4 • 645 Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2022
⏱️ 48 minutes
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The image is now iconic. An arctic wolf fursona in a Starbucks smock. Stance set wide. A sign in his hand held high that reads “UNION YES!”
This was Michael Vestigo dressed in his Fursona as Apollo, a former Starbucks employee in Overland Park, Kansas. Why former? The company fired him for “displaying violent and threatening behavior” after he participated in a walkout of his location as part of a unionization effort.
Vestigo is fighting to get his job back and he’s not the only person Starbucks has retaliated against for trying to form a union. As Apollo, he’s become a symbol of a movement that’s sweeping the country.
Apollo joined us on today’s episode of Cyber to answer your burning questions about Unions and Starbucks.
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0:00.0 | TAM! It's got the code it's going to launch. |
0:10.0 | It's a unit system. I know this. |
0:15.0 | It's how all the files of the whole park. It tells you everything. |
0:19.0 | Sir, he's uploading the virus. |
0:23.5 | The Eagle one, the package is being delivered. |
0:26.3 | Hello out there on the internet. |
0:27.6 | I am Matthew Galt. |
0:29.0 | This is Cyber. |
0:31.5 | The image is now iconic. |
0:35.7 | An Arctic wolf persona in a Starbucks smock stance set wide, |
0:39.8 | a sign in his hand held high that says, union, yes. |
0:43.3 | That was Michael Vestigo, dressed in his persona as Apollo, |
0:47.5 | former Starbucks employee in Overland Park, Kansas. Why former? |
0:52.5 | Well, the company fired him for, quote, displaying violent and threatening behavior after he participated in a walkout of his location as part of a unionization effort. |
0:58.4 | Vestco is fighting at his job back, and he's not the only person Starbucks has retaliated against for trying to form a union. |
1:05.7 | As Apollo, he's become a symbol of a movement that is sweeping the country, and he is here with us today to answer your |
1:11.5 | burning questions about unions and Starbucks alongside Motherboard Senior Editor who tracked him down, |
1:17.2 | Samantha Cole. Thank you both so much for joining us on Cyber today. Thank you so much for having me. |
1:24.0 | Thank you for being here. It's so good to see you in person. We talked in the phone |
1:28.7 | on the way, but it's good to see you like in a video. Outside the fur suit. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. |
1:36.0 | Because a lot of the images that are out there are just you in the fur suit. Like I told you, |
1:39.7 | when we talked, I was like, we found Michael through, we were looking, we cover Starbucks unionization efforts a lot. |
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