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IWW Starbucks Union Organizer Pete Montalbano on RadioNation with Laura Flanders

Posted Thu, 05/24/2007 - 12:02am by x344543

The broadcast will discuss Liza Featherstone's recent Notion post (http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=196455) detailing new legal and political troubles for Starbucks over its treatment of its workers and its anti-union efforts.

In New York, the National Labor Relations Board has accused Starbucks of violating workers' freedom of association in about thirty different ways, including illegally firing, threatening and disciplining workers for supporting the union. Managers forbade workers from talking about the union -- even when off-duty -- or wearing union buttons. The trial against Starbucks is in July. Liza Featherstone, author of , will report from the trial for her blog. Liza will be joined in studio by Pete Montalbano, a Starbucks barista and IWW member who is a veteran of the campaign.

Industrial Worker - Issue #1695, May 2007

Posted Mon, 05/21/2007 - 9:56pm by x348328

Headlines:

  • Los Angeles Troqueros mobilize for May Day shutdown
  • Starbucks violated IWW workers' rights, says NLRB
  • McDonald's gives in to Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Featured Articles:

  • New column - Workers Power
  • Interview: Tom Morello is a One Man Revolution
  • IWW in Scotland presses Save Crichton campaign
  • Reviews - Centenary Songbook and Little Red Songbook history

Download a free PDF copy of this issue.

Find out how you can support the Industrial Worker. Visit
http://www.iww.org/projects/IW/ for submission, subscription and ordering
bundles for a news agents near you.

More Trouble in Latte-Land

Posted Fri, 05/18/2007 - 2:27am by x344543

By Liza Featherstone - The Nation, May 17, 2007

Today Starbucks faced legal and political trouble from its own workers. On the third anniversary of the founding of the IWW Starbucks Union, baristas in Chicago marched into a shop and told the manager they were signing up. (Starbucks workers have chosen to organize without government-mediated elections, through an interesting model called "solidarity unionism.") Meanwhile, baristas in Grand Rapids, Michigan announced that they were filing a legal complaint against the company for violating their organizing rights through unlawful surveillance and other questionable tactics. All over the world -- Austria, England, Spain and Australia, as well as the United States -- Starbucks workers demonstrated in front of stores to protest the company's union-busting practices...Full Article-http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=196455

Australian Fighting Union for Retail and Fast Food Workers Rising Up on M17

Posted Tue, 05/15/2007 - 10:46am by x344543

UNITE action against Starbucks

In response to a call from the Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) in the US, UNITE is proud to be participating in an international day of action in solidarity with Starbucks workers on May 17.

UNITE members and supporters will be holding an action outside Starbucks on Swanston Street in the Melbourne CBD. At the store located between Lonsdale and Little Lonsdale streets (across from QV). Please join us between 4pm & 5pm Thursday May 17.

See below for the text of the leaflet UNITE will be handing out on the day. It is based on similar leaflets that will be handed out across the world.

Solidarity with Starbucks workers

Austria: M17 Day of Action Building Around the World

Posted Tue, 05/15/2007 - 10:44am by x344543

From coast-to-coast and around the world, SWU activists are responding to the call for solidarity on M17.  The latest pledge of action has come in from unionists in Austria!  The third anniversary of the IWW campaign at Starbucks is shaping up to be a powerful day indeed.

Workers at the big chains were supposed to keep quiet as these mammoth enterprises devastated our wages and working conditions along with our communities.  But no more.  We're organizing, we're finding forms that work, and we're doing it around the world.

Original posting:  http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/1531