Submitted on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 3:44am
Grand Rapids, MI- Still mired in a lengthy labor trial in New York City, Starbucks must contend with a imminent complaint from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over anti-union activity. After an investigation of charges filed by the IWW Starbucks Workers Union, the NLRB is set to accuse the coffee chain of threatening Grand Rapids baristas with termination for joining the union and denying access to the store bulletin board in an effort to interfere with co-worker communications regarding the union. In addition to the forthcoming complaint, the NLRB is continuing to investigate whether Starbucks violated its 2006 settlement obligations by other anti-union conduct in Grand Rapids.
Submitted on Tue, 09/25/2007 - 3:28am
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.
By Moira Herbst - Business Week, September 21, 2007
The labor troubles brewing for Starbucks in New York are spreading to another state, putting the company's worker-friendly image on trial.
On Sept. 20, the National Labor Relations Board accused the coffee chain of unlawful anti-union activity at a store in Grand Rapids, Mich., the second time in recent months that the government organization has leveled such charges against Starbucks (SBUX). The company meanwhile continues a months-long trial in New York, facing charges that it unfairly suppressed organizing efforts by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
Submitted on Tue, 09/18/2007 - 3:49pm
By x361519
As the Starbucks Workers Union is in its third year of struggling for the rights of baristas and moving to trial in New York, we at the Bay Area Starbucks Workers Union are continuing our push to unionize workers and respond to the unfair actions that Starbucks commits against their employees. Through any means available, we have – and still are – pushing to organize baristas into One Big Union.
Weekly informational pickets have become a great weapon that has been useful twofold: to let passers-by know about the unjust labor practices that Starbucks has committed across the country and to give a face to the union for the workers. Although not central to the fight, positive consumer and community response gives the union leverage against local Starbucks locations by consumer grievances and participating in e-mail campaigns. Such tactics have worked in other IWW campaigns such as Shattuck Cinemas and feel it can in this one also. Informational pickets also give a face to the union, something that other business unions often look over. By seeing active members on the streets pushing for Starbucks to own up to its destructive labor practices, the employees will see we are truly dedicated to their fight and no other.
Submitted on Tue, 09/18/2007 - 9:21am
by Amy Zimmer /
Metro New York
MEATPACKING DISTRICT. The workers who filed a class action lawsuit yesterday against Wild Edibles, a high-end seafood retail and wholesale company, didn’t hold their press conference at the company’s Long Island City warehouse or one of its three retail locations. Instead, they stood in front of Pastis — Keith McNally’s fashionable French restaurant.
Pastis, the workers say, is one of Wild Edibles’ big customers. They allege Wild Edibles systematically denied overtime pay and, when workers tried to assert their rights, they faced retaliation.
Pedro Hernandez, who cleans and weighs fish and oversees oysters, has worked at the warehouse for nearly a year and earns $450 a week for the 56 hours he puts in.
“They make us work a lot, at least three hours above the eight-hour day,” Henandez said through a translator. “We were told we would get a raise after three months, but that never happened.”
Brandworkers International, a new nonprofit workers’ rights group, along with Industrial Workers of the World IU460-640, organized yesterday’s rally to raise awareness for their campaign to improve conditions for the low-wage jobs held mainly by immigrant workers at warehouses in Brooklyn and Queens.
Workers at 10 city food warehouses have joined the IWW. Four from Wild Edibles who tried to unionize with IU460-640 were fired, workers alleged.
Representatives from Wild Edibles and Pastis declined comment.
Daniel Gross, co-founder of Brandworkers, hoped passers-by got the message.
“Focus on the food chain,” he said. “Consider what’s on your plate. One step before that tuna hits it, workers at Wild Edibles and elsewhere are working in shameful and deplorable conditions.”
Submitted on Sat, 09/15/2007 - 5:12am
By Fellow Worker Bruce Valde.
By now the story of what happened when truck drivers and loaders at Berkeley’s Ecology Center “curbside” recycling program refused to work until their demands were met is the stuff of legend.
This report adds more information concerning the IWW recycling sorters at a company in the same block who stopped worked and marched in solidarity to a meeting of the Curbside drivers and loaders in the midst of the work stoppage, which lasted from 6 am until 1 pm on Monday, September 10th.
Workers from Community Conservation Centers marched into the Ecology Center trailer in support of their co-unionists. The 25 workers at the Buyback are members of the IWW. When informed that trucks would not roll and that the drivers/loaders were holding a meeting, the workers at the Buyback stopped work and held a solidarity / safety meeting of their own.
