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Dan Clore
 
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Default Starbucks Obstructing First Union Vote

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Starbucks Obstructing First US Union Vote
posted by IU/660 on Tuesday June 01 2004 @ 11:44AM PDT
June 1, 2004
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Starbucks Obstructing First US Union Vote

Workers to Schultz: What are you so scared of?

New York, NY--The Starbucks Baristas Union and community
members across the country have condemned repeated attempts
by the company to deny workers a fair vote on the Union.
While paying lip-service to respecting the choice of
employees, Starbucks has deployed a variety of crude tactics
in an effort to defeat the IWW IU/660, which would be the
first union certified in the United States at the mammoth chain.

Supporters around the country and internationally are
contacting Starbucks demanding they live up to their
rhetoric. If Starbucks really is a bastion of worker
benefits, what is Chairman Howard Schultz, who raked in over
$17 million last year, so scared of? The truth is Starbucks,
with its poverty wages and rampant repetitive-stress
dangers, resembles a sweatshop more than it does a decent
place to work.

The IWW released today the text they obtained of a voice
mail Howard Schultz sent to employees around the company
regarding the Union which Schultz calls, "very disappointing
and disturbing."

"What we have here is classic union busting plain and
simple," said Benjamin Ferguson, an IWW member working on
the campaign. "They are using the same down and dirty tricks
we see time and time again from highly successful
corporations unwilling to give their workers a fair shake."

One the legal front, Starbucks has hired corporate law firm
Akin Gump to argue that the workers in the store aren't
entitled to a vote. Mr. Shultz is fond of saying the
Starbucks Mission Statement requires respect and dignity for
employees but apparently that does not include exercising
the right to form a union. The IWW will face off with
Starbucks on June 2 at a formal hearing at the National
Labor Relations Board.

"Single stores within retail chains have long been presumed
appropriate bargaining units," said Stuart Lichten of
Kennedy, Schwartz, and Cure, the firm representing the
Union. "We are confident we will prevail on the merits."

The company is also using scare tactics to intimidate
workers. Management has been interrogating certain workers
about the union while spreading misinformation about
joining. At the same time, senior executives are in and out
of the store constantly making sure workers feel the heat.

Starbucks earned a record $268 million last year on revenues
of more than $4 billion. The company admits that Baristas
add tremendous value to the enterprise yet refuses to pay
them a wage that would bring them out of poverty.

Starbucks workers in New York City announced last month that
they had formed a union with the IWW IU/660. The IWW is a
union for all workers, dedicated to organizing on the job
and in the community. IU/660 represents retail workers.

###

Text of Voicemail Sent by Howard Schultz, Wednesday 5/19

Hello partners, this is Howard Schultz with a message for
all of you. I wanted to take a moment and reach out to you
regarding information that the company recently received. A
local union in New York claims that some of our partners at
the 36th and Madison location in New York City have
expressed an interest in being represented by them.

While I recognize that this is related to only one store,
this news is very disappointing and disturbing. Over the
last 25 years, we have worked together to build a great
company based on our core values and as a result have built
great trust in one another. We always strive to live by our
mission statement and guiding principles. And when we wrote
the guiding principles, we very deliberately put creating a
great work environment and treating everyone with dignity
and respect as our highest priority.

Back in the earliest days of Starbucks, we did what others
said could not be done -- together we built a profitable
company while integrating a social conscience into
everything we do. We began offering comprehensive health
care coverage and ownership in the company in the form of
Bean Stock to full- and part-time partners. Those decisions
were landmark events in our company history and our
compassion for one another truly differentiates us. We have
succeeded beyond everyone's wildest expectations. Today, we
employ more than 80,000 partners around the world. And our
commitment to our core values is as strong today as it was
in those very early days of our company.

Because of the way we work together, we receive many
accolades from the outside world for what we do -- we're on
the Fortune 100 Best Places to work list, the Most Admired
Companies list, and much more. That recognition is great,
but what's more important is that we have a caring and
supportive culture. So please, if you ever have any concerns
about our company, reach out to your local leadership, write
to Mission Review, or use any of the many means we have to
discuss and resolve issues and create a comfortable culture
for everyone.

I want to conclude by simply thanking you for everything you
do each day, and for being the real heart and soul of
Starbucks. Thank you.

Related at Infoshop:
http://www.infoshop.org/octo/matrix/index.php/Starbucks

--
Dan Clore

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