Union organizer to appeal Starbucks firing
Submitted on Sun, 08/13/2006 - 11:45am
By Michael Canfield - Originally posted to blogging stocks on August 9, 2006
On August 7th, Starbucks (SBUX) fired Daniel Gross, a barista and organizer for IWW's Starbucks Workers Union. The Seattle P-I has that story.
The firing remains top news at the IWW's Starbucks Union website, where details began appearing as early as July 27th when decision over whether Gross would be terminated were still pending an investigation by the coffee retailer, and updates have appeared frequently the past few days.
Gross, who's a co-founder of the union, is appealing, claiming his firing is a demonstration of Starbucks anti-union stance. Starbucks is not giving its reasons for firing Gross, but say that it "doesn't discourage" union organizing.
U.S. companies rarely make termination information public. According to the union the firing stems from a protest held on off* store property earlier this year (not this protest, but another one -- over the status of a shift supervisor facing termination) in which it's alleged Gross made a threatening remark. Starbucks acknowledges that "maintaining a positive work environment" (a nice catch all phrase, that) is one of its "core competency" expectations of supervisors.
Michael Canfield is a private investor, a business and media writer, living in Seattle. He doesn't own stock in Starbucks.