For Immediate Release:
IWW Starbucks Workers Union - November 15, 2007
Contact: starbucksunion@yahoo.com

Statement of Starbucks Workers Union Followed by Legal Threat Letter from HMS Host:

"Starbucks should be ashamed that HMS Host, the operator of 150 Starbucks stores, is threatening frivolous litigation against the Industrial Workers of the World to stifle First Amendment activity. This type of anti-worker conduct is among the factors contributing to the decline of the Starbucks brand and attendant earnings woes. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union will not be deterred by a baseless lawsuit and we look forward to carrying out our communications initiative at Pennsylvania's HMS-operated Starbucks stores this Black Friday. We call on Chairman Howard Schultz and Starbucks to insist that HMSHost immediately rescind its anti-speech legal threat."

FREE THEM FIGHTERS (pictured, right)—The Pittsburgh Six, from left: Anthony “Platinum Tone” Edwards, Tristyn Trailes, Peppy, Paradise Gray, Ruth Marshall and Bret Grote.

Protest in Jena: The Pittsburgh perspective

By C. Denise Johnson | Published  09/27/2007 

The eyes of the nation were fixed on Jena last week as the epicenter of a countrywide protest descended on Jena, La., in protest of the charges leveled against six Black youths accused of attempted murder. While many tuned to radio, TV and Internet coverage of the proceedings, a small cadre of activists made the trek to be part of the demonstration.

“I had to be here for my gente,” said Linda, a Mexican American educator who came from the far south side of Pittsburgh.” Her knee operation did not stop her for coming in a wheel chair and bringing her two children and three grandchildren to the vigil and the march. “I support Pittsburgh Friends of Immigrants and I thank them for organizing this, it is needed in this city,” she said.

Under a beautiful sunny day, this second May Day, International Workers' Day, Pastor Linda Theophilus of PFOI and the Detention Watch Network once again honored the 1.8 million deportees since 1996 in our country. She read personal stories and statements of families separated by raids and deportations and at the end of each, her chant, a national immigrants' rights chant, resounded through the streets adjacent to the jail which were later taken to the streets by the protestors: Immigrants Rights: Are Human Rigthts! Immigrants Rights: Are Human Rights!

Members of the Pittsburgh IWW Starbucks Union and allied Friends of Labor took their most recent protest to a busy downtown shopping district on December 23. After holding demonstrations in Squirrel Hill, Bloomfield, and on the city’s Southside, the Wobblies targeted on Saturday a Starbucks store in popular Market Square.

Since Thanksgiving it was the union’s fourth mass demonstration against Starbucks union-busting practices, low wages, and poor working conditions.
However, this time the IWW mobilized its pickets and marched into nearby PPG Plaza, encircling a massive outdoor ice arena and Christmas tree with chants of, “Ho! Ho! Union Busting’s Got to Go!” Hundreds of Pittsburghers and tourists witnessed IWW banners, flags, and protest signs before PPG security guards rushed to stop the marchers. But the “pinkertons” couldn’t stop the Wobs as they continued their full walk around the plaza and headed back to Market Square. PPG Industries owns the plaza that serves as a pseudo public space for city residents. It is one of the area’s many corporately controlled spaces, along with shopping malls, sports stadiums, and college campuses, which increasingly guard against public expressions of free speech and demonstration.

PPG’s free speech crack down on the demonstrators only illustrated the union’s message that corporations are eager to stifle workers when they exercise an independent voice. The union’s theme for the day’s protest was that Starbucks continues to hush and intimidate its workers from talking up the union. In doing so, the company is trying to bust the union.

After the union filed unfair labor practices against Starbucks, the corporation agreed in March 2006 (NLRB 2-CA-36394) to four pages of prohibitions and corrective measures against union-busting practices in which Starbucks pledges, among other things, not to interrogate workers concerning union membership, not to promise workers anything as a way to dissuade union membership, not to threaten workers with loss of wages in retaliation for union participation, not to punish workers for wearing union buttons, and not to increase supervision of workers in order to discourage union activities. The IWW contends that despite the Agreement with the National Labor Relations Board, Starbucks is still intimidating and firing workers who stand up and assert their right to unionize. The NLRB is currently investigating the firing of five NYC baristas for what the IWW contends is lawful union participation and activity.

“Right here in Pittsburgh we’ve witnessed Starbucks’ dubious and heavy-handed measures to keep the union out of the workplace,” said IWW organizer Kevin Farkas. “When the union is around you can see the way managers hyper-supervise employees and vigilantly guard against conversations about the union. Believe it or not, a Starbucks manager once demanded that I—a paying customer—leave a store after I mentioned the union to another customer.”

Farkas went on to say that Starbucks is clearly trying to dissuade its so-called “partners” against the union. Like many corporations today, Starbucks uses “Big Brother” tactics--ever watchful and concerned about how its employees learn about and perceive the union. For example, an August 2006 public statement by Starbucks states:

While Starbucks respects the free choice of our partners, we firmly believe that our work environment, coupled with our outstanding compensation and benefits, make unions unnecessary at Starbucks. We respect our partners' right to organize, but we believe that they would not find it necessary given our pro-partner environment.

The union has long recognized such statements as perfunctory—a page right out of the union-avoidance playbook and product of corporate propaganda machines. But the real question is if employers did respect workers’ so-called “free-choice” to unionize, then why do they work so hard at trying to restrict their activities and convincing them that unions are unnecessary? Shouldn’t the workers be allowed to organize without employer interference and meddling?

With such corporate manipulation going on, do workers actually believe that they are really “partners” and “associates” of these multi-billion dollar corporations? From a critical perspective, stomping free-speech and manipulating perceptions about unions seems to be just an ugly business decision that has everything to do with keeping profits and power in the hands of the bosses. The IWW, on the other hand, has vowed to put people before profits and demands social and economic justice for those who operate the stores, make the coffee, clean the bathrooms, wash the dishes, and serve the customers. The union is about workers speaking up for themselves and standing in solidarity as real Starbucks partners.

The Pittsburgh Starbucks Union, along with its Friends of Labor supporters, has planned future protests. To learn more about the Starbucks Union and how you can join the IWW, make donations to the campaign, or become a Friend of Labor supporter, email PghStarbucksUnion@yahoo.com and visit www.StarbucksUnion.org.

Originally posted to pittsburgh.indymedia.org by "Union Observer" -  Monday, Dec. 18, 2006 at 4:48 PM.

For more than an hour on Saturday afternoon, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) again protested in front of a local Starbucks, this time on the city’s Southside. For the third time in recent weeks members of the IWW Starbucks Union and allied Friends of Labor protested against what they say is Starbucks’ continued anti-union behavior, low wages and insufficient working conditions. December 16th marked what Starbucks must now understand to be a well coordinated and growing international movement by the IWW to express its grievances against the world’s largest retail coffee company.

About twenty protesters—some just back from supporting the United Steel Workers’ local protest against Goodyear—positioned themselves along a narrow sidewalk in front of Starbucks on E. Carson St. as local residents, weekend workers, and business owners looked on. Famed local musician and IWW member Anne Feeney was on hand with her well-worn guitar to inspire the group into singing several songs familiar on picket lines, such as the classic Labor anthem, “Solidarity Forever” (a union favorite written by the IWW in 1915). The union chanted, waived its familiar “An Injury to One is an Injury to All” signs, and encouraged passing motorists to honk in support of the union. Organizers also talked with people while handing out flyers and humorous “Three Dollar StarveBucks”—a fake $3 bill with the face of Starbucks CEO Jim Donald on it to illustrate what the union views as enormous profit-making at the expense of workers. In June 2006, the Seattle Times reported that Mr. Donald received an 81% raise in ‘05, brining his pay to about $13 million. If Mr. Donald were a barista, he’d make about $12,500 an hour.

In what seems to be standard Starbucks procedure, a high-level manager was sent to greet and appease the crowd with trays of coffee and cake. Starbucks offers freebies as a way of “making nice” to the public and protesters. But this time the IWW, historically known for its creative tactics, was ready for the public-relations stunt. After activists kindly accepted the generous coffee and cake samples from Starbucks trays, they then placed them onto the IWW’s own tray lined with a message that read, “Starbucks Union-Busts.” As the Starbucks manager confusedly looked on, a union activist wearing a green Starbucks apron then began to greet passersby with Starbucks’ own goodies. “We had a lot of great conversations about the union as people stopped for a free Starbucks treat,” said the union barista. “There was no way anybody could miss our point when they reached for a treat. Starbucks really helped us create some new friends of labor.” It wasn’t long before Starbucks realized that it was subsidizing the work of the protesters and withdrew its free samples from the public.

After the protest IWW member Tom Shearer III said, “We had a lot of support today and that shows us that people are starting to get it. As more of us find ourselves stuck in this new high-profit low-wage economy we’re realizing that no amount of feel-good corporate spin is going to change our economic needs.” Shearer went on to say that most people think that a living wage in Pittsburgh should be around $12 an hour—something Starbucks could pay its workers and still be very profitable. Shearer agreed with his union that most workers supporting families just can’t make it on part-time wages between $7 and $9 an hour.

Randy Trapanick, Starbucks district manager on hand for the demonstration, stated that the company invests a lot of its profits into progressive projects like environmental causes. He also said that if Starbucks were to raise the wages for all of its employees it would be at the expense of a lot of other good things Starbucks does. IWW organizer Kevin Farkas contended, “Paying workers a living wage is also a good cause. The last time I checked we were all buying our gas at the same stations, food shopping at the same markets, paying the same utility rates, getting car insurance from the same places, paying the same cable bills. Whether you are a 19 year old college student or a 39 year old single mom, we all need more than what Starbucks chooses to provide.” Another protester who identified herself only as an IWW Friend of Labor said, “It’s sad that a company like Starbucks can call itself progressive while doing this to its own employees. A lot of my friends work at Starbucks and they’re really cool people, but they’re just getting by. Shame on Starbucks.”

The IWW Starbucks Union is vowing to keep the public spotlight on Starbucks until it stops union-busting and improves its wages and other working conditions. Currently, the National Labor Relations Board is investigating the firings of the five NYC baristas and is not expected to have a ruling until sometime next year. However, the union is quick to point out that in March 2006 Starbucks was charged with unfair labor practices and the NLRB directed the company to change its policies toward union organizing. The March NLRB settlement reinstated two workers active with the union movement and forced Starbucks to pay roughly $2,000 in back pay to three employees and change discriminatory policies, including the workers’ right to wear union buttons (which Starbucks had denied them) and to distribute union materials in the workplace. Starbucks also promised not to provide employees with benefits, including after-hours store cleaning services, free pizza, free gym passes, and free baseball tickets, in order to encourage employees to withdraw support for the union.

Despite any pressure put on Starbucks from the Labor Board, the IWW contends that the coffee giant will try everything to keep the union from having a voice at work. “The boss doesn’t want a union here and says so,” Shearer said, “Not on Carson St., not in Pittsburgh, and certainly not in New York City where the five baristas were sacked for legal organizing. But the IWW Starbucks Union isn’t here to listen to the boss.”

The Pittsburgh Starbucks Union, along with its Friends of Labor supporters, has planned future protests. To learn more about the Starbucks Union, email PghStarbucksUnion@yahoo.com and visit http://www.StarbucksUnion.org. 

PITTSBURGH, PA—A vocal group of workers and supporters of the Starbucks Union of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) again protested in Pittsburgh against Starbucks Coffee Co.’s anti-union activity.

This time the Union raised its picket line on December 2 in Bloomfield, a working class neighborhood known for its strong union heritage and as a close-knit community of local independent retailers. The IWW is demanding an end to the mistreatment and firings of workers who engage in union organizing at the world’s largest and most profitable retail coffee chain.

Despite planting numerous stores in several Pittsburgh neighborhoods, Starbucks is a corporate outsider based in Seattle, Washington and joins the ranks of too many low-wage employers throughout the city.

For nearly two hours on a sunny but frigid Saturday afternoon, workers carried picket signs, banners, and the ever-present red IWW flag as they chanted in front of the Bloomfield Starbucks on Liberty Ave. However, before the picket started the IWW serenaded fellow workers and customers inside the store with a resounding rendition of “Solidarity Forever,” the classic American labor anthem written by the Wobblies in 1915. But on this day the union sang a new verse written for coffee industry workers:

Article and Photograph by Charlie Dietch - Pittsburgh City Paper, December 7, 2006. 

(Pictured at right) - Industrial Workers of the World member Jonah McCallister pickets the Starbucks in Bloomfield with IWW organizer Kevin Farkas, as the IWW national organizing campaign continues here.

It wasn't the type of response that union organizers typically get from management.

On Dec. 2, a dozen or so protesters from the Industrial Workers of the World assembled in front of the Starbucks on Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield -- part of a national IWW campaign to organize the coffee giant and protest the firing of five New York baristas, allegedly for union activity. Very soon after, out came two members of Starbucks management to offer free samples of pastry and hot coffee -- to picketers and passersby alike.

PITTSBURGH, PA—Local members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), joined by Friends of Labor supporters from across the city, participated in the IWW Starbucks Union’s “Global Days of Action” in a picket held here on November 24, 2006.  For an hour on a sunny Friday afternoon, over twenty workers supporting the Starbucks Workers Union carried picket signs and loudly chanted in front of the Squirrel Hill Starbucks at the corner of Forbes and Shady Avenue.  This was part of a broader movement in many cities around the world to protest Starbucks’ anti-union practices and the wrongful termination of five union workers.

As the post-lunch crowd milled about, union activists entered the store in an attempt to talk with employees and customers, and formed a line extending from the registers back to the entrance. The pro-union customers were faced with so many beverage options that it took a while to decide what they wanted. Others dug through their pockets and realized that while they had enough for a tip, they would have to put the price of their small but expensive beverage on a credit card.