Starbucks

At the start of the picket 3 people had gone inside to leaflet customers and staff. There was a very positive response to the picket however one person was falsely accused of assaulting a Starbuck's member of staff after leafleting staff and customers inside.

Grand Rapids, MI (06/06/2008) - Starbucks terminated a barista active in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union today as part of its ongoing effort to combat a growing movement of employees pushing for a living wage and secure work hours. The barista, Cole Dorsey, was fired after two years of service while he was coordinating a union recruitment drive at Starbucks stores in Grand Rapids.

Day to protest recent firing of CNT member in Spain and continuing anti-union discrimination in Grand Rapids

In this wide-ranging interview with IWW organizer Daniel Gross conducted by the UK-based Now or Never!, Gross discusses the innovative worker-controlled organizing model, known as solidarity unionism, that has made gains for Starbucks workers where the bureaucratic union model has failed.

This text is taken from the December 2006 issue of the Industrial Workers of the World Australia's newsletter, Direct Action.

Requests have been routinely made and ignored for the purchase of a stepladder. It is vital for our safety that we have a stepladder available to use for such tasks as changing light bulbs, reaching boxes on high shelves, and cleaning ceiling tiles. Currently, we are forced to balance ourselves on unstable café tables to accomplish tasks in hard to reach places.

By Mischa Gaus - In These Times, October 4, 2006

When Joe Tessone and his fellow Starbucks baristas walked into a pep rally with management at their store in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood in August, the bosses were ready.

IWW Informational Picket in Edinburgh
Just a quick report on our Informational picket at Starbucks in Edinburgh yesterday (Saturday 19th).

We (4 wobs, two supporters) chose our usual target - the High Street branch on the top of the Royal Mile.

The area was teeming with people as it's mid-Festival.

...in the first National Labour Relations Board conflict over unfair labour practices between the world's largest coffee chain and the baristas who work there.

Faced with the prospect of having its widespread union-busting campaign exposed in a public hearing, Starbucks agreed to remedy all of the myriad violations committed against workers who have organised a union.

Religious Discrimination
Ms. Ayala is a practicing Wiccan and as a religious observance never takes off the necklace. She wore the necklace at Starbucks without interruption for three years until the company started harassing her after she and a group of her co-workers went public as members of the Starbucks Workers Union on November 18, 2005.

Throughout the weekend workers showed their strength by refusing to take off union pins in the face of management attempting to enforce a no-pin policy. Our key demands were for guaranteed hours, a group meeting with management, and an end to anti-union discrimination.

The workers, joined by union baristas from two other New York Starbucks stores, demanded a guaranteed minimum of 30 hours of work per week and an end to Starbucks' unlawful anti-union campaign. The Union will assail Starbucks with a wide array of actions until the demands are met.

The hikes -- up to 55 US dollars a month in Vietnam's two biggest cities, 50 dollars in mid-sized cities, and 45 dollars in the rest of the country -- show increased frustration among workers who are only allowed to affiliate with a single, government-run trade union.

They were joined by workers from other low paid, fast-food restaurants such as KFC and Pizza Hut.

Starbucks, which tries to project an image as a caring, progressive, company, has some 80,000 employees worldwide. It pays those workers minimum wage or only slightly above, and generally does not welcome unions.