Starbucks Union

I recently learned of Starbucks unionizing efforts and the struggle against its legal and public smearing. I also work for a non-starbucks cafe, whose name I feel would be best left unmentioned, which is local to New York City. It is my hopes that our small shop could organize, and further the general effort of unionizing "service sector" and barista profession in general.

I have a few questions that I was hoping might find some answers in a forum of unionized (or unionizing) baristas.

The Cafe as it stands.

-The cafe I work for is fairly small, with 9 stores and roughly 40-50 employed part-time/seasonal/full time employees.

-The cafe is not a corporation, its run by one guy, the same guy that started it 20 years ago.

-The cafe has a small office that employs roughly 10 administrative assistants/HR administers/cafe technicians.

-The cafe also goes to great lengths to purchase and roast the freshest beans they can find. this basically means that they also employ a coffee specialist who travels with the owner to various tasting conventions in South America. They purchase the beans green and ship them to a roasting factory out in NJ, which also employees (I think) roughly 10 distributors and roasters.

-Starting wage is $8 an hour, with a .50 cent raise after 30 days and further raises every 6 months.

-Fulltime stats is offered, but Ill get to that later.

-Health insurance is offered, at $50 a month, its not that great, and is available only for fulltime employees.

Grievences and Questions.

-Is the raises/wages reasonable? I don’t know anything about wages at Starbucks, but Im guessing its more than 8 an hour. Given the fact that the cafes are busy as all hell 80% of the day, 8 dollars seems a bit unreasonable.

-Fulltime/part-time stats is available pretty much only to those employees that already work 30 to 40hrs a week. They only schedule people for that many hours if they make less than 10$ an hour.

-Wages are not based on seniority or effort. Nepotism and favoritism are rampant, which equates to some getting more and many getting less. (More so, the contract signed in upon employment explicitly states employees can not discuss their wages.)

So, is it worth unionizing? Is asking for better wages a losing battle? Can we seek support and solidarity with the Starbucks union in NYC?

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