Dear Friends and Fellow
Workers,
On May 17, 2004, Baristas at one Starbucks in New York City announced
that they had formed a union affiliated with the Industrial Workers of
the World in order to fight for decent wages, consistent scheduling,
sufficient hours, and an end to understaffing in the stores.
Immediately, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz sought to undermine the
workers' solidarity through a campaign of intimidation, threats,
retaliation, spying, and at times, outright bribery. The union took
some hits: over the years, Starbucks fired over a dozen outspoken union
supporters in New York, seeking to destroy the union. But against all
odds, six years later our union is strong and growing. Our unique
Solidarity Unionism approach, developed through the tenacity, courage,
and sacrifice of dozens of union baristas, has enabled us to succeed
where much larger unions have failed. We have established a foothold in
the industry with the lowest union density in the United States. We now
have members across North America, and have established ties with
Starbucks workers across the world.
We have come a long way, but we need your help to take the next
step.
In July 2010, IWW baristas from across North America will be meeting
for our annual International Conference to learn organizing skills,
build solidarity, and plan the next phase of our campaign for workers
power at the world's largest coffee company. For many attendees, this
will be their first opportunity to meet other union members outside
their city. We will use our time to pass on the lessons learned from
the first six years of the campaign, and empower a new generation of
leaders coming off the shopfloor to carry the struggle to the next
level. This will be the largest geographical and numerical expansion of
our organization to date and will allow us to set the stage for
launching a new coordinated global push for decent wages, consistent
scheduling, an end to cutbacks, and respect for the right to organize
at Starbucks.
We are asking you to make a donation- any size helps- to help
provide travel subsidies for our members coming from across North
America.
Because our members are paid a poverty wage by Starbucks, we need your
financial support. All attendees are paying as much as they can out of
pocket to come to the conference, but since most of us live literally
check to check, it's difficult to take time off work, let alone pay for
travel. $250 covers a travel stipend for one worker, but any size
donation is appreciated.
You can make a donation via PayPal by clicking here,
or you can send a check made out to the IWW Starbucks Workers Union to:
IWW Starbucks Workers Union
44-61 11th Street 3rd Floor
Long Island City, New York 11101
Please feel free to forward this invitation to your union branch,
family, and friends. Thank you for your support!
in solidarity,
The IWW Starbucks Workers Union
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