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NY Press: Union Spills the Beans

Posted Fri, 06/30/2006 - 11:46pm by x344543
UNION SPILLS THE BEANS

 By Robert Proudfoot - June 21, 2006,  New York Press (http://www.nypress.com/19/25/informationagent/agent4.cfm)

Last Friday at 2:45 p.m., Starbucks employees working at the 135 E. 57th St. store (between Lexington and Park Ave.) made public their Industrial Workers of the World union membership and presented a list of demands to management to improve working conditions.

The Starbucks Workers Union members “marched into the store to announce their membership in the IWW,” said Daniel Gross, Starbucks Workers Union organizer and Starbucks barista. Gross said the three main demands are: a living wage, secure hours of 30 or more per week and an end to the anti-union campaign. While the demands were being presented, customers were not being served.

Starbucks workers continue to join the IWW despite intimidation, harassment, and constant violations of the law.

Posted Sun, 06/18/2006 - 2:30am by x344543

At 2:45 on Friday, June 16th a delegation of the IWW Starbucks workers union entered Starbucks at 57th and Lexington. 

Workers on the shop floor put on their IWW union pins and let the company know that they too were members of the Starbucks Workers union. Workers stopped working as they presented theirdemands to their store manager Patrice Britton. 

The Store manager refused to take the list of demands and ordered everyone back to work.  Workers spoke out and let the manager and customers know their concerns.  Meanwhile several wobblies were passing out leaflets outside letting customers know what was happening inside.  

There was chaos on the floor where the manager was telling workers to get back to work meanwhile customers were asking what was happening and why they weren't being served.  There was shouting and arguing.

Starbucks targeted over high-fat products

Posted Sat, 06/17/2006 - 12:59am by x344543

Reuters - By Abha Bhattarai, June 16, 2006

Starbucks Corp. may be next on the target list of a consumer-health group that this week sued the operator of the KFC fried chicken restaurant chain for frying foods in oils high in harmful trans fat.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest said it is planning to campaign against the global cafe chain because of the increased risk of obesity, heart disease and cancer associated with high-calorie, high-fat products it sells.

And the possibility of legal action against Starbucks, similar to the case it is taking against KFC owner Yum Brands Inc., has not been ruled out, said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson.

Starbucks Woes Continue as IWW Initiates Legal Action

Posted Wed, 05/31/2006 - 12:59am by x344543

'Rogue Corporation' is Flouting the Law with Impunity

New York, NY- Still reeling from a defeat at the National Labor Relations Board in March, Starbucks was hit with a fresh legal charge from the IWW Starbucks Workers Union today. The Labor Board charge outlines continuing discrimination and retaliation against union baristas by the world's largest

coffee chain. The legal filing and supporting evidence establish that Starbucks has breached the settlement agreement reached with the government less than three months ago.

“If there was any doubt in the past, Starbucks now has made clear its anti-worker intentions,” said the union's General Counsel, Stuart Lichten, of Schwartz, Lichten, and Bright. “The company is violating one bedrock labor rights principle after another.”

Justice at Starbucks: A Call for Campus Activists

Posted Sat, 05/27/2006 - 1:35am by x344543

A Campus Campaign for Starbucks Baristas and Coffee Farmers

Friends:

This is a call for activists towards a campus campaign to achieve dignity on the job for Starbucks baristas and coffee farmers.

Despite its attempt to create a socially responsible image, Starbucks' failure to meaningfully embrace Fair Trade coffee has left coffee farmers and their children teetering on the brink of starvation in the Global South. A new documentary, Black Gold (www.blackgoldmovie.com), reveals in detail the pained existence of coffee farmers under the purchasing practices of Starbucks and other multinational corporations.

In Starbucks cafes, baristas are paid a poverty wage and the company insures a lower percentage of employees than Wal-Mart. Starbucks baristas are organizing a union (www.starbucksunion.org) with the Industrial Workers of the World for a better life on and off the job. In response, the company has waged a fierce and relentless anti-union campaign that tramples on workers' rights. In this union-busting operation unburdened by the law, Starbucks routinely retaliates against baristas for supporting the union. In addition, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz recently broke the union of roasting plant employees.