn Variations.

63 comments

Willing to bet he knew nothing about the union issues and was just there for the Album PR. His manager said "Be here at this date and time and serve coffee and you'll get a few more million album sales"
- Probably, but still a dumb PR stunt. Why would anybody think serving coffee would boost album or concert ticket sales?
  
  Its got people talking about it. Seems like a pretty successful PR stunt to me.
  
  I didn't know he had a new album coming out. Now I do. And now we're all talking about it. That's all they're looking for, more people discussing it so it's back of mind when it actually drops.
  
  Idk if you know this but the Venn Diagram of Ed Sheeran's target audience and consumers of Pumpkin Spice Lattes is a circle.
  
  He's been doing this at all his tour locations. Working a shift at a local restaurant or something
  
  Dude if I got my ass out of retail/food service to finally become a famous rock star, and my PR agent told me to go work a shift at the local MickyDs I would absolutely fire my agent... From a replica Quake 1 rocket launcher.
  
  Or if that can't be invented yet I'll settle for good ol Reliable Trebuchet.
  
  The vast majority of Starbucks customers don’t care about unions but they do like ed sheerans music since he’s a pop star
- 100% this. People actually think that folks track the inner-political bullshit at Starbucks?? The delusion of some people is incredible.
  
  If you don't like Starbuck's agenda, then how about you just stop buying food from there? Oh, but that is a bridge too far for most. Hell, I bet 1/2 the people crying in here have probably bought from Starbucks and ordered from Amazon and given money to other anti-worker companies in the last week.
- I'm not sure why that would disqualify him for scab behavior. Also anyone basing this much of their branding around pumpkin spice bullshit should at least be a little aware of the situation with the union.
  
  It's only scab behavior if the point is to supercede the union which this most definitely does not do.
  
  The entire article is just laughably bad.
I'd boycott his music, except I already don't listen to it.
- I always find it nice when people call it boycott rather than canceled
  
  So, thank you
  
  You can't really cancel something.
  
  Nobody who claims to have been cancelled has actually been cancelled.
  
  Because otherwise, they wouldn't be able to claim so, since nobody would be there to listen.
- I'm just going to not listen to it twice as much!
- Put some on just so you can shut that shit off!!
Don't assume malice when ignorance is an apt explanation.
- He's a ridiculously successful pop star! His PR team has a PR team! There's at least a handful of people whose sole full time job is to make sure that he doesn't make any mistakes out of ignorance that might make him look bad.
  
  This was on purpose and with all pertinent information available.
- Hanlon's Razor has been weaponized too many times for it to be of use anymore except when you're speaking of your kids and the such. Always assume it's malice when it's a corporation, government, or financial.
  
  Hanlon's Razor has been weaponized too many times
  
  And the rich, affluent, and powerful are thankful for it.
  
  An act of malice is a crime.
  An act of stupidity is specifically not.
  
  Whom does Hanlon's Razor benefit?
  An accosted's peace of mind, or an accoster's ass?
- In this case, is there a functional difference? Will this pop star suddenly realize that the workers were protesting and join them in solidarity? Or will he go back to his life and continue to ignore the problem?
  
  At a certain point, ignorance and malice qchievw the same effect.
  
  So when you buy a phone made from slave labor, are ignorant of the fact until someone tells you about it, but buy another phone built from slave labor, are you malicious?
The pop musician who makes vacuous top 40 hits doesn't have any principles? Color me shocked. I expected the guy who came up with that stupid "I'm in love with your body" song to be a moral paragon and hero of the people.
What the hell is this news outlet? No matter how badly someone messed up, media should always refrain from using words like scabby or loser behavior.

Edit: I should make it clear that I do not object to anyone calling him a scabby person. It's just that news outlets should never do this.
- Jezebel is part of the original Gawker Media (now "Go Media") network, and is a glorified blog. Hardly a "news outlet".
  
  It's also not even scab behavior. Scabs are people who take shifts at places where unions are on strike. This is a store with no union, so he's not doing union work. It's maybe anti-union, but it's not scab-y.
  
  And while I'm generally pro-union, my experience with unions is they are very, very against non-union members doing union work. So if Ed Sheeran wanted to pick up a shift at a Starbucks for a promo, I can see why he might have had to pick a non-union location. I'd be curious to find out if he asked or what his agents discussed. Doesn't seem likely to me that Sheeran himself said "I want to do manual labor for several hours, make sure it's at a union-busting location."
  
  This whole story seems overblown.
- A scabby one, it seems
Reads a bit like an onion article.
Looks like a scab too.
- And his music sounds like the peeling of one.
  
  Ewwwwww you nasty 😭😭😭
Not surprising, given that if he doesn't take the corpos side by being scabby, his music wouldn't play in any mall in the world anymore. Not that it would be a bad thing, his songs are mind-numbing shit anyway
- What's a mall?
  
  A super super market full of super markets
  
  A walmart full of smaller walmarts
  
  It's like an apartment building but for shops, kept alive by doing CPR on your local Spencers, chain clothing store such as JCPenney, and Sbarro's. Your milage on the latter statement may vary
- Especially the one with him and Camilla Cabello
I'm confused. I'm not a Sheeran fan at all, and definitely fuck scabs, but in this case, it seems the employees are all working. In other words, he didn't cross a picket line to go work a shift. This seems like sensationalist bs.
- The other workers were managers.
It's a union movement half-way across the planet from where he lives. He has never worked a normal job in his life. Why do you expect him to care?
- Where do you get the idea that "he has never worked a normal Job in his life" from?
  
  From the fact that he went from busking and performing at small venues as a teenager, to his debut single at 20. Maybe there was room for menial work during that. If you can find evidence of it, i'll amend my comment.
Yes, and he also crossed a picket line.
This whole article reads like the author just badly needs to get laid lol
- Sexist douchebag
  
  I don't know if the author is male or female so calling me sexist seems a bit weird.
well yah one glance at him and you know hes a cunt
Dude has a very punchable face
- I think he looks like a Muppet. A Muppet I would enjoy punching
God himself can come down and serve Starbucks for free, and yet i still would not go into this unworthy expensive piece of shit cafe chain.
Dude was always sus
Holy fuck.... do you people like anything? No one is safe from you bloody wolves. Is Lemmy all self entitled teenage moaners? Holy hell ಠ_ಠ
Human does thing: others rage
You're just mad because he's white. Get over your racism.

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