Submitted on Thu, 12/14/2006 - 9:00pm
Andrew Serwer
Managing Editor
Fortune Magazine
1 Time Warner Center
New York, NY 10019
December 12, 2006
Dear Mr. Serwer,
We write to call your attention to what we believe is a false disclosure by Starbucks in connection with previous "Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For" features. With the 2007 Best Companies list set for publication next month, we ask for your prompt attention to this matter.
For each firm in the Best Companies feature, Fortune lists the average annual compensation for the largest classification of hourly employees. For the 2006 list, Starbucks submitted a position labeled "Coordinator II" as its largest classification of hourly employees with a yearly income of $35,067. However, the largest hourly job classification at Starbucks is Barista, not the putative "Coordinator II", and an accurate annual income is probably less than one third of $35,067.
Starbucks has never released the average annual compensation of a Barista. However, based on reports from Starbucks employees around the country, the IWW Starbucks Workers Union [www.StarbucksUnion.org] has determined that the starting wage of Baristas hovers around $6-8.75 per hour depending on location.
Workers report infrequent and small raises or in some cases no raise at all.
Further, each and every Barista in the United States is a part-time employee with no guaranteed work hours. Baristas frequently complain about getting nowhere close to 40 hours a week- approximately 15-30 hours of work each week seems to be the norm.
Accordingly, the average Barista makes closer to $10,000 per year than the $35,067 per year for a "Coordinator II". The 2006 federal poverty line for a family of two is an annual income of $12,334. Perhaps, Starbucks refuses to release the average annual compensation of a Barista because it pays poverty wages.
Because in our view Starbucks has lied to gain inclusion on the "Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For", we feel that including the company in the 2007 list would be inappropriate. Starbucks is deceiving not only Fortune readers, but also the American people by constantly highlighting its apparently fraudulent inclusion on the Best Companies list. Please set the record straight. Thank you very much.
Respectfully submitted,
Members of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union
Submitted on Thu, 12/07/2006 - 1:27pm
PITTSBURGH, PA—A vocal group of workers and supporters of the Starbucks Union of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) again protested in Pittsburgh against Starbucks Coffee Co.’s anti-union activity.
This time the Union raised its picket line on December 2 in Bloomfield, a working class neighborhood known for its strong union heritage and as a close-knit community of local independent retailers. The IWW is demanding an end to the mistreatment and firings of workers who engage in union organizing at the world’s largest and most profitable retail coffee chain.
Despite planting numerous stores in several Pittsburgh neighborhoods, Starbucks is a corporate outsider based in Seattle, Washington and joins the ranks of too many low-wage employers throughout the city.
For nearly two hours on a sunny but frigid Saturday afternoon, workers carried picket signs, banners, and the ever-present red IWW flag as they chanted in front of the Bloomfield Starbucks on Liberty Ave. However, before the picket started the IWW serenaded fellow workers and customers inside the store with a resounding rendition of “Solidarity Forever,” the classic American labor anthem written by the Wobblies in 1915. But on this day the union sang a new verse written for coffee industry workers:
Submitted on Thu, 12/07/2006 - 1:26pm
Article and Photograph by Charlie Dietch - Pittsburgh City Paper, December 7, 2006.
(Pictured at right) - Industrial Workers of the World member Jonah McCallister pickets the Starbucks in Bloomfield with IWW organizer Kevin Farkas, as the IWW national organizing campaign continues here.
It wasn't the type of response that union organizers typically get from management.
On Dec. 2, a dozen or so protesters from the Industrial Workers of the World assembled in front of the Starbucks on Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield -- part of a national IWW campaign to organize the coffee giant and protest the firing of five New York baristas, allegedly for union activity. Very soon after, out came two members of Starbucks management to offer free samples of pastry and hot coffee -- to picketers and passersby alike.
Submitted on Wed, 11/29/2006 - 2:44pm
The meeting of Starbucks' CEO with Ethiopia's Prime Minister has not changed the company's mind on a licensing agreement which respects the cultural heritage of coffee farmers. Starbucks says the coffee farmers don't need the licensing agreement just like baristas don't need a union- because the company is already so magnanimous. Tell that to coffee farmers living in brutal poverty and baristas struggling to make ends meet often without health care. More information about the proposed agreement is available on Oxfam's website: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/campaigns/coffee/starbucks. Please take a moment to register your distaste for this extreme corporate greed from Starbucks: http://starbucksunion.org/node/1127
Submitted on Wed, 11/29/2006 - 2:18pm
IWW members in Chicago, and a friend from Teamsters Local 705, leafleted half-a-dozen Starbucks locations in downtown Chicago on Friday, 24 November as part of the international day of solidarity with Starbucks Workers Union. We distributed about 900 leaflets in a couple of hours and made contact with a number of baristas. Hopefully these contacts will get in touch with our SWU organizing committee and the start we've made at the Logan Square store will expand to other locations. Solidarity Forever!
