We started the union because of worries workers had, especially because of the economic crisis in the United States. We noticed that stores were closing [in the U.S] and we didn’t know what could happen here. Those concerns pushed the initial group [in Santiago] to form the union, and in 2010 the first negotiation took place.

When we started negotiating, we could immediately see that they were a very anti-union company. Starbucks at that time was controlled by the corporation in the United States. They stated directly that they were not going to negotiate with unions, that they did not negotiate with unions and that, therefore, no matter how much we asked, how many we were, they did not care at all, they were not going to give in.

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