IWW Organizer Daniel Gross Faces Off Against Starbucks Apologist on NPR
Submitted on Thu, 04/26/2007 - 3:11pm
Does Starbucks Need a Union?
Starbucks is scared to debate the IWW Starbucks Workers Union because it doesn't want to talk about the gains we've made organizing against poverty wages and insecure work hours. So a Starbucks apologist stood in for the company.
If you're a Starbucks barista you're a "partner," even though Starbucks pays a poverty wage and maintains a 100% part-time cafe workforce. Starbucks boasts that it provides health insurance for part time workers even though it insures a lower percentage of its workforce than Wal-Mart.
Fortune, a pro-management mouthpiece, says Starbucks is the 16th best company to work for in the United States based on a pseudo-scientific study done by a consulting firm which sells consulting services to some of the companies it ranks. Many workers complain about erratic hours and low pay. Starbucks has been cited by the National Labor Relations Board for union-busting on multiple occassions. The National Labor Relations Board recently alleged the company intimidated, threatened, and terminated workers who joined the activist IWW union. Does Starbucks need a union?
Guests:
Dr. Joseph Michelli is the author of The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary, about Starbucks' management principles. Dr. Michelli is a business consultant. He hosts a daily call-in show on KVOR News Radio in Colorado Springs.
John Bowman is an organizer with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). The CAW organized a dozen Starbucks stores in Vancouver, BC. Recently, all of those stores decided to pull out of the union.
Daniel Gross is an organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). He used to be a barista in a Manhattan Starbucks and was fired last year. The IWW represents Starbucks baristas in several U.S. cities. The National Labor Relations Board has taken up a complaint from the IWW that Starbucks intimidated workers in some New York City stores.
Matt McCarten is secretary of Unite Union in New Zealand. Unite Union has negotiated a collective bargaining agreement for employees of Restaurant Brands, Ltd. Restaurant Brands operates Starbucks, Pizza Hut and KFC stores in New Zealand.
For more information visit: www.starbucksunion.org