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For Immediate Release: September 24, 2007 Contact: starbucksunion@yahoo.com

Statement of the IWW Justice from Bean to Cup Campaign on Sacramento Bee Investigation of Starbucks Coffee Purchasing in Ethiopia

"The four month Sacramento Bee investigation of Starbucks coffee purchasing practices in Ethiopia exposes the same hypocrisy uncovered by the IWW Justice from Bean to Cup delegation when we met with farmers in the birthplace of coffee. While Starbucks makes extraordinary claims about its commitment to coffee farmers, the reality of life on the ground for the farmers and their families is extreme poverty and malnutrition.

Disclaimer - The opinions of the author do not necessarily match those of the IWW.  This article is reposted in accordance to Fair Use guidelines. 

By Nicole Hill, Christian Science Monitor. Posted August 22, 2007.

Weren't employers who lose access to cheap foreign labor supposed to start paying Americans fair wages?

Picacho, Ariz. -- Near this dusty town in southeastern Arizona, Manuel Reyna pitches watermelons into the back of a trailer hitched to a tractor. His father was a migrant farm worker, but growing up, Mr. Reyna never saw himself following his father's footsteps. Now, as an inmate at the Picacho Prison Unit here, Reyna works under the blazing desert sun alongside Mexican farmers the way his father did.