Diane Krauthamer, 21.06.2005
The first line of Starbucks Coffee Company’s mission statement is to “provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity.” Recently fired Starbucks barista Sarah Bender found out the hard way that looks can be deceiving; she was fired in May for attempting to improve the work environment that the company claims to already be providing.
On Saturday June 18, over 50 union organizers, community members, and workers picketed outside of the Starbucks on 17th Street and 1st Avenue in New York City to protest the firing of former barista Sarah Bender in a cry to “Get an Organizer Her Damn Job Back!”
Demonstrators made a visible presence outside of Bender’s former workplace. For three hours they rallied, drawing the attention of workers inside, passers-by and six NYPD officers. After the picket, many continued to protest at the 9th Street and 2nd Avenue Starbucks, where employees recently declared their unionizing efforts to the store’s management.
On May 24, Bender was fired for allegedly mishandling six dollars; although she is suspicious that store manager Noura Glenn fired her for “bothering people about the union.” According to the Starbucks Workers Union, which is part of IU 660—the retail worker's division of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)—Bender’s co-worker overheard Glenn discussing her plans to fire Bender for union activity just one week prior to her termination.
Starbucks management first found out about Bender’s union activity in early November 2004, and subsequently began interrogating her co-workers and writing her up for violations. In the following months, “They reduced my schedule to 15 hours a week and I was prohibited from covering shifts at other stores,” Bender told the IWW .
“I felt as if Noura [Glenn] was pressuring me to quit. They made my job a living hell,” she said.
Union organizing at Starbucks locations throughout New York City began in May 2004, when baristas affiliated themselves with the IWW in order to demand such improvements in their conditions as a living wage, consistent and guaranteed scheduling, and an end to understaffing. Such stores as the 9th Street and 2nd Avenue location are involved in the Starbucks Workers Union campaign as well.
Currently the wage of a New York City Starbucks barista begins at $8.25 per hour, which puts most of them below the poverty line. Scheduling, according to one worker who wished to remain anonymous, calling himself the “Battling Barista,” is one of the biggest issues where he works. While the workers want flexible hours, he said, they are instead given arbitrary schedules.
Another NYC barista, Jen, said she has had consistent scheduling problems since she started working at Starbucks a few years ago. She typically opens the store, meaning that she has to be there at 5 AM everyday. As a young female commuting from a not-so-safe area, she has safety concerns about 4 AM commuting, which she has voiced to her manager multiple times. She said her manager has yet to give her a shift change.
“I just don’t feel like I’m respected,” she said, adding that she is an excellent worker and was even recently promoted, but when you’re “constantly walked over” you simply do not feel like being “nice” anymore.
Following the onset and subsequent action of the Starbucks Workers Union campaign, the company responded with a “well-coordinated and illegal anti-union campaign that has already resulted in multiple Unfair Labor Practice charges by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB),” according to a press release.
In January 2005, the NLRB issued a complaint against the company, alleging that Starbucks was “interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed [by federal labor law].”
According to a WBAI news release the NLRB found that seven Starbucks officials have broken the law in the course of the union-busting campaign.
Although the complaint charges Starbucks with unfair labor practice, Starbucks Workers Union organizer Daniel Gross and Bender say one thing the company is great at doing is maintaining a positive public image using a vast PR campaign. This may be one way in which the company can get away with underhanded anti-union activity.
“[Starbucks] Chairman Howard Schultz and the company have deceived the American people into believing that Starbucks is a good place to work,” Gross said.
“The truth is that because of [their] understaffing and reckless disregard for safe, ergonomic conditions, repetitive stress injuries are epidemic at the company. Workers aren’t paid a living wage,” he added.
Starbucks barista Peter Montalbano, of the 9th Street and 2nd Avenue Starbucks, said management found out about union activity at their store after a non-union worker was “fired unjustly over a scheduling nightmare.” Following the worker’s termination, he said, people took direct action to protest, such as having customers bombard the store with phone calls, emails, and paying in all pennies. That was the point at which store management found out about union activity, Montalbano said.
Two weeks after that, he said, Sarah Bender was fired. Once she was fired, he and five of his co-workers at the 9th and 2nd store made it public that they were part of the Starbucks Workers Union in support of Bender, and to demand their own rights. The store’s management was “shell-shocked” at this declaration, he said, and has not taken any action against the workers. Even if they do react negatively, he said, it will not stop them from growing.
“The six of us are going to continue to work on the campaign no matter what happens,” Montalbano added.
In light of her termination, Bender said, those involved with the campaign against Starbucks’ anti-union activity will focus on helping other people learn about organizing in their own stores. They plan to “show workers that you shouldn’t be afraid to organize,” she said, adding that the campaign will continue growing and expanding throughout the community.
“It’s becoming a social movement,” Bender said.
“The Starbucks Workers Union is asking our friends around the world to envision a different kind of labor movement rooted on the shop floor and in the community. Anti-union retaliation won’t be tolerated and will be opposed vigorously,” Gross said.
“Starbucks made a major miscalculation when they fired Sarah Bender. Now the company will feel the militant force of the IWW,” he added.
- e-mail:: diane@indymedia.org
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