Submitted on Thu, 12/20/2007 - 10:11pm
For Immediate Release:
IWW Starbucks Workers Union
Contact: [email protected]
December 14, 2007
Coffee Giant Must Make Real Commitment to Diversity
New York, NY- The IWW Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) called today for the world’s largest coffee chain to honor slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by paying workers a holiday premium on the federal holiday named for him. While Starbucks claims a commitment to racial diversity and pays a holiday premium on federal holidays including the Fourth of July and New Year’s Day, baristas receive no added compensation for working through the MLK Day holiday.
“Dr. King is a hero to many baristas and it’s only right that Starbucks- with its claimed commitment to diversity- treat his holiday with respect,” said Liberte Locke, a member of the SWU. “King stood up courageously for economic justice and no doubt would smile upon low-wage fast food workers taking home much needed extra money at the end of the day.”
Submitted on Mon, 12/03/2007 - 2:22pm
By DANIEL GROSS - Counterpunch, November 24 / 25, 2007
The Observer's Dan McDougall described their garment shop as, "smeared with filth, corridors flooded with excrement from a flooded toilet." The workers recounted threats and beatings from management to keep their nimble fingers moving. Hours were long and the wages painfully low when they were paid at all.
Who were these workers? Children in India, some as young as ten years old, working in slave-like conditions that shame us all. And what was the intended destination of the kid-made clothing: Gap stores across the United States and Europe just in time for the Christmas shopping bonanza now well on its way after Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the largest shopping day of the year.
Submitted on Mon, 11/19/2007 - 1:57pm
Friends:
As Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz wages a crude union-busting operation against baristas striving for a living wage and secure work hours, he is applying to buy a $25-$30 million co-op apartment in Manhattan!
Tell the building's Co-op Board that New York is a union town and Howard Schultz is not welcome here!
Click here to participate in the e-mail action: http://starbucksunion.org/node/1903
Thank you for all of your hard work.
-The IWW Starbucks Workers Union, http://StarbucksUnion.org
Submitted on Mon, 11/19/2007 - 1:44pm
For Immediate Release:
IWW Starbucks Workers Union - November 15, 2007
Contact: [email protected]
Statement of Starbucks Workers Union Followed by Legal Threat Letter from HMS Host:
"Starbucks should be ashamed that HMS Host, the operator of 150 Starbucks stores, is threatening frivolous litigation against the Industrial Workers of the World to stifle First Amendment activity. This type of anti-worker conduct is among the factors contributing to the decline of the Starbucks brand and attendant earnings woes. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union will not be deterred by a baseless lawsuit and we look forward to carrying out our communications initiative at Pennsylvania's HMS-operated Starbucks stores this Black Friday. We call on Chairman Howard Schultz and Starbucks to insist that HMSHost immediately rescind its anti-speech legal threat."
Submitted on Tue, 11/13/2007 - 3:02pm
Disclaimer - The opinions of the author do not necessarily match those of the IWW. The image pictured to the right did not appear in the original article, we have added it here to provide a visual perspective. This article is reposted in accordance to Fair Use guidelines.
Claims of “union busting” are a drag on down Starbucks’s good name
Starbucks finds itself in an unenviable position: being compared to Wal-Mart in its treatment of workers. How does a perennial leader on corporate social responsibility respond? Starbucks seems to be at a loss for an effective answer to accusations it is a “union buster”.
The coffee house giant is having either an unfortunate or telling run of labour rights confrontations with worker unions, particularly Industrial Workers of the World. Starbucks recently reached a non-monetary settlement agreement with the National Labor Relations Board over unionising efforts at a store in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at which the IWW says management “coercively interrogated” employees about union activities.
Starbucks has settled claims of “union busting” twice before in the past two years. At the time of writing, it is defending itself against 32 counts of unlawfully stifling organising activity at hearings being conducted by an administrative law judge in New York.
IWW says the coffee giant not only squelches union activity, but also misrepresents the generosity of the benefits it offers to workers. The union says only 42% of Starbucks’ workers are covered by its health insurance, putting the company in worse straits than even Wal-Mart, which insures 47% of its workforce.