Submitted on Tue, 04/17/2007 - 9:47pm
Percentage of Starbucks Employees Covered by Company Health Care Decreased Over 2006, Early 2007
New York, NY- The Starbucks Coffee Co., which has come under increasing criticism in recent months over its health care policies, was dealt a further setback with the admission that 75,000 of its 127,000 U.S. employees are not covered by company insurance. According to the company's own figures, the coffee giant provides health care to just 40.9% of its employees, down from 42% in late 2005. Critics have accused the company of misleading consumers about its health care plan, pointing out that Wal-Mart- a company widely criticized for its health care offering- insures a higher percentage of its employees than Starbucks.
Submitted on Fri, 04/13/2007 - 2:20pm
Friends, Baristas showed up to work today at the Wealthy St. Starbucks to find cameras running and recording every inch of their workspace. Upon entering the Assistant Manager said, "I haven't seen this in the whole 2 and a half years I've been here." This is just the latest phase of their attempt to intimidate baristas from joining the union. It started last week with managers forcing every barista in Grand Rapids to sign the corporate statement on the union (which was filled with falsehoods and statements discrediting the union). Now our every move is monitored and recorded in an attempt to intimidate us from discussing the union while at work.
Take Action! - Call Store Managers (NOT Shift Supervisors as they are just baristas with more responsibility and many of them are interested in joining the union) and tell them to end their intimidation and union busting tactics.
Submitted on Fri, 04/13/2007 - 1:46pm
By David Segal
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 12, 2007; Page C01
NEW YORK - Four years ago, when he first donned a green apron at the Starbucks at Madison Avenue and 36th Street, Daniel Gross must have looked like any other scruffy college grad in need of a paycheck and a shave. Within a few months, though, it was clear that this Los Angeles native with the perpetual stubble was something very different: the Norma Rae of the Caramel Macchiato.
Soon after he started, Gross and some fellow baristas began to meet at each other's homes to gripe about their jobs. The pace was exhausting, the store chronically understaffed and, under Starbucks's "flexible" scheduling rules, the number of hours they worked could change week to week, leaving them unsure of how much they would earn.
Submitted on Wed, 04/11/2007 - 3:17am
April 8, 2007 - New York Times, By Daniel Gross [of Slate Magazine, not the IWW Organizer] ON March 30, the National Labor Relations Board’s New York office delivered a stinging accusation against one of the city’s — and the nation’s — most popular retail outlets. The labor board charged that Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee chain, committed 30 violations of law in the process of trying to ward off union activity at four Manhattan outlets.
This may be the latest salvo in a new kind of labor battle: union workers versus corporate do-gooders.
The allegations that the company fired employees who were supportive of unionization and threatened to fire others are more reminiscent of 1930s-era industrial management than of the carefully groomed culture of a company that wears its conscience on its recyclable coffee-cup sleeves.
Submitted on Tue, 04/03/2007 - 5:48pm
New Labor Board Complaint Exposes Deep, Lengthy Anti-Union Effort by Starbucks
LABOR BOARD COMPLAINT ATTACHED
New York, NY- Just over a year after settling extensive labor charges against it, the Starbucks Coffee Co. is the target of a new
National Labor Relations Board complaint over the termination of IWW Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) organizers Daniel Gross and Joe Agins, Jr., and a host of other unlawful anti-union tactics. The government complaint is the result of an independent Labor Board investigation triggered by charges from the SWU [StarbucksUnion.org].
"This Labor Board complaint reveals that repeat-offender Starbucks is an unrepentant violator of workers' rights," said Daniel Gross, the outspoken former barista whose termination after a false allegation by Starbucks was deemed unlawful by the Labor Board. "Starbucks left the rule of law behind when the union campaign started in 2004 and according to this complaint has yet to return. It's remarkable that our union is growing stronger everyday despite an almost three year campaign of illegal dirty tricks to defeat us."
