MLK Day March Against Wage Slavery! STARBUCKS!

[Omaha Steve]

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/01/94159.shtml

All Events January 21.

MLK Day March Against Wage Slavery!

"By denying the Union's reasonable request to treat Martin Luther King Day like other federal holidays, Starbucks has once again proven its commitment to diversity rings hollow. While Starbucks claims to 'embrace diversity', the company will not pay its time and half holiday premium to baristas who work through Dr. King's Day.

A hero to many Starbucks baristas and many Americans, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stood courageously both for racial equality and for the dignity of labor- a stand for which he paid with his life. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union reaffirms and will continue to work vigorously in support of our call for the world's largest coffee chain to honor Dr. King's birthday on January 21st by paying baristas the holiday premium."--IWW


11:00am Starbucks Headquarters - 5th Ave & 33rd St
11:45am Wild Edibles - 3rd Ave bet 35th & 36th
2:00pm Union Square
6:30pm Flaum Appetizing - 288 Scholes St (L Train to Montrose)

[water]

1. Using "slavery" here...

...cheapens the real thing.

[Raejeanowl]

2. The Stranglehold Economics Are The Real Issue

Force this issue and add another dollar to the cost of your Starbucks coffee.

How does anyone address all of the state or local government agencies (let's not even get into all of the other private employers large and small touting their "commitment to diversity") that don't pay their employees holiday wages or grant the day off with pay, either?

Starbucks isn't exactly alone, right or wrong, in excluding MLK from their benefited holiday schedule. So how or why does anyone hold them, a private corporation, to a different standard, except that they are high profile, or there's more money to be made?

Are the baristas Union dues perhaps directly scaled to gross wages paid, or would this be a major feather in the membership recruitment cap?

I seriously doubt that Starbucks has any ideological problems with recognizing the holiday, except that paying a wage differential would directly impact the cost of doing business and result in a price increase of the product to the consumer, which I assume anyone protesting implicitly endorses?

[Omaha Steve]

3. Starbucks has no union stores

It has IWW members that want to form their work place into a union shop. Starbucks has settled out of court a couple of times on labor charges. A case is in progress now in NY. Starbucks likes to say they are squeaky clean. They are not. The employees that get medical benefits is a lower % than Walmart. After public outcry they still us Cintas for their laundry service. And how much would a cup of coffee go up for a holiday on a check? Next do we ask for a discount because you don't want to pay for a day like Christmas? There is more to Starbucks than this small article goes into.

OS

[Raejeanowl]

4. Thanks For The Info

It's worth keeping an eye on. I'll tell you, I do hear very different information about the medical benefits specifically and general desirability as an employer, from the kids of our acquaintance and the job-seeking websites, so keep the grain of salt in play.

[Omaha Steve]

5. So far the Labor Forum is for polite conversation

We aren't on the troll list yet. We don't have enough posts.