IWW Starbucks Union News

Judge Finds Starbucks Guilty of Extensive Union-Busting

Tue, 12/23/2008 - 4:35pm -- SWU

For Immediate Release:
Starbucks Workers Union (Industrial Workers of the World)

Contact: StarbucksUnion (at) yahoo.com

Judge Finds Starbucks Guilty of Extensive Union-Busting

The IWW Scores Big Victory Over Global Coffee Chain

New York, NY (Dec. 23, 2008)- Following a lengthy trial here last year, a National Labor Relations Board judge has found Starbucks guilty of extensive violations of federal labor law in its bid to counter the IWW Starbucks Workers Union. In an 88-page decision, Judge Mindy E. Landow found, among other things, that Starbucks maintained multiple policies which interfered with workers' right to communicate about the union and about working conditions; terminated three workers in retaliation for union activity; and repeatedly discriminated against union supporters. The decision comes despite a 2006 New York settlement in which Starbucks pledged to stop illegal anti-union activities and mirrors federal government action against the company for its conduct toward baristas in Minnesota and Michigan.

We Won't Back Down: Starbucks Manager Threatens Lawsuit and Criminal Complaint Against IWW

Wed, 12/17/2008 - 12:49pm -- SWU

Statement of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union followed by threat letter received yesterday

December 17, 2008

The IWW Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) and our dear friends in the global movement for worker justice have been campaigning against Starbucks for punitively denying two weeks of work to an SWU member who went home ill from a shift one day. In these terrible economic times, barista Anna Hurst absolutely must receive the compensation she is owed to pay rent and put food on the table for her two children.

Instead of paying the money owed, a lawyer for Starbucks store manager Gwendolyn Krueger has now threatened a frivolous lawsuit and even a criminal complaint against the Industrial Workers of the World. To call the truthful expression of our collective voice harassment and libel is both offensive and wrong as a matter of law.

Let us be clear: the IWW Starbucks Workers Union takes our right to defend baristas' interests and our right to free speech very seriously. We do not back down in any respect in response to baseless threats of litigation --- the struggle for secure work hours and respect on the job at Starbucks is too important.

The movement toward justice for Anna and all working people continues full-steam ahead at www.StarbucksUnion.org and www.iww.org.

---Starbucks Managers' Lawsuit-Criminal Complaint Threat Letter---

Hilary Cathcart, Esq.
1020 Grand Concourse
Bronx, New York, 10451

12/15/08

Industrial Workers of the World
General Headquarters
4001 Hamilton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45223, USA

Dear Industrial Workers of the World,

Swedish Union Seeks Support After Nazi Murder Attempt

Fri, 12/12/2008 - 10:30am -- SWU

Nazis tried to murder union activists and their daugther. In 1999 Nazis
murdered the SAC member Björn Söderberg. Now they have tried again.

Two members from Stockholm – one of them earlier board member of the Stocholm
Local- and their three year old daughter had to escape trough the balcony
of their three floor building, when Nazis put their apartment on fire.

Just Before 09.00 pm Monday the first of December, someone poured gasoline
trough their mailbox, our member loudly shouted “we got our child in
here!” Just seconds after they lighted it up. The only way to escape was
trough the balcony, were our members managed to lower their daughter to
the neighbour downstairs who catch her and then climbed down themselves.

Miraculous our members and their daughter managed to escape without
suffering any injuries, but that doesn’t changes the fact that someone,
cold-blooded tried to take their lives. Just two days earlier someone
burned down the social centre Cyklopen in Högdalen south of Stockholm. The

SWU Member Daniel Gross on the Chicago Sit-Down Strike

Mon, 12/08/2008 - 12:19pm -- SWU

The Spark We Need

The Chicago Sit-Down Strike

By DANIEL GROSS, Counterpunch Dec. 8, 2008

The corporations got sloppy. From the hedge-fund parasites to the housing market fraudsters, the corporate criminals have shown their hand. Their filthy fingerprints are all over the economic pain blanketing the country and the world.

To add insult to injury, the corporate agents in government, also known as politicians, are looting incomprehensible billions of dollars to turn over to the fat-cat executives.

Working families have long known the pain of stagnant wages, steep rents, and unaffordable heath care and education in the United States. But there’s no doubt that this recession has squeezed the vise beyond what many of us have seen in our lifetimes.

What’s invigorating and critically important though is the rising awareness that corporations are to blame for the current calamity, and that this crisis is not merely, “a force of nature.” Working people across the country are pointing the blame where it belongs. The elites understand this rising public awareness of corporate wrongdoing as well. How else to explain President George W. Bush feeling obligated to give a speech last month in New York defending capitalism itself...

Read full article at: http://www.counterpunch.org/gross12082008.html

Members of SWU Sister Union in Sweden Survive Nazi Attack

Wed, 12/03/2008 - 9:31am -- SWU

Two members of the SAC union in Sweden and their two year old daughter were assaulted at home by a Nazi fire attack. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) stands in proud solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the SAC, a Swedish labor union dedicated to extending democracy into the workplace.

The SWU will continue to update our members and supporters around the world regarding the Nazi violence against SAC members. Like the IWW, the SAC does not back down from a fight whether it is with a tyrannical boss or a blood-thirsty Nazi. We are certain that in the birthplace of IWW organizer and songwriter Joe Hill, the strength and dignity of every day working people will prevail over the hatred of the Nazis:

From http://anarkisterna.com/blog/2008/12/03/nazis-tried-to-kill-union-activists-and-their-child/

Nazis tried to kill union activists and their child

onsdag 3 december, 2008 kl. 2:27 e m

1999 Nazis killed the Syndicalist Björn Söderberg. Now they tried again. Two Syndicalists from Stockholm – one of them the former chair of the Stockholm chapter of the Syndicalist union - and their two year old daughter were forced to climb down from the balcony of their third floor apartement when Nazis sat fire to their flat.

Half a year ago, our union members were exposed on the Nazi webpage Info-14. The Nazis behind Info-14 are the same people who arrange the annual Nazimarch in Salem.

Just before nine p.m. on Monday night, 1st December 2008, our members heard a splashing sound from the hallway. “I saw someone pour a clear fluid through the mail slot and understood from the scent that it was gasoline”, one of them says. “I shouted so loud that they can’t have missed it: We have children in here! Only seconds later they lit the fire.”

In the hall hung the family’s winter clothes and in a couple of seconds the fire had spread to the kitchen and the living room. To exit through the front door was impossible.

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