SWU Commemorates Third Anniversary as Union Expands to Second Chicago Starbucks Store

[Omaha Steve]

For Immediate Release:
IWW Starbucks Workers Union, StarbucksUnion.org
May 17, 2007

Contact:

SWU Commemorates Third Anniversary as Union Expands to
Second Chicago Store

Workers Around the World Take Part in Day of Action
for Starbucks Workers and Farmers

Chicago, IL- A group of Starbucks baristas here
marched into their store today and served a
declaration of union membership on their store manager
as working people in countries around the globe
demonstrated in solidarity with Starbucks coffee
farmers and café workers.

"As members of the Industrial Workers of the World, we
won't allow Starbucks to play dice with the amount of
work hours we get each week," said Liz Clarkson, an
IWW barista at the Chicago store. "Taking this action
for secure work hours and a livable wage on the third
anniversary of the SWU's founding makes it all the
sweeter."

Workers in countries including Austria, England, Spain
and Australia as well as several U.S. states
commemorated the founding of the IWW Starbucks Workers
Union by taking to the
streets in demonstrations against the Starbucks
union-busting and greenwashing operation.

May 17th also saw IWW baristas in Grand Rapids,
Michigan announce they are filing a legal challenge
against Starbucks' unlawful anti-union campaign.
Starbucks, among other things, initiated a four-camera
surveillance system with controversial security
contractor Diebold to monitor barista organizing
activity in Grand Rapids. The company will now have
to muster a legal defense on two fronts as Starbucks
is set to go to trial over its relentless New York
City union-busting effort this summer. Six IWW
baristas remain out of a job through retaliatory
firings by Starbucks.

"Starbucks' crude union-busting is not welcome in our
store or in any store," said Cole Dorsey, an IWW
barista at the Grand Rapids location. "Chairman
Howard Schultz needs to pay baristas and coffee
farmers fairly and get over his deep-seated aversion
to unions."

In contrast to its carefully crafted socially
responsible image, Starbucks pays a poverty wage and
maintains a 100% part-time café workforce. 75,000
Starbucks workers in the United States are without
company health insurance. The coffee giant actually
insures a lower percentage of its workforce than
Wal-Mart. The Starbucks work environment is extremely
fast-paced and strains, burns, and exhaustion are
common. At the same time, coffee farmers growing
beans for Starbucks contend with malnourishment and
difficulty accessing clean water.

The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is an organization of
employees at the world's largest coffee chain united
for a living wage, secure work hours, and respect on
the job. Just three years after creating the first
union in the United States at Starbucks, IWW baristas
at ten stores in four states are publicly fighting and
winning on workplace demands while baristas in several
other stores are organizing quietly until they reach a
critical mass of support.

Using an organizing model known as solidarity
unionism, pressure from the SWU has resulted in wage
increases and grievance remedies for Starbucks
workers. By avoiding governmental and bureaucratic
barriers to organizing, solidarity unions use direct
action against a corporation to make gains on the job.

Founded in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World
is a grassroots union for all workers.

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