Starbucks Union - IWW Starbucks Workers Union

NLRB approves Starbucks Minneapolis settlement [AP]

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:05:17 -0400

By LAUREN SHEPHERD, Associated Press

06.03.09

NEW YORK -- The National Labor Relations Board said Wednesday it approved a settlement with Starbucks Corp. that explicitly states Minneapolis-area baristas can discuss union issues while on the job.

According to the settlement, Starbucks will post a notice in stores telling baristas the company will not remove union postings and will not prohibit union supporters from discussing the union while at work.

The settlement follows allegations that Starbucks' policy on posting materials and soliciting employees was being enforced differently in certain stores and by certain store managers.

Faced with Growing Uproar, Starbucks Settles Sixth Labor Complaint

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:33:33 -0400

Mounting Rights Violations Fan the Flames of Escalating Public Outcry

IWW Starbucks Workers Union

June 1, 2009

Minneapolis, MN– The Starbucks Coffee Co. settled a complaint today from the National Labor Relations Board over charges of violating workers’ rights --- the sixth such settlement in three years for the ailing coffee giant. The case comes as a new website (StopStarbucks.com) and viral video calling on CEO Howard Schultz to respect workers’ right to join a labor union spread like wildfire across the Internet. The new media initiative, from Robert Greenwald’s “Brave New Films”, has already been viewed over 60,000 times with a related petition garnering almost 15,000 signatures.

“This settlement proves that Starbucks executives are not above the law and cannot block hard working baristas from making positive change,” said Angel Gardner, a barista and member of the Starbucks Workers Union in the Twin Cities. “How can Starbucks claim that it maintains a positive work environment when one labor case after another exposes its lack of respect for employees?”

What Do Starbucks and Wal-Mart Have in Common? [Brave New Films]

Tue, 19 May 2009 17:29:38 -0400

Watch the video and sign the memo to Howard Schultz to insist he respect the right of Starbucks workers to join a union

Statement of the Starbucks Workers Union on its Fifth Anniversary

Sun, 17 May 2009 13:18:50 -0400

May 17, 2009 marks five years since baristas at a Starbucks in New York City announced their membership in the Industrial Workers of the World and launched a campaign open to employees throughout the company. A worker-led organizing effort with the legendary IWW at the world's largest coffee chain could have been a flash in the pan– brilliant and inspiring, but brief. But a fire was lit and a movement began. The idea that Starbucks workers could organize themselves and speak in their own voice, independent of company executives and union bureaucrats, could not be restrained.

The bosses did their best to defeat us, to bury any indication of our existence under a heap of lies and retaliatory firings. They tried to stamp us out, even as the campaign for secure jobs and a living wage burst from New York into Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota and beyond.

While Starbucks used the economic crisis as a pretext for an all-out assault on our already meager standard of living, our struggle gained momentum this year amidst a stark decline of the company's brand and widespread store closures. Baristas around the country and around the world made the decision to organize and fight back against severe cuts in work hours, chronic under staffing, and a new "Optimal Scheduling" program which forces many workers to be available to Starbucks for over 80 hours a week without being guaranteed a single work hour.

This journey has been full of set-backs and tests of will. Progress has been made yet much remains to be done. But one thing is certain: our voice for dignity is firmly planted and our union’s future is bright.

The biggest battles remain ahead, but every day our ranks deepen. We are confident in our solidarity and could not be more proud to be associated with our fellow workers across the IWW and like-minded unionists around the world. This year, courageous baristas in Chile became the first Starbucks workers in Latin America to raise a union banner.

The corporate-controlled economic, social, and political model has been exposed everywhere as a failure for working families. And everyday workers are bolder and more assertive in the fight against injustice and exploitation. The notion that democracy has no place at work has been exposed as a lie.

To every worker who loves liberty: this is our time!

Together we organize. Together we struggle. Together we win!

www.StarbucksUnion.org

www.iww.org

Workers Form First Union at Starbucks in Latin America!

Tue, 05 May 2009 13:55:11 -0400

The SWU Applauds the Efforts of Baristas in Chile and Pledges Close Cooperation

New York, NY (05/05/2009)- The IWW Starbucks Workers Union has enthusiastically welcomed the first union of Starbucks workers in Latin America and has pledged support for the new endeavor. Starbucks baristas and shift supervisors in Chile have organized for respect on the job, a dependable work schedule, and a living wage, among other issues. Supporters of the new union, Sindicato de Trabajadores de Starbucks Coffee Chile S.A., can learn more about the effort on their website http://sindicatosbux.blogspot.com/.

"Around the world, Starbucks jobs must work for hard-working baristas, not just senior executives," said Chrissy Cogswell, a Starbucks employee in Chicago and a member of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union. "The Chilean baristas have created a voice at work to make sure their contribution to the company is respected."

NLRB says 8 Twin Cities Starbucks fought union organizing [Pioneer Press]

Tue, 05 May 2009 10:46:51 -0400

Charges stemmed from Twin Cities union activities

By Julie Forster

jforster@pioneerpress.com

05/01/2009

The National Labor Relations Board has sided with union officials who maintain Starbucks Corp. engaged in unfair labor practices at eight Twin Cities stores to thwart efforts to organize workers.

An agency investigation determined 16 charges against Starbucks have merit, and the labor relations board will now propose a settlement.

The Starbucks Workers Union filed the charges in January, alleging a wide range of violations, from forbidding workers from discussing the union to expelling union sympathizers from the stores.

The union, which is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World, says it consists of more than 300 current and former Starbucks employees seeking guaranteed work hours and better pay.

Happy International Workers’ Day!

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:29:08 -0400

This Friday, May 1st, is YOUR day, a day to celebrate all working people. Please take a moment to thank your co-workers, friends, and family members for all the hard work they do every day.

Many people don’t know about the history of May 1st as a workers’ holiday. Here is some information on the roots of May 1st, also called May Day.

ORIGINS

The origins of International Workers’ Day go back to 1886, when hundreds of thousands workers across the United States went on strike. Workers demanded that their 10- and 12-hour workdays be shortened to an 8-hour day with no reduction in pay. Over the next few years, thousands of workers won the 8-hour workday that many of us still enjoy today.

REMEMBERING THE HAYMARKET MARTYRS

We also celebrate in memory of the Haymarket massacre, in which eight labor activists were framed and put on trial by the government. On May 4, 1886, there was a rally at Chicago ’s Haymarket Square in support of striking workers from a nearby factory.

Starbucks Union Takes Legal Action for Member Laid Off After Confronting CEO and Blogging About It

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:51:50 -0400

For Immediate Release:
IWW Starbucks Workers Union

Contact: StarbucksUnion@yahoo.com

Starbucks Union Member Laid Off After Confronting CEO and Blogging About It

Union Immediately Hits Starbucks with Legal Action at National Labor Relations Board

Chicago, IL (03-18-2009)- The Starbucks Coffee Co. informed outspoken union member and barista, Joe Tessone, yesterday that it was laying him off, just two weeks after he confronted CEO Howard Schultz over the company’s squeezing of employees. Mr. Tessone’s blog post on the encounter entitled, “Howard the Coward: The Day My Boss Ran Away” quickly became an Internet hit among fast food workers and their supporters (online at: http://www.iww.org/en/node/4618).

"When I heard Howard Schultz was in town, I knew I had to get to the store and make my voice heard as a barista and union member," said Tessone, a 4 ½ year veteran of the company with an excellent performance record. "He said he’d speak to me after his interview with the Wall Street Journal only to scurry through the emergency exit the first chance he got. I told Schultz that it was time to dialogue with union baristas and that too many of us we’re living in poverty but he showed nothing but cowardice."

Starbucks spars over union [Seattle PI]

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:06:45 -0500

Drives to organize build to tense legal disputes

By ANDREA JAMES
P-I REPORTER

The scene: An off-duty Starbucks barista lounges at the East Ninth Street store in Manhattan, wearing a union button. A customer, who happens to be a manager at another Starbucks store, enters to buy a drink, sees the button and asks about it.

The dialogue grows hot. Starbucks employees don't need a union because they get health benefits, a 401(k) plan and stock options, the manager says.

Things then start "to happen really fast and get really loud," the barista recounts at a trial. "He was in my face, and basically we started having an argument. He got into my face and raised his hands up."

The barista tells the manager, "You can go f*** yourself, if you want to f*** me up, go ahead, I'm here."

This drama is part of an 88-page ruling that illustrates the ongoing tension between Starbucks Corp. and the Starbucks Workers Union.

In December, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. violated federal labor law by trying to stop union organizing at four Manhattan cafes. Starbucks is appealing the decision.

E-Mail Action: Tell Starbucks 2009 is the Year to Honor Dr. King's Holiday!

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:48:41 -0500

Friends of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union:

Please join us once again this year to call on Starbucks to honor Martin Luther King Day by paying the same holiday premium that it pays on five other federal holidays to baristas who work on those days.

Last year after your grassroots actions, Starbucks was forced to admit publicly for the first time that it does not pay its time-and-a-half holiday premium on Dr. King's federal holiday. Yet, the company persisted in denying the holiday premium and continued to treat Dr. King's day as a second-class event.

Please take a moment to participate in an e-mail action telling Starbucks that we're not backing down and that it must honor Dr. King's Day on January 19th, 2009 with the same holiday premium it pays on five other federal holidays.

Click here to take action.

Thank you for all that you do for working families.

Starbucks' Union Blues [BusinessWeek]

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:35:04 -0500

December 31, 2008

Starbucks' legal wrangles with a union that wants to organize its baristas is tarnishing the coffee chain's reputation for social responsibility

By Moira Herbst

Starbucks (SBUX), once the undisputed leader in premium-price caffeine fixes, has long cultivated a corporate image for social responsibility, environmental awareness, and sensitivity to workers' rights. Now that carefully crafted reputation is under assault, thanks to a messy legal dispute with a group called the Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) (part of the Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW), which started recruiting employees in 2004 and now claims 300 members.

The National Labor Relations Board found on Dec. 23 that Starbucks had illegally fired three New York City baristas as it tried to squelch the union organizing effort. The 88-page ruling also says the company broke the law by giving negative job evaluations to other union supporters and prohibiting employees from discussing union issues at work. The judge ordered that the three baristas be reinstated and receive back wages. The judge also called on Starbucks to end discriminatory treatment of other pro-union workers at four Manhattan locations named in the case. The decision marks the end of an 18-month trial in New York City that pitted the ubiquitous multinational corporation against a group of twentysomething baristas who are part of the Industrial Workers of the World.

Starbucks Loses Round in Battle Over Union [New York Times]

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:33:15 -0500

December 24, 2008

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

A National Labor Relations Board judge ruled on Tuesday that Starbucks had illegally fired three baristas and otherwise violated federal labor laws in seeking to beat back unionization efforts at several of its Manhattan cafes.

The administrative law judge, Mindy E. Landow, found that Starbucks had also broken the law by issuing negative job evaluations to union supporters and prohibiting employees from discussing the union even though the employees were allowed to discuss other subjects not related to work.

“The judge’s ruling shows that this company has trampled on workers’ rights to organize a labor union,” said one of the fired baristas, Daniel Gross, who is a longtime leader of the effort by the Industrial Workers of the World to unionize Starbucks workers in New York, Minnesota, Michigan and other states.

Judge Landow ordered that Mr. Gross and the two other baristas be reinstated to their jobs and receive back wages. She also ordered Starbucks to pledge to end what she said was discriminatory treatment toward workers who supported the union at four of its Manhattan shops: 200 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, 145 Second Avenue at 9th Street, 15 Union Square East and 116 East 57th Street.

Judge Finds Starbucks Guilty of Extensive Union-Busting

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:35:37 -0500

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, 17 Dec 2008 13:49:19 -0500

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,

This CEASE AND DESIST ORDER is to inform you that your intimidating actions against Gwendolyn Krueger have become intolerable. Posting of Ms. Krueger’s personal phone number on your website and encouraging your members to phone and text her constitutes harassment. Referring to her as a liar on your website is libelous and actionable.

This letter is to demand that your harassment and intimidation CEASE AND DESIST immediately. Should you continue to pursue these activities in violation of this CEASE AND DESIST ORDER, I will not hesitate to pursue further legal action against you including, but not limited to, civil action and/or criminal complaints. This CEASE AND DESIST ORDER also demands that you immediately discontinue and do not at any point in the future under any circumstances do any of the following to Gwendolyn Krueger: speak to, contact, pursue, harass, telephone (via cellular or landline), instant message, page, fax, email, follow, stalk, shadow, disturb her peace, keep her under surveillance, gather information about her and/or block her movements at home, work, social gatherings, religious functions and/or any other reasonable day-to-day activities.

Should you willfully choose to continue your current course of action, I will not hesitate to file a complaint with the Supreme Court of the State of New York for your ongoing violations of the laws in effect in New York.

Note that a copy of this letter and a record of its delivery will be stored. Note too that it is admissible as evidence in a court of law and will be used as such if need be in the future.

This letter does not constitute an exhaustive statement of my position nor is it a waiver of any of my clients or my rights and/or remedies in this and/or any other related matter.

I demand your immediate attention and compliance in this matter.

Very truly yours,

Hilary Cathcart, Esq.
cc: Gwendolyn Krueger

Call-In/Text-In Action: Demand Starbucks Pay Barista Her Wages!

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:19:31 -0500

Fellow Union Members and Friends:

Anna Hurst is a New York City barista, Starbucks Union member, and a single mother of two.

One day in August, Anna went home ill from work at Starbucks. In retaliation, her store manager - abruptly and without notice - denied her any work hours for two full weeks.

Anna needs the money she's owed to put food on the table, pay her bills, and buy Christmas presents for her two children.

Call and/or text message store manager Gwendolyn Krueger today at 551-497-0127 and demand that Starbucks pay Anna what she is owed!

This action for dignity will last seven days, Dec. 5-Dec. 12

Thank you for your solidarity.

--- The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is a grassroots organization of over 200 current and former 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. http://www.StarbucksUnion.org