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Fired by Starbucks, Union Organizer Now Wears His Fursuit to Rallies
“It gave me more confidence than I've ever had in my entire life,” said former Overland Park Starbucks employee Michael Vestigo.
www.vice.com
Starbucks fired Vestigo from the Starbucks store in Overland Park, Kansas, on April 1—a week after he and his co-workers staged a walkout to protest unsafe working conditions and retaliation from management against their unionization efforts. That morning, his manager pulled him aside and fired him effective immediately for “displaying violent and threatening behavior,” he told me.
“I'm not that kind of person at all,” Vestigo said. He has social anxiety, and in a job review meeting, he cited “trouble standing up for myself” as a weakness. “It's my personal belief that they took that and they basically targeted me because they thought I would just kind of take it lying down,” he said. “It gave me more confidence than I've ever had in my entire life,” said former Overland Park Starbucks employee Michael Vestigo.
In videos from the Seattle rally in mid April, where hundreds of people came out to support Starbucks workers’ national unionization movement, Vestigo addresses a crowd as Apollo, his Arctic wolf fursona. “Tell me: Does this look violent and threatening?” he exclaims in one video, stretching his fursuitted arms wide.
Aside from his own part in the day, Vestigo said he hoped going as Apollo would represent the diversity of the movement. “I think one of the things that makes a movement so beautiful is the fact that we can all be united despite our differences,” he said. “I think it's very important to acknowledge that we are very different people. But we are part of the same machine, and we deserve to be treated with respect no matter who we are.”
Good for him! I think it is amazing to see stuff like this happening. If nothing else it definitely helps draw attention to an important issue. I hope he gets his job back. I'm glad his situation has helped him overcome his anxiety and gain confidence.