About the Madison IWW
About the IWW
About Madison
Press Release on Starbucks Action
Submitted by madwobs on Mon, 2006-05-15 18:10.
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For Immediate Release:
Mon. May 15th, 2006
Contact:
Madison Branch, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) #608-262-9036
Starbucks Baristas Union (IWW I.U. 660) #646-753-1167
www.starbucksunion.org
No More Sweatshop Java! -
Consumers, Workers, Farmers Target Starbucks for Union Busting, Biotech
Milk, and Foul Trade Practices
Informational Picket and Sweatshop Java Dump
Wed. May 17th 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Starbucks District Office – 661 State St. in Madison
To mark the second anniversary of the barista union drive underway in
New York City, consumers, workers, farmers, and others fed up with
Starbuck’s hypocrisy will be holding an informational picket and
sweatshop java dump outside the coffee giant’s district office in
Madison (661 State St.) from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm on Wed. May 17th. Free
samples of 100% fair trade coffee, roasted and brewed by unionized
Madison coffee workers, and served with 100% rBGH-free milk from WI
farmers will also be distributed.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal on March 21, 2006, the National
Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found Starbucks guilty of numerous labor
violations in its efforts to bust the IWW-led barista organizing drive.
The union already has a presence in eight NYC Starbucks outlets with
interest building in other U.S. cities. Of its 80,000+ employees
worldwide, only about 300 Starbucks workers currently enjoy union
rights. A hundred of these unionized baristas are in New Zealand, where
Starbucks workers went out on strike back in Jan. 2006 to demand better
wages.
“Starbucks has become the Wal-Mart of the coffee chain world,” said John
Peck, a barista at Two Degrees Coffeeshop (IWW I.U. 660) and member of
the newly formed Madison Downtown Workers Union. “Despite all the hype
about how well they treat their workers, the reality is that only one
out of five of Starbucks employees is fulltime and less than half get
any healthcare benefits. Because they can’t get enough hours or
benefits, and aren’t paid a living wage, many baristas end up on
Medicaid and food stamps. Worse yet, Starbucks has made a joke out of
corporate social responsibility by using prison labor and offering only
token fair trade coffee options to its customers.”
Most recently, Starbucks has also come under fire from consumer
advocates and family farm groups for its refusal to provide rBGH-free
dairy products. Back in 2001 Starbucks had pledged to provide rBGH-free
milk, but today it is still difficult to get a latte free of genetically
engineered ingredients at Starbucks. One would expect more from the
supposed leader in gourmet coffee.
For more information on the Starbucks rBGH Free Campaign, contact:
Food & Water Watch #202-797-6555 www.foodandwaterwatch.org
Thanks to all those who joined the Starbucks action!
Wanted to give everyone an update on the Starbucks action in downtown Madison! We had about 20 folks show up to picket over the course of two hours between 11:00 am and 1:00 am (ideal for lunch rush hour traffic), including many local Wobblies, other activists with the Student Labor Action Coalition (SLAC), the Madison Fair Trade Action Alliance (MadFTAA) and the Madison Downtown Workers Union (MDWU), along with four highschoolers, some younger homeschoolers with their parents, as well as a few animal rights, buy local, and consumer advocates concerned about genetic engineering and downtown gentrification. Even our newly elected Green Party county board supervisor, Ashok Kumar, stopped by for awhile to lend a hand passing out info! Some of us made periodic forays over the two hours to other coffeeshops up and down the State St. corridor, and many baristas had already heard about our picket and were quite supportive.
We had four press pots of fair trade coffee, plus organic Wisconsin milk, courtesy of Two Degrees Coffeeshop and Just Coffee (both IWW jobshops and worker collectives) on tap to give out to passerbys and we distributed about 200 of the NYC StarBux trifolds, about 100 anti rBGH postcards and factsheets targetting Starbucks that we got from our friends at Food & Water Watch, as well as other IWW/MDWU literature. We had a large inflatable Munch "Scream" bearing the sign "Oh My, There's Blood in My Latte!" as well as a pile of money bags with a sign saying "Property of Howard Schultz, Chair of Starbucks, if found please do NOT return to exploited baristas, exploited coffee farmers, or exploited consumers." Both of these props got lots of attention.
The Starbucks manager came out and tried to have a rather pathetic "debate" with us about how much they supported fair trade standards, but when we asked her about the prison labor being used to bag Starbucks coffee, she left and called the police instead. The police eventually rolled by but had nothing to find of concern and also left. We then had a city vending officer come by, but since we were not selling the coffee - just giving it away - we didn't need a license and he left, too. The only folks who didn't show up were the media (bummer!), but we did educate a lot of fellow workers and those who participated were psyched to do another zap action at the Starbucks on the Capitol Square during the Saturday's Farmers Market in a couple of weeks.