Submitted on Sun, 05/29/2005 - 4:32pm
New York - On May 28th at 6:30pm Starbucks workers are demonstrating their right to join the Industrial Workers of the World - IU/660, also known as the Retail Workers' Union. Workers of Starbucks at 2nd Ave and 9th Street are demanding an immediate stop to all anti-union activity, reinstatement of Sarah Bender and Alex Diaz, affirmation of our right to organize, a living wage for all employees, guaranteed hours with the option for full-time status, consistent scheduling, an end to under-staffing, the right to organize, and respect from our bosses.
"In New York City we start at $8.25 an hour and are lucky to receive anything above 20 hours a week. Starbucks profits off our backs by depending on a low labor costs in the stores and from out sourced labor. They are the Wal-Mart of the coffee industry." Claimed Laura Deanda of 2nd and 9th.
Submitted on Sun, 05/29/2005 - 4:14pm
By John Nichols - The Wisconsin Capital Times, May 12, 2005 Six baristas at the Vox Pop coffee shop in Brooklyn went Wobbly in March.
When the people who make lattes and sell books at the shop joined the New York City Retail Workers Union Branch 660 of the Industrial Workers of the World - the Wobblies - they linked up with a union that is celebrating 100 years of radicalism.
There are not many unions that go out of their way to organize workers at independent coffee shops and bookstores these days, and there are even fewer unions that young people think of as cool. But the IWW has always stood out from the rest of the union movement.
Formed in 1905 by the likes of Mother Jones, Eugene Victor Debs, Big Bill Haywood and Lucy Parsons, the IWW declared from the start that it would stand "upon the basic principle that the way to unite the workers is to organize them as a class, upon class interests, and not for the purpose of securing for the present a paltry few crumbs from the table of Capitalism to a privileged few within the pure and simple unions, but that all may enjoy the fruits of their industry and the fullness thereof."
Submitted on Wed, 05/11/2005 - 3:51pm
Starbucks Workers Union News - March 27, 2005
My name is Sherry Brown and I would like to share with you the humiliation I experienced at the hands of Starbucks. While I know people are wrongly fired from their jobs every day in this country, I am not going to take this lying down and I am asking for your help.
First, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am a 56 year-old African-American resident of Washington D.C. and I have been working on community issues for over 30 years. When I was 21 years old I was feeding 300 kids a day in the Black Panther Party's Free Breakfast Program in Baltimore. Since my days as a college activist in the sixties, I have worked on various projects including training young people to advocate for the hungry and forming a coalition to oppose the closing of Washington's only public hospital.
Because of the gentrification taking place in Washington D.C. and the loss of my job at the Capitol Hill Starbucks (serving politicians and lobbyists), I am currently being displaced from my modest apartment. I have lived there for 11 years and now it is being converted into a high-priced luxury condominium.
Starbucks fired me because I asserted myself to a customer who was threatening my life. On a Sunday last December, a customer I was serving became extremely belligerent with me because I was not sure what drink he had ordered. I asked the shift supervisor to help the customer so that I could wait on other guests and avoid any further problems. The customer began yelling names and accused me of being "retarded". He also said I was the kind of person who makes other people go postal and that "he was always right." I told the customer his comments were offensive and that I did not have to tolerate verbal abuse.
Submitted on Wed, 05/11/2005 - 3:50pm
From mediaisland.org - March 26, 2005.
Olympia Pizza Time franchise owner Richard Kelley locked out all nine striking workers by closing the store on Feb 21st. The last negotiations between Pizza time workers and Kelley broke down when Kelley insisted he would open the store if workers accepted wages below state law. Pizza time workers refused Kelley.s unreasonable condition.
Pizza Time workers took their case to the National Labor Relations Board. A federal investigator interviewed the workers and Kelley. The investigator informed the workers that federal labor law offers no protection from owners who close their own stores. Pizza Time workers are in need of a labor lawyer.