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[Omaha Steve]

Starbucks is doing it.

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20080131075756971

COLA, Starbucks Face Off In Union-Busting Case

By Elizabeth Manapsal - Cornell Daily Sun, January 28, 2008

Companies are finding even more ways to screen job applicants — by checking club discussion boards. Starbucks Corp., the nation’s leading coffee retailer, is under scrutiny after a series of e-mails revealed the company’s anti-union practices. The pinnacle of the events in question came when Starbucks managers read through the discussion boards on Cornell Organization for Labor Action’s website in order to identify job applicants and current employees that were labor activists.

In a series of e-mails uncovered by The Wall Street Journal, Starbucks managers pulled names from the discussion board and then cross-referenced them with an employee database. They found that three employees were members of the University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and active union supporters, and asked executives if they could inform local managers of the workers’ identities.

Daniel Gross, an organizer for the SWU and a former Starbucks barista, testified that Jim McDermott, a Starbucks executive, admitted on the witness stand in a pending NLRB case that he had approved of these activities.

The company has already singled out three graduates of the University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations as union activists — Tomer Malchi ’03, Peter Montalbano, and Sarah Bender. All three worked as baristas and are members of the Starbucks Workers Union, SWU, which is a part of the Industrial Workers of the World.




The SWU has been trying to organize Starbucks baristas since 2004. The movement stems from some workers’ claims that Starbucks does not treat its employees in a fair manner by paying low wages and not providing enough hours to work. These two factors can make it very difficult for someone to support themselves, according to the Starbucks Union website.

Because the content on the discussion board is public information, it is not illegal for managers to read through it. However, some consider it a questionable practice to use the information against current or prospective employees — similar to an employer’s use of a person’s Facebook profile or MySpace account to find information that could be used against them.

FULL story at link.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. just one more reason not to go to Starbucks n/t

[islandmkl]

2. I can't wait to read someone post:

"Well, it's a company, with company rules; employees know that when they take the jobs. If the company wants to protect itself inside of its own rules, that is just the way it is supposed to work. This has nothing to do with an individual's civil rights. It is about company policy. If the employees don't like the policies, they should quit."

we know who you are, where you work, and what you say...we will be talking to you, sooner or later...

[niyad]

3. they would actually have to know which nom de guerre I employ that day.