IWW Starbucks Union News

Union to Share Plan to Improve Customer Service at Starbucks Annual Meeting

Wed, 03/19/2008 - 10:25am -- SWU

For Immediate Release:
IWW Starbucks Workers Union

March 19, 2008

Starbucks Shareholders Will Be Greeted with Leaflets
Calling on the Company to Raise Pay

Seattle, WA- As shareholders arrive at the Starbucks
Annual Meeting today, members of the IWW Starbucks
Workers Union and their supporters will greet them
with leaflets highlighting the economic hardships
faced by workers at the company and offering the
workers' perspective on how to fix the recent plunge
in its stock price.

"Maintaining a long-term, well-paid workforce is the
key to lasting success at Starbucks," said Lucas
Carter, a member of the IWW in Seattle. "If workers
don't get enough work hours every week and they are
struggling to pay the bills, how can management expect
them to serve coffee with a smile?"

The union argues that the decline in recent years of
the value of Starbucks stock, and of the brand in
general, stems from its inability to maintain a highly
trained workforce through equitable financial
compensation and proper working conditions. For
example, to save on labor costs, Starbucks degraded
all if its Barista jobs to part-time, low-wage
positions. All non-salaried café workers are
mandatory part-time employees, meaning that none
receive any guaranteed number of work hours per week.
Many Baristas at the company also receive a poverty
wage, starting at little above the minimum wage in
some markets.

97% of Coffee Drinkers Call the Bluff on Starbucks "Training" Closure [Nation's Restaurant News]

Tue, 03/18/2008 - 4:37pm -- SWU

Study: Starbucks closed-door training had little impact on patrons

CHICAGO (Mar. 13, 2008) Starbucks Coffee's closing of more than 7,000 domestic units for three hours last month to retrain baristas appears to have caused minor inconvenience to its customers and little gain for the Seattle-based chain’s competitors, according to a recent independent survey by a market research group here.

However, only 3 percent of the 1,000 people surveyed said the closed-door training session proved that Starbucks was improving service.

The study, conducting by Synovate, a research arm of Aegis Group PLC reached 1,000 American coffee drinkers and asked them whether they knew about the store closings, how it impacted them and whether they chose to visit another restaurant for coffee.

The majority of respondents, 94 percent, said the closing did not impact them in any way. Of the 544 who identified themselves as Starbucks customers, 88 percent said they purchased coffee from another store while Starbucks was closed from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 26 for the employee training session. Twelve percent said they waited for Starbucks to reopen.

Of those who bought coffee at another restaurant during the Starbucks’ closings, 20 percent took advantage of Dunkin' Donuts' 99 cent coffee offer at the time. Fewer than 14 percent went to McDonalds for coffee.

Starbucks Baristas Win California Tip Case

Wed, 03/12/2008 - 1:39pm -- SWU

Starbucks may owe millions

Company liable for violating law, giving managers cut of tips
By Greg Moran
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

March 12, 2008

When exactly the tip jar became a staple of the decor in coffeehouses, restaurants, bars, or dry cleaners isn't really known. Not even Wikipedia has an entry for the term.

A class-action suit contends that Starbucks' policy of sharing tips between baristas and shift supervisors violates California labor laws.
But the humble tip jar is at the center of a potentially multimillion-dollar case in San Diego Superior Court involving coffee giant Starbucks and an estimated 120,000 of its baristas, the workers who grind the beans and froth the milk for lattes and cappuccinos.

The class-action lawsuit filed almost four years ago centers on the practice of pooling tips among workers. The suit contends the company's policy of sharing tips between baristas and shift supervisors violates state labor laws.

Those laws say managers or supervisors can't share in tips. In the first part of the non-jury trial in front of Superior Court Judge Patricia Yim Cowett, Starbucks argued that the shift supervisors were not managers, but performed many of the same tasks as baristas.

But Cowett disagreed.

In a ruling Feb. 28, she found the company liable, saying the evidence was clear that shift supervisors “both supervise and direct the acts of the baristas” at the 1,400 California stores the company operates.

That ruling ended the first part of the trial and set the stage for the damages portion, which begins today.

Terry Chapko, a lawyer for the baristas, said the final amount could be in the “tens of millions” of dollars.

The class action covers anyone who worked as a barista at Starbucks in California since October 2000 – a population that Chapko said is about 120,000 workers.

Starbucks Union Mourns the Loss of Good Samaritan

Wed, 03/05/2008 - 4:23pm -- SWU

March 5, 2008

Statement of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union on the
Tragic Death Today of Roger Kreutz

"The IWW Starbucks Workers Union sends its deepest
condolences to the family of Roger Kreutz who suffered
fatal injuries while pursuing thieves who had stolen
tips left for baristas. Starbucks baristas depend on
tips to makes ends meet and Mr. Kreutz's final act was
a heroic and selfless one. Our hearts are with Mr.
Kreutz's family as they grieve this tragic loss."

###

Starbucks labor settlement approved [Seattle PI]

Wed, 03/05/2008 - 3:17pm -- SWU

Company could face 3 other suits

By CRAIG HARRIS
P-I REPORTER

About 350 assistant managers for Starbucks who claim they were forced to work off the clock will receive an undisclosed benefit after a federal judge in Houston approved a settlement Tuesday between the workers and the coffee company.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison signed off on the deal, which was struck after an assistant manager in Houston nearly three years ago alleged he wasn't paid overtime and sued Starbucks Corp. Financial terms were not disclosed during the hearing, and the judge agreed to seal the settlement, citing federal law and the parties' agreement to do so.

The Texas case is among a handful of employee lawsuits facing Seattle-based Starbucks, which has been recognized in the past for providing health care and a stock purchase program to its employees.

The suits, which a Starbucks spokeswoman called coincidental, also come as the company is working to improve service, win back customers and jump-start its sagging stock price.

"There is more attention because they are all hitting at the same time," said Tara Darrow, a Starbucks spokeswoman.

Starbucks also is facing lawsuits in:

# San Francisco, where about 2,500 assistant managers in California allege in U.S. District Court that since 2002 they were forced to work overtime without pay. A hearing on whether to certify the class is April 10. Starbucks had no comment on this case.

# West Palm Beach, Fla., where roughly 900 store managers allege they performed essentially the same duties as baristas and should be paid overtime. A trial in U.S. District Court is expected in late summer or early fall, according to a lawyer for the workers. Starbucks said that by the end of the week it intends to file a motion to dismiss the case.

Pages

Subscribe to Front page feed