By Mike Pesa
Starbucks is infamous around the world for its relentless takeover of local community-based coffee shops, its complicity in rainforest destruction, and its exploitation of poverty-stricken coffee farmers, giving the lie to Starbucks PR image as a socially responsible company. Less publicized is Starbucks abuse of its employees in shops across North America and elsewhere. In May 2004, baristas at the 36th and Madison in Midtown Manhattan, New York City decided to put an end to the silence by declaring their intention to form a labor union and fight for their rights. The movement for unionization has since spread to other shops across the country.
Daniel Gross, organizer for the fledgling Starbucks Workers Union, explains the workers’ motivation: "Behind the green aprons and smiles are individuals living in serious poverty…Starbucks cashes in on a community friendly image but it certainly doesn’t extend to their workers or coffee farmers. That’s why we went Union." Many Starbucks workers depend on their jobs to make a living for themselves and their children, but the money is rarely enough to make ends meet. In addition to being paid poverty wages, Starbucks employees are also exposed to excessive safety risks. Management cuts cost by not hiring enough baristas to safely serve the flow of customers. The result is that workers are constantly over-exerting themselves and handling extremely hot drinks at unsafe speeds.
Starbucks workers are demanding a living wage, a safe and healthy work environment, and the right to a voice on the job. Additionally, they have forged an alliance with social justice organization Global Exchange to pressure Starbucks into using fair trade certified coffee. Fair trade coffee pays farmers a decent and stable price and doesn’t damage the environment like corporate coffee plantations do. As part of the alliance, Global Exchange has pledged its support for the union. “The right to a living wage is universal,” said Valerie Orth, Fair Trade Organizer with Global Exchange. “We hope Starbucks will guarantee its cafe workers the right to freedom of association.”
Unfortunately, Starbucks management has done precisely the opposite since the organizing drive first went public in May. From bribes to intimidation to threatening to fire organizers, Starbucks has used just about every dirty union-busting trick in the book. They have hired an infamous anti-union law firm Akin Gump in a successful attempt to derail the right of Starbucks employees to vote in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) union election. Although an NRLB decision rejected Starbucks argument against single-shop bargaining units the board has agreed to hear an appeal that could take as long as a year or more to take place, effectively preventing workers from getting to vote for union representation any time soon.
However, the union—an affiliate of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)—is not giving up. They have pulled their NLRB petition and adopted a more militant grassroots strategy for asserting their rights. Starbucks workers committees are popping up across the country to put direct pressure on their bosses and Starbucks management now realizes that their attempt to crush the union has failed. SEAC has pledged its support for the Starbucks union campaign. We view this struggle as part and parcel of the movement for a more just, balanced, and sustainable world. To find out how you can support the campaign, visit www.starbucksunion.org or call the Starbucks Workers Union at 917-577-1110.
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