Submitted on Thu, 10/12/2006 - 5:45pm
Picket lines are appearing at Starbucks outlets around the world, as word spreads of the coffee giant’s firing of three IWW members for union activity between July 11 and August 5. Workers were illegally fired on pretexts ranging from insubordination to undermining employee morale as Starbucks grows ever more desperate to crush the union’s growing support.
The German FAU union wrote Starbucks August 19 to protest the firings of Charles Fostrom, Evan Winterscheidt, Daniel Gross and Joe Agnis (a union supporter fired earlier), and warning of actions at Starbucks outlets across Germany if they were not reinstated. In Vienna, the Allegmeines Syndikat Wien has leafleted all Starbucks outlets in that city, alerting customers to the company’s vicious union-busting.
Submitted on Mon, 10/09/2006 - 9:16am
As a sister campaign to the Starbucks Workers' Union in the US, wobblies in the UK have created an IU 660 website devoted to coffee shop workers.
Visit www.baristasunited.org.uk for more information
Submitted on Fri, 10/06/2006 - 7:07pm
To: Howard Schultz, Starbucks Chairman
We support the IWW Starbucks Workers Union and we have organized our law office and other colleagues in downtown Brooklyn to boycott the Starbucks across the street. We used to spend a lot of money there daily, but not anymore. Cease and desist from your anti-union policies and reinstate Daniel Gross now.
Marie A. Tatro, Esq.
Member UAW Local 2320, NOLSW, Legal Services Staff Association
Brooklyn, NY
Submitted on Thu, 10/05/2006 - 3:17am
By Mischa Gaus - In These Times, October 4, 2006
When Joe Tessone and his fellow Starbucks baristas walked into a pep rally with management at their store in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood in August, the bosses were ready.
A trio of higher-ups passed around copies of the preamble to the constitution of the Industrial Workers of the World and warned the hourlies against the radicalism of the old anarchist-socialist One Big Union.
The managers told the “partners”—the company’s sobriquet for a workforce that baristas say is entirely part-time—that the CEO and chairman carry the same benefits package as the baristas.
Submitted on Fri, 09/15/2006 - 4:23pm
The DC IWW held a picket Monday, September 11, 2006 of Adams Morgan Starbucks from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.
IWW members passed out 300 flyers and collected approximately 75 signatures for a petition demanding that the four fired workers (IWW Members Daniel Gross, Evan Winterscheidt, Joe Agnis Jr and Charls Fostrom) be rehired.
About 8 or 9 IWW members and supporters attended the picket and generally speaking a good time was had by all. The DC IWW is planning to picket another Starbucks in two weeks.
