Denver worker fired for supporting Palestine, community fights back
Denver, CO – On the morning of Saturday, June 29, members of Denver SDS and Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) picketed outside Pigtrain Coffee Company, a café located in Union Station in the Historic Lower Downtown District in Denver, Colorado.
Signs reading “Was that legal?” “Pigtrain fires people for free speech” and “Pigtrain fires freedom fighters!” were raised above protesters’ heads as they circled just outside one of Pigtrain’s entrances. Speakers and written chants alike called for a boycott of Pigtrain after Raine Philips, a worker who had supported the Auraria Palestine solidarity encampment, was wrongfully fired four days prior for wearing her keffiyeh, something which is permitted under Pigtrain’s dress code.
On June 25, Philips was confronted by her manager and told to take off her keffiyeh or go home. After refusing to take off her symbol of solidarity with Palestinians, she requested to speak to a higher-up for an explanation and was fired for “misconduct and aggression.”
Philips also cited several times in which she and other queer and trans employees were targeted for their outfits that followed Pigtrain’s dress code, as well as workers’ rights violations and anti-BDS products being sold at all Union Station businesses.
Philips and Denver SDS chose the Saturday after her termination to stage the picket outside Pigtrain Coffee Company. Not only are Saturdays Union Station’s busiest day of the week, but June 29 was the first day of the Mile High Global Bazaar, a one weekend long, annual celebration showcasing cultural foods, music, and merchandise from around the world. With hundreds milling through Union Station and the Bazaar, visitors would be unable to turn their attention away from the glaring Zionist, bigoted, anti-labor business practices of one of Lower Downtown Denver’s most beloved coffee shops.
To further deter business from Pigtrain Coffee Company, free coffee was handed out to passersby, as well as flyers explaining the multitude of reasons why protesters were calling for a boycott of the café.
In an interview with Philips after the picket, she emphasized how solidarity with both workers and Palestinians is the most important message of the action, stating, “I would encourage people who frequent Union Station or are often downtown to, instead of spending money there, consider donating it to people who are in Palestine to help with aid.”
Philips said that she planned to go back to Union Station and protest Pigtrain Coffee Company again with Denver SDS in the future.