Shannon Phillips filed a federal lawsuit stating that she wasn’t involved with the arrests of Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson.
What We Know:
- Nelson and Robinson were arrested last year in Philadelphia after the store manager called the police and claimed that they were loitering. It was later revealed that they were waiting for another party to join them for coffee. This whole incident was caught on video and went viral and caused a boycott which led to Starbucks institute a nationwide racial bias training.
- According to the suit, Phillips believes she was fired because of the company’s aim to “punish” the white employees who weren’t involved in the arrests to convince the city they had properly responded to the incident.
- Phillips also claimed the reason why she was fired was because she refused to place a white district manager of the company on administrative leave. That manager was accused of paying black employees a lower wage than their white employees. Phillips, who has worked with the company for 13 years, says the company “Partner Resources” sets the workers’ salaries without the district manager’s input.
- The lawsuit also claimed that the black district manager, who oversees the white employee that called the police on the two black men, didn’t face any punishment from the coffee chain.
Starbucks responded and denied the accusations in the lawsuit and are preparing to defend its case in court.
