Submitted on Sat, 05/27/2006 - 2:35am
A Campus Campaign for Starbucks Baristas and Coffee Farmers
Friends:
This is a call for activists towards a campus campaign to achieve dignity on the job for Starbucks baristas and coffee farmers.
Despite its attempt to create a socially responsible image, Starbucks' failure to meaningfully embrace Fair Trade coffee has left coffee farmers and their children teetering on the brink of starvation in the Global South. A new documentary, Black Gold (www.blackgoldmovie.com), reveals in detail the pained existence of coffee farmers under the purchasing practices of Starbucks and other multinational corporations.
In Starbucks cafes, baristas are paid a poverty wage and the company insures a lower percentage of employees than Wal-Mart. Starbucks baristas are organizing a union (www.starbucksunion.org) with the Industrial Workers of the World for a better life on and off the job. In response, the company has waged a fierce and relentless anti-union campaign that tramples on workers' rights. In this union-busting operation unburdened by the law, Starbucks routinely retaliates against baristas for supporting the union. In addition, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz recently broke the union of roasting plant employees.
Submitted on Tue, 05/23/2006 - 2:04pm
Excerpted from Work News for Week Ending May 23 - By Brendan Coyne, The New Standard.
In a show of solidarity, members of the (Industrial) Workers of the World (IWW) and their supporters last week wandered into Starbucks shops across the nation, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom, to talk with employees about unionizing. The volunteer outreach effort was conducted as part of the Starbucks Workers Union’s two-year anniversary.
Manhattan Starbucks workers have been battling the coffee-dispensing chain for over two years. In complaints filed with the National Labor Relations Board, SWU members said management has attempted to coerce, bribe and otherwise intimidate workers trying to organize. The union alleges the company’s efforts included firing two workers for their pro-union activities and keeping files on union activists.
Earlier this month, the NLRB signed off on a settlement under which Starbucks promises not to interfere with organizing efforts. As part of the agreement, Starbucks is to offer to reinstate the two dismissed employees, Sarah Bender and Anthony Polanco. In addition, the company has to pay three employees back-pay and post a notice affirming its commitment to workers’ rights. Under the settlement terms, Starbucks admits no guilt.
Submitted on Thu, 05/18/2006 - 11:57pm
Dow Jones International News Service via Dow Jones
By Kris Maher Of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 17, 2006
The union trying sign up Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) workers sought to give its organizing campaign a jolt by sending union members to more than 100 of the coffee chain's stores in about a dozen cities to persuade more baristas to join the union.
The Industrial Workers of the World said it sent organizers to Starbucks stores in Boston, Portland, Atlanta, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Salt Lake City, among others. IWW members in several cities in Canada and the United Kingdom also participated in the coordinated effort.
Until now, the organizing campaign has been mostly limited to a handful of Starbucks stores in New York City where some workers have informed management that they have voluntarily joined the union. With its latest effort, the union is hoping to broaden the campaign and demonstrate to the company that it is generating more support among workers. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union was created by a handful of workers in New York two years ago.
Submitted on Thu, 05/18/2006 - 1:41pm
New York, NY- Industrial Workers of the World members and supporters entered Starbucks cafes today in cities across the United States, Canada, and the British Isles to inform workers about their right to form a union. The union members highlighted gains in wages, security of hours, and respect on the job won by baristas who have already joined the IWW. The Day of Action commemorates the second anniversary of the founding of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union on May 17, 2004. Since 2004, baristas have improved their life at work through direct action on the job and in the community despite an illegal anti-union campaign waged by Starbucks and its Chairman Howard Schultz.
“Our message for our co-workers is simple: the IWW Starbucks Workers Union is here to help,” said Suley Ayala, a Starbucks barista and IWW member in New York City. “Employees don't have to go through the indignities of working at Starbucks alone anymore-together we'll continue our march toward a living wage, guaranteed work hours, and most importantly, respect.”
Submitted on Wed, 05/17/2006 - 12:32pm
By Erin Thompson - reposted from the Indypendent, May 10, 2006.
A smell of wet garbage emanated from a paste of rotten fruit, cucumbers and smashed olives that clung to the sidewalk in front of Amersino Marketing Group, an anonymous building amid a row of squat warehouses in Ridgewood, Queens. Like most mornings, on Monday May 1, Eliezer Maca arrived at 5:30 a.m. at the warehouse, where he spends six days a week loading trucks ferrying supplies to New York’s Chinese restaurant industry.
Today, however, Maca was not here to work.
Having been fired on April 29 by the owner, he was flanked by a handful of youthful, scarletemblazoned members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a dozen coworkers, forming an enthusiastic picket line. It was the fifth such picket at the company in as many weeks, as workers took to heart the direct action and worker-lead strikes characteristic of the IWW.