Fort Worth workers join effort to unionize Starbucks

[Omaha Steve]

Sorry I missed this story from last month.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/industries/retail/stories/DN-starbucks_19bus.ART.State.Edition1.2a44772.html

12:00 AM CST on Saturday, December 19, 2009
By KAREN ROBINSON-JACOBS / The Dallas Morning News
[e-mail]

Workers at a Fort Worth Starbucks said Friday they have joined an effort launched in 2004 to unionize the nation's largest coffee company.

The workers, who blocked the drive-through lane early Friday at the Starbucks at 1608 W. Rosedale St., said Fort Worth is the sixth U.S. city – and the first in Texas – with an outlet where workers have affiliated with the fledgling Starbucks Workers' Union.

The organizing campaign is being aided by the Industrial Workers of the World, said Michelle Cahill, a Starbucks barista who participated in the protest. The Cincinnati-based IWW traces its roots to a 1905 organizing effort.

Among the groups' demands are better and less expensive health care coverage, increased wages and first-aid kits for the stores, Cahill said. To protect the local workers, she declined to say how many back the organizing effort. Starbucks spokeswoman Stacey Krum said the workers' actions are in response to specific circumstances at the Fort Worth location and are not an indication of broader employee unrest.

FULL story at link.

[Omaha Steve]

1. Kick

[Union Yes]

2. Solidarity knr. nt