Jan 14 2009

Wrestling with Starbucks: Capital, Conscience, Cappucino

Feature Stories | Published 14 Jan 2009, 10:46 am | Comments Off on Wrestling with Starbucks: Capital, Conscience, Cappucino -

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wrestling with starbucksWhile most workers will get time off next Monday to observe Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Starbucks baristas will be busy serving coffee and won’t even get holiday pay. Working conditions at the mega-café chain often do not live up to the ideal. In late December a New York judge ordered the reinstatement and back wages for three baristas fired for union organizing. The company claims it is not anti-union, rather it says it is “pro-partner.” Starbucks has been a popular boycott target for those protesting gentrification, deforestation, monopoly practices and questionable definitions of fair-trade. A new book, “Wrestling with Starbucks: Conscience, Capital, Cappuccino,” takes a hard look at the company and its practices. Author Kim Fellner goes inside the boardrooms, cafes, and coffee farms to research the book and investigates the disparity between the company’s global economic imperialism and its social humanist goals. According to Fellner, Starbucks isn’t necessarily worse than companies like Wal-Mart and Dunkin’ Donuts, but it does blur the line between “principles and practice.”

GUEST: Kim Fellner, author of “Wrestling with Starbucks: Capital, Conscience, Cappucino”

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