NationStates Jolt Archive

looks like there is gonna be a starbucks i'd be willing to go to now. here's to hoping they get everything they demand.

For Immediate Release:
May 17, 2004
Industrial Workers of the World
Contact: starbucksunion@yahoo.com

First in Nation, Starbucks Workers Form Union
Baristas Petition for Election

New York, NY- Starbucks workers here have organized a union with the Industrial Workers of the World IU/660 and have submitted union cards today to the NLRB for a certification election. The workers are poised to become the first Starbucks Baristas union certified in the country. Starbucks Baristas at the 36th and Madison location in Midtown Manhattan have come together in an effort to raise themselves out of poverty as well as to achieve respect and dignity on the job. The workers are calling on Starbucks to obey the law as the election approaches.

“Behind the green aprons and smiles are individuals living in serious poverty,” said Daniel Gross, a worker at the store. “Baristas are the cornerstone of a Starbucks coffee shop, we just deserve better. Starbucks cashes in on a community friendly image but it certainly doesn’t extend to their workers or coffee farmers. That’s why we went Union.”

Starbucks is a $15 billion company with over 7,500 locations around the world, but workers have most emphatically not shared in their success. In New York City with one of the highest costs of living in the world, Starbucks workers start at $7.75 an hour and eventually receive raises amounting to merely a few cents. Starbucks has also developed a scheme whereby all Baristas work on a part-time basis and are not guaranteed any amount of hours per week thus making it exceedingly difficult for workers to budget for necessities like rent, utilities, and food.

“I come to work and I work hard,” said Maureen Medianero, 23, who has worked at Starbucks for almost 2 years. “But I’m still hanging on by a shoe string not knowing if I can make ends meet to support my daughter. It’s frightening.”

Although Starbuck workers serve an enormous volume of beverages, many of them extremely hot, in order to save money management refuses to schedule enough workers to do the required work safely. Instead, workers are forced to perform their duties at unsafe speeds with an undue level of physical exertion.

“A Starbucks coffee shop is an ergonomic minefield. The stores are supposed to mimic an Italian cafe without considering the uncomfortable bending and reaching we have to do,” explained Barista Anthony Polanco. “This isn’t your mom and pop coffee shop, we’re talking McDonald’s busy every day. Starbucks talks about ‘Creating Warmth’ but the only warmth I feel is the heat pad at the end of the day.”

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), founded in 1905, is a union dedicated to workplace democracy. IWW IU/660 represents workers in the retail industry.

starbucks coffee is goooood.

starbucks coffee is goooood.

and it'll be even better when served by people who are part of the one big union

starbucks coffee is goooood.

and it'll be even better when served by people who are part of the one big union

i couldnt really care one way or the other

i couldnt really care one way or the other

take my word for it, the wobs rule.

i mean come on, they're pushing for the 4 hour day (http://www.iww.org/4-Hours/4-Hours.shtml).

http://www.iww.org/graphics/collectables/button_fybred.jpg http://www.iww.org/graphics/collectables/button_dagg.jpg

http://www.iww.org/graphics/collectables/button_fybred.jpg

Real easy way to do that. Go into business for yourself. Very easy in the US and generally in most other countries.

Here's hoping Starbucks doesn't find an excuse to close the unit to get rid of the union.

I object to this thread's title. Wombles NEVER unionized any Starbucks. Its all evil propaganda and anti-Womblism!!!!!!

i mean come on, they're pushing for the 4 hour day (http://www.iww.org/4-Hours/4-Hours.shtml).

I get a nice hourly wage. A 4 hour day would reduce my paycheck by about 800 USD a month (down from $2300) . Why would I want to give up 1/3 of my paycheck?

I work a 29.5 hour week. I enjoy my job. And if you don*t, then quit and go into business for yourself. I can count half my friends who have. And all of them except two make more money than I do. (One runs an NPO and the other has just started.)

I get a nice hourly wage. A 4 hour day would reduce my paycheck by about 800 USD a month (down from $2300) . Why would I want to give up 1/3 of my paycheck?

its a campaign for the 4 hour day with no cut in pay. just like the campaign for the 8 hour day with no cut in pay that started back in the 1880s. which was just like the 10 hour day with no cut in pay campaign from even earlier than that.

it's really a demand for a big raise for everybody along with a reduction in hours.

Real easy way to do that. Go into business for yourself. Very easy in the US and generally in most other countries.

we do that too. but we'd also like to take back what is rightfully ours to begin with.

i mean come on, they're pushing for the 4 hour day.

How can you not like them, proponents of capitalism? 4 hours!

-----------------------------------------
"But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality."
Free your mind! (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/berkman/comanarchism/whatis_toc.html)
I like big butts!

http://img63.photobucket.com/albums/v193/eddy_the_great/steatopygia.jpg

I object to this thread's title. Wombles NEVER unionized any Starbucks. Its all evil propaganda and anti-Womblism!!!!!!

actually, i would assume that the wombles (http://www.wombles.org.uk/news/home.php) would be extremely supportive of this turn of events.

but this is wobblies. totally different. lacking white overalls, for one thing.

I get a nice hourly wage. A 4 hour day would reduce my paycheck by about 800 USD a month (down from $2300) . Why would I want to give up 1/3 of my paycheck?

its a campaign for the 4 hour day with no cut in pay. just like the campaign for the 8 hour day with no cut in pay that started back in the 1880s. which was just like the 10 hour day with no cut in pay campaign from even earlier than that.

it's really a demand for a big raise for everybody along with a reduction in hours.

I already work a 6 hour day. :) And lot of companies here are in financial trouble already. (And that's mostly due to the governments over intervention in the markets.)

but we'd also like to take back what is rightfully ours to begin with.

A job at a company someone else founded wasn't yours to begin with.

(And we're of to the next round of the NS unending capitalism/communism debate...)

*off

well money is basically the biggest issue regarding man's influences...so it IS quite important. Everything such as political events can be blamed on money...christianity vs protestantism, etc

Starbucks sucks. AMT pwns.

Starbucks sucks. AMT pwns.

I don't like coffee. I'm not sure what AMT is. But I do agree with you.

Starbucks sucks. AMT pwns.
I don't like coffee. I'm not sure what AMT is. But I do agree with you.
AMT Coffee is a British chain, usually found in train stations in the South of England. Their Froffees pwn the sh*t out of Starbucks Frappuchinos.

Here's hoping Starbucks doesn't find an excuse to close the unit to get rid of the union.

that's happened to a couple other places that have organized with the iww in the past few years.

and for some reason 'solidarity' is almost a dirty word in the us.

and for some reason 'solidarity' is almost a dirty word in the us.
Funny how the movement that did more than most to dismantle Communism in Eastern Europe, in the face of threats of invasion, can have its name derided as communist. Only in America.

Funny how the movement that did more than most to dismantle Communism in Eastern Europe, in the face of threats of invasion, can have its name derided as communist. Only in America.

hey, a union can bring down governments. that makes the fighting ones really scary to those in power, no matter what the system.

one big bump
http://iww.org/graphics/sabocats/EBWildcatblkred.jpg

and for some reason 'solidarity' is almost a dirty word in the us.
Funny how the movement that did more than most to dismantle Communism in Eastern Europe, in the face of threats of invasion, can have its name derided as communist. Only in America.You don't know what you're talking about. No one I've ever met has anything against the word solidarity. Only in America? That's rather insulting.

Do they serve tea at Starbucks? I don't drink coffee.

update!


June 1, 2004

Contact: starbucksunion@yahoo.com

Starbucks Obstructing First US Union Vote

Workers to Schultz: What are you so scared of?

New York, NY- The Starbucks Baristas Union and community members across the country have condemned repeated attempts by the company to deny workers a fair vote on the Union. While paying lip-service to respecting the choice of employees, Starbucks has deployed a variety of crude tactics in an effort to defeat the IWW IU/660, which would be the first union certified in the United States at the mammoth chain.

Supporters around the country and internationally are contacting Starbucks demanding they live up to their rhetoric. If Starbucks really is a bastion of worker benefits, what is Chairman Howard Schultz, who raked in over $17 million last year, so scared of? The truth is Starbucks, with its poverty wages and rampant repetitive-stress dangers, resembles a sweatshop more than it does a decent place to work.

The IWW released today the text they obtained of a voice mail Howard Schultz sent to employees around the company regarding the Union which Schultz calls, “very disappointing and disturbing.”

“What we have here is classic union busting plain and simple,” said Benjamin Ferguson, an IWW member working on the campaign. “They are using the same down and dirty tricks we see time and time again from highly successful corporations unwilling to give their workers a fair shake.”

One the legal front, Starbucks has hired corporate law firm Akin Gump to argue that the workers in the store aren’t entitled to a vote. Mr. Shultz is fond of saying the Starbucks Mission Statement requires respect and dignity for employees but apparently that does not include exercising the right to form a union. The IWW will face off with Starbucks on June 2 at a formal hearing at the National Labor Relations Board.

“Single stores within retail chains have long been presumed appropriate bargaining units,” said Stuart Lichten of Kennedy, Schwartz, and Cure, the firm representing the Union. “We are confident we will prevail on the merits.”

The company is also using scare tactics to intimidate workers. Management has been interrogating certain workers about the union while spreading misinformation about joining. At the same time, senior executives are in and out of the store constantly making sure workers feel the heat.

Starbucks earned a record $268 million last year on revenues of more than $4 billion. The company admits that Baristas add tremendous value to the enterprise yet refuses to pay them a wage that would bring them out of poverty.

Starbucks workers in New York City announced last month that they had formed a union with the IWW IU/660. The IWW is a union for all workers, dedicated to organizing on the job and in the community. IU/660 represents retail workers.

###

Text of Voicemail Sent by Howard Schultz, Wednesday 5/19

Hello partners, this is Howard Schultz with a message for all of you. I wanted to take a moment and reach out to you regarding information that the company recently received. A local union in New York claims that some of our partners at the 36th and Madison location in New York City have expressed an interest in being represented by them.

While I recognize that this is related to only one store, this news is very disappointing and disturbing. Over the last 25 years, we have worked together to build a great company based on our core values and as a result have built great trust in one another. We always strive to live by our mission statement and guiding principles. And when we wrote the guiding principles, we very deliberately put creating a great work environment and treating everyone with dignity and respect as our highest priority.

Back in the earliest days of Starbucks, we did what others said could not be done – together we built a profitable company while integrating a social conscience into everything we do. We began offering comprehensive health care coverage and ownership in the company in the form of Bean Stock to full- and part-time partners. Those decisions were landmark events in our company history and our compassion for one another truly differentiates us. We have succeeded beyond everyone’s wildest expectations. Today, we employ more than 80,000 partners around the world. And our commitment to our core values is as strong today as it was in those very early days of our company.

Because of the way we work together, we receive many accolades from the outside world for what we do – we’re on the Fortune 100 Best Places to work list, the Most Admired Companies list, and much more. That recognition is great, but what’s more important is that we have a caring and supportive culture. So please, if you ever have any concerns about our company, reach out to your local leadership, write to Mission Review, or use any of the many means we have to discuss and resolve issues and create a comfortable culture for everyone.

I want to conclude by simply thanking you for everything you do each day, and for being the real heart and soul of Starbucks. Thank you.

Starbucks has always been overpriced. Now they'll have to raise prices.
I smell quarterly losses, and eventual bankruptcy coming!
I'm done going there.

The lady whining about supporting herself and her daughter off of her income at Starbucks.... It's Startbucks' fault that she didn't bother to get
a college education and can't get a real job? If you want to make enough to live off of, get a better job, don't demand it of your employer (and ultimately the consumer). Unions today represent all that is lazy!

I've been through a unionization battle myself, when I worked in a grocery warehouse in Louisiana. The voicemail that Schultz sent to his employees is rhetorically identical to the line the grocery chain gave us. The chain managed to defeat the union, and then was sold to a larger chain about a year later, and the warehouse was closed six months after that, right around the same time that the workers made another run at a union.

What it really comes down to is that management doesn't want to have to answer to anyone, and unions force their hand. Unfortunately, in the US, unions have been weakened by a lack of enforcement by the NLRB and by corporate friendly government as well as by a long-term disinformation campaign. Unions stabbed themselves in the foot back in the 70s and 80s by being inflexible, but the evils they're generally accused of today are a bunch of crap.

The voicemail that Schultz sent to his employees is rhetorically identical to the line the grocery chain gave us.

that's because they all hire the same union-busters. there's a book by one of them on some of thier techniques.

What it really comes down to is that management doesn't want to have to answer to anyone, and unions force their hand. Unfortunately, in the US, unions have been weakened by a lack of enforcement by the NLRB and by corporate friendly government as well as by a long-term disinformation campaign. Unions stabbed themselves in the foot back in the 70s and 80s by being inflexible, but the evils they're generally accused of today are a bunch of crap.

exactly. which is why the fight now is just as important as it was for our great-grandparents.

It's the same old story time and again. If you want some good reading on recent union busting techniques, do a google search on Wal-Mart's practices. It'll fill a library. They are legendary.

And the really funny thing is that their main competition, Costco, is not only unionized, but makes more money per employee than Wal-Mart does. And Costco employees get a living wage, good benefits, and if memory serves, were actually encouraged to unionize by management.

And the really funny thing is that their main competition, Costco, is not only unionized, but makes more money per employee than Wal-Mart does. And Costco employees get a living wage, good benefits, and if memory serves, were actually encouraged to unionize by management.

yup. and they actually have those in honolulu (where i'm moving shortly).

Here's hoping Starbucks doesn't find an excuse to close the unit to get rid of the union.
Sadly that is usually what happens, or the following

A McDonald's in Squamish, British Columbia tried to organize:

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/McDonalds2.html

Last November, LBO reported that a group of mostly-teenage McDonald's workers in Squamish, British Columbia, had voted to join the Canadian Auto Workers, despite barely legal union-busting tactics as recognizably McDonald's as the Golden Arches. Throughout contract negotiations this year, McDonald's lawyers have challenged the CAW on every legal technicality they could invent -- including the legality of a strike vote and a bizarre interpretation of Canadian child labor laws. Says CAW organizer Roger Crowther, "They won nothing but that's not the object of the game. The point is to wear down the union."

And wear it down they did. Having stalled negotiations for months, McDonald's began a decertification campaign in June. On July 2 -- by which point less than half of the original shop members were still working there -- a majority of employees voted to disband the union. It was the closest any Canadian McDonald's workers have come to a collective agreement -- there have been a few attempts in both Canada and the U.S., but they've all been squashed much earlier in the process -- and, given the initial promise, it's a dispiriting outcome.

Good Luck!!

I've been to that McDonalds! It has a fireplace and sells lattes!

"Labor is entitled to all it creates."