Jul 03 2008
Starbucks Workers Organize!
GUESTS: Cole Dorsey, IWW Starbucks Workers Union, Beltrán Roca Martínez Secretary of
Union Action, Local Federation of CNT – AIT
It’s official: Starbucks’ hunger for expansion has created it’s very own monster. For the past four years, the mega-coffee chain has engaged in an incredible expansion boom that often puts two or more stores near one other. Starbucks announced this week that it will be closing 600 of its stores nation-wide. As a result, its shares have fallen more than 50% in the past two years. So may you have to do without your Grande sugar-free, Caramel Soy Machiato? May you be losing your Starbucks to the massive closure? Employees with the Starbucks Workers Union are asking the same question. The closure comes 4 years after Starbucks baristas began fighting for higher pay, guaranteed work hours, and the right to unionize. In recent months, Monica, an employee in Sevilla, Spain, and Cole Dorsey, a barista from Grand Rapids, Michigan, were both fired for union activity. Charges have been filed against Starbucks but the unions will not stop there. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union, and the International Workers Association have joined to fight to reinstate their members. Together they have organized a Global Day of Action, which will take place in nations around the world from Argentina, to Germany. Domestically, actions will take place in Phoenix, Philadelphia, Grand Rapids, Boston, Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles on July 5th.
For more information, visit www.starbucksunion.org, and grsbuxunion.blogspot.com
One Response to “Starbucks Workers Organize!”
If there ever was an example of a grasping and greedy corporation that would prefer to have slaves for employees it is STARBUCKS. For the immense amounts of cold hard cash that they generate each day around the world this corporation can afford to pay its workers a fair market “living” wage complete with health and retirement benefits. As conditions exist for Starbucks workers, it is a corporation that is out of control and should be subject to unionization and fair trade practices NOW!