For Immediate Release:
IWW Starbucks Workers Union
February 26, 2008
Starbucks Baristas Question Substance of National
Shutdown for "Training"
New York, NY- As Starbucks stores around the United
States reopen after a three hour shutdown to train
employees, baristas of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union
are calling into question the efficacy of the event.
Union baristas left the "training" feeling like it was
a public relations event directed at consumers rather
than a bona fide attempt to improve drink quality or
customer service.
“The whole thing seemed a little silly to me,” said
Starbucks barista Peter Montalbano on his way out of
the training. “We supposedly learned how to build a
latte ‘from the espresso up,’- but we’re still pulling
shots from a push-button espresso machine and pouring
them into paper cups for not much above the minimum
wage. It’s difficult to imagine people really caring
about crafting the ‘perfect cappuccino’ if they can’t
even afford to pay their bills."
The union argues that the decline of customer service
at Starbucks stems from understaffed and underpaid
baristas, not a lack of training. To save on labor
costs, Starbucks degraded all the barista jobs to
part-time, low-wage positions and doesn't schedule
enough workers to promptly meet customer demand. And
while the world's largest coffee chain would like to
differentiate itself from McDonald's, it shares the
burger giant's enormous animosity to labor unions.
Many baristas believe that the national shutdown was
an attempt by recently returned CEO Howard Shultz to
revamp the company’s decaying image after a plunging
stock price, sluggish same-store sales numbers, and a
leaked memo from Mr. Shultz himself about the
watering-down of the “Starbucks Experience” threw the
company into a tailspin
"Howard Schultz should do something substantive to
repair Starbucks rather than conveying the derogatory
idea that we, the baristas, need to be retrained,"
said Cole Dorsey, a Starbucks employee in Grand
Rapids, Michigan. “We already know how to make the
drinks and even if we didn't what good does this kind
of training ultimately do? All the training in the
world won’t matter if you don’t provide workers with
the financial incentives to stay with the job for more
than a few months. Come next year, the majority of
people who attended won’t even be working for the
company!”
The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is a grassroots
organization of employees at the world's largest
coffee chain united for secure work hours and a living
wage. The union has members throughout the United
States fighting for systemic change at the company and
remedying individual grievances with management.
IWW baristas have fought successfully for improved
scheduling and staffing levels, increased wages, and
workplace safety. Workers who join the union have
immediate access to co-workers and members of the
community who will struggle with them for a better
life on the job.
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