About a year ago I blogged about a case in New York where a local Starbucks had harassed and discriminated against Wiccan employee.

“Suley Ayala was told to take off her pentagram necklace, a symbol of her being Wicca. An assistant manager said that religious items can not be worn at work. Meanwhile we were forced to wear Christmas hats and listen to non-stop Christmas music…[other employees] wore their own necklaces and refused to tuck them in or take them off. Still Suley was the only one targeted, and was sent home for wearing her pentagram for violation of Starbucks dress code. Meanwhile other workers were violating the unenforceable dress code in numerous ways without any repercussions.”

In that case a local Union was able to pressure Starbucks into ceasing the harassment. But now another eerily similar case has arisen in Oregon.

“A former Starbucks barista in Hillsboro has sued the coffee giant, saying it discriminated against her based on her Wiccan religion. In a complaint filed Jan. 8 in U.S. District Court in Portland, Alicia Hedum said a manager at Starbucks’ Hillsboro Landing cafe asked her to remove her Wiccan cross several times, even though other employees, including the manager, wore Christian crosses. Hedum accused Starbucks of retaliating by refusing to promote or transfer her, reducing her hours and scrutinizing her ‘minor tardiness.’”

It should be interesting to see how this plays out. Any other Pagans working at Starbucks who have run into this sort of behavior? Two instances could just be coincidence, but if a few more pop up it could be that Starbucks has some unwritten “code” regarding display of “non-mainstream” religious symbols. If that does end up being the case, maybe modern Pagans should take their business elsewhere.

Tags: discrimination, Paganism, Starbucks, Wicca