Starbucks

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Starbucks Barista Fired for Union Organizing

Posted Sun, 05/29/2005 - 3:32pm by x344543

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.

A Union Revolution is Brewing at Starbucks

Posted Thu, 05/26/2005 - 9:59am by webadmin
Baristas of the World, Unite!
You have nothing to lose but your company-mandated cheerfulness.
By Anya Kamenetz


Daniel Gross standing in front of his employer—and nemesis—on May 15. (Photo credit: Jake Chessum)
Nothing seems amiss at Starbucks Coffee Store No. 7356, on the southwest corner of Madison Avenue and 36th Street. It has a nice view of a nineteenth-century Gothic Revival church. The familiar aroma of dark-roasted Sumatra curls through the air. Most of the staffers are no older than teenagers, but none betrays the slightest hint of sullenness—or simmering political rage. “Here you go, sweetie,” says a barista in blonde pigtails as she hands a grande iced chai over the counter. You’d never suspect that this little island of repose in the crush of midtown is a revolutionary cell. Unbeknownst to its customers (or “guests,” as they’re called), store No. 7356 birthed the first-ever campaign to unionize a Starbucks—a movement that renegade baristas hope will spread through the chain’s 6,668 other U.S. outlets.

Fired from Starbucks for Responding to a Death Threat

Posted Wed, 05/11/2005 - 2:51pm by webadmin

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.