Starbucks Union - IWW News

Starbucks Worker performing at CBGBS 11/3 11pm

Sun, 01 Jan 2006 18:38:14 -0500

Starbucks Worker performing at CBGBS

Come support fellow starbucks worker Ivan from union square

Into Exile

This Tuesday Jan 3rd at 11pm

$8 cover

Say band name at door

CBGBs - 315 Bowery between 1st and 2nd Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan

IWW Organized Coffee Shop Wins Village Voice Best of NYC Award

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 13:17:04 -0500

Village Voice

Best of NYC: Religion Politics

October 18,2005

Best Political Coffeehouse - VOX POP

Java joints often brew an activist vibe. But Ditmas Park's VOX POP trumps the caffeinated competition with its slogan "Books, Coffee, Democracy," its progressive readings and performances, its press (with titles like American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone), its self-publish Instabook machine and, best of all, its proud Wobbly staff, members of IWW 660. Good luck getting those anarchists to make you a cup of joe. -Betsy Andrews

1022 Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn 718-940-2084

NYC: 100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE WOBBLIES

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 18:17:23 -0400

"100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE WOBBLIES"

A New York City Celebration of the IWW Centenary

The hundredth anniversary of the Industrial Workers of the World will be

celebrated by artists, historians, musicians and today's Wobbly organizers.

NYC: Starbucks Union Benefit w/ Kirk Kelly at the Bowery Poetry Club, May 12 10 pm

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 13:45:44 -0400

NEW TIME: 10 pm

Part of the Worker Arts & Media (WAM!) Festival, GO TIME brings some of the best NYC songwriters, poets, spoken word and performance artists to the Bowery Poetry Club to support the ongoing IWW/Starbucks Organizing drive. Featuring ZEROBOY, ERIN REGAN, BEAU JOHNSON, JOHN S. HALL, RACHEL LIPSON, JON BERGER, NANCY MAGARILL, MISSIONCREEP plus SLIDE PRESENTATIONS from "WOBBLIES A Graphic History" by contributors SABRINA JONES and SETH TOBACMAN.

Thursday, May 12 at 10 pm

Bowery Poetry Club

308 Bowery in Manhattan

Vox Pop Campaign Cited in: "Eyes on the Fries"

Fri, 01 Apr 2005 15:49:25 -0500

Eyes on the Fries

Young People are Coming of Age in the Era of the McJob

by Elana Berkowitz

Katie Salas, a 24 year-old student at City College of San Francisco, has had 20 jobs in the last five years. She has worked in restaurants, shoe stores, clothing stores, bars, Macy’s and a museum. Katie has been forced to work unpaid hours off the clock, was denied vacation days and lied to about receiving commissions that never showed up in her paycheck. While working at the Cheesecake Factory, the pace was so frenzied that breaks were rare. She and fellow employees would fight over who got to clean the bathrooms just so they could sit in the stall and rest. Though City College is a two-year school, she is in her fifth year because she can only afford to take two classes per semester.

Welcome to the new service economy where hundreds of thousands of young people are spending hours making decaf lattes, folding jeans, grilling burgers or unpacking boxes of books and records for minimum wage. It used to be that these jobs were thought of as a summer fling, a right of passage on the way to making it big in the adult world of employment. But in our current economy, which our president seems to think is doing just fine, seven out of ten new jobs are service sector jobs like cashiers and baristas. (McDonald’s is the largest youth employer in the nation.) Chains like Starbucks and Wal-Mart and Blockbuster are opening stores at the breathless pace of one every day. Are these the kinds of careers that you took out all those college loans for? Didn’t think so.

Action in Edinburg

Sat, 08 Jan 2005 18:51:42 -0500

JANUARY 8 DAY OF ACTION

DAY OF ACTION AGAINST STARBUCKS EDINBURGH saw another joint picket by IWW and the city's Zapatista support group on the Starbucks outlet in its world-famous Royal Mile. Despite bitter weather, at its peak this writer counted 20 on the picket, about half from each grouping. We brought the branch banner and the Zaps again brought a free coffee stall. Hundreds of jointly produced leaflets were handed out. Unfortunately the flier was (literally) being printed when we received the news that the American Labour Relations Board had found in favour of the IWW Baristas, otherwise we would have included this happy update.

This time the manager didn't try to get us moved on, but one of his minions, evidently bucking for promotion, came out and gave a lengthy spiel on what a wonderful employer Starbucks was and how we could all do a lot worse than getting a job there. When it was pointed out to her that her beloved Starbucks had just been found culpable in the US on 7 counts of breaking employment law, including intimidation and bribery, her face dropped and she vanished inside. Two of Lothian's finest stopped by, scrounged a cup of coffee in Starbucks (no one invited them to have a free Zapatista coffee) and quietly departed, leaving one of the outlet's windows completely blocked out by the branch banner and a teeming coffee stall set up before the other. There they remained for the 3 hours of the picket. Numerous people including groups of tourists were turned away from Starbucks after talking to the picket and perusing the flier. Many chose the free Zap coffee over the 'hot sweet and filthy' concoction on offer inside ('It tastes of workers' blood' we would tell those who crossed the picket and went in) and stayed to talk. The outlet stayed quiet throughout the demo, sometimes empty. Once I looked in the open door and saw the manager and his faithful minion leaning forlornly on their elbows at the counter, gazing at the hive of activity outside.