Baristas at Minneapolis Starbucks unionize (1st union shop in USA)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal

Baristas working for a Starbucks in Minneapolis have voted to unionize.

Employees at the location joined the Starbucks Workers Union, which is affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World Union. The union said in a release that the store is the second in Minnesota and the first in Minneapolis to unionize.

The union also announced that baristas walked off the job Wednesday to petition management for a security guard at the location.

The unionized store is in a neighborhood that has seen significant criminal activity, the union said, including several robberies at knifepoint of nearby stores. Starbucks workers and customers had signed a petition for management to get a security guard for worker and customer safety.

Read more: http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2008/11/10/daily20.html

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Also see Baristas Present 500 Petition Signatures Demanding Improved Security at a Minneapolis Starbucks

http://www.starbucksunion.org/

Submitted by SWU on Wed, 11/12/2008 - 5:44pm.

Workers, Customers, and Community Members Concerned About Threats and Harassment at the Location

November 12, 2008

Minneapolis, MN- Baristas at a Starbucks coffee shop in Minneapolis walked off the floor Wednesday morning to present a petition to management, signed by more than 500 concerned customers and community members, demanding Starbucks hire a security guard to ensure the safety of its patrons and partners. Today's action marks the expansion of activity by the IWW Starbucks Workers Union to a second store in the Twin Cities after baristas at the Mall of the America started taking action for improved working conditions over the summer.

Store partners circulated an internal petition, compiling signatures from most of the store's employees, requesting a meeting to discuss the security situation. After receiving no productive response from either the store or district manager, the employees turned to the customers to prove their point.

"We hoped management would recognize the need to discuss these concerns with us, but when they refused to even hold a meeting, we knew more action was needed," said Aaron Kocher, a current store employee. "We can't work when we are constantly being harassed, threatened, and intimidated, or trying to protect our customers from the same mistreatment," he said.

Nancy Athanasselis, a regular customer known to everyone at the store,
was gratified to see someone finally doing something about the problem.

FULL story at link.

[ogneopasno]

1. Congrats! Now comes the hard part: bargaining.

[fed_up_mother]

7. This is a tough one. People don't need to buy $4.00 lattes

If the union demands too much, the coffee shops will close. It's not like unionizing teachers, nurses, police officers, large manufacturers, etc. You can only charge so much for a cup of coffee. That kind of job is inherently low paying for a reason. With labor being the highest cost, they can price themselves right out of business.

I don't mean to be taking up for Starbucks, but economics are economics. (WhenI do drink coffee out, I go to a locally owned shop.)

[bread_and_roses]

13. That arguement - or variant - is made every time workers anywhere try to unonize

Meanwhile, US workers have not seen a real raise in around 30 years. Workers can either keep swallowing that arguement or keep organizing - because it doesn't make sense to shut a shop to bust the union if the one down the road votes union too.

Bravo for the Starbucks workers! They are putting themselves out in the vanguard for everyone.

[fed_up_mother]

14. Yeah, well, even a stopped clock is right every twice a day

Coffee shops over here are already hurting. In a bad economy, that latte is the first to go.

I strongly support unions in other areas, but unionizing coffee shops is stupid. A few years ago, we hardly had any coffee shops, and they can disappear again when the labor costs get to be too much for the product sold - flavored water. :(

We expect living wages and healthcare for somebody making flavored water? It's not going to happen. They will get priced right out of the market.

(This is another reason why we need single payer healthcare...)

[Omaha Steve]

15. HUH?

Why would Starbucks have to raise prices because the employees have a union? They must charge Americans more to pay the union workers in Asia, Europe, South America, etc... There are thousands of McDonald's around the globe that have union workers too. It is a known fact. Feel free to look it up. Start with the Labor Forum here on the DU. You will find that unionized Starbucks workers around the world protested when an American was fired for organizing.

What was your point again? Oh ya. Water. It seems your opinion doesn't hold enough water to make any coffee.

OS

[fed_up_mother]

16. My point is that in our present economy we may not have any coffee shops left

if coffee shops were unionized and demanded more pay and benefits. How much will you pay for a cup of flavored water?

[Omaha Steve]

17. Why do you feel the price of a cup of coffee will go up?

IF union workers at Starbucks around the world (we are all in this recession) can earn a living wage and benefits, why can't American workers do it too? But you are right we do need universal health. We do compete against ALL the other industrialized nations on health care.

Starbucks has a history of labor tactics against it's workers. All public record. It says it is a blue (progressive) company, but has refused to end it's contract with Cintas. Long story there too.

Thank you for the polite conversation.

[Selatius]

18. Hey, you take whatever you can get. Service sector unions are the future.

Because all the manufacturing jobs have been sent overseas by the bosses who run this country.

[ogneopasno]

19. You think that when prices go up it goes toward pay and benefits? Then how come clothes made

in China aren't any cheaper than when they were made here?

[fed_up_mother]

20. Because they have a larger profit margin on those clothes

The profit margin in coffee isn't as much as you think it is. Around here, most coffee shops have fairly prime real estate locations to draw in the customers. Rent and labor really eats into the profits - that's why so many privately owned shops can't make it.

And by the way, I'm in my fifties. Kids clothes, for instance, are cheaper now than they were twenty-five years ago considering the cost of living. Much cheaper. All of my friends who are now buying clothes for grandkids say the same thing. I remember paying five dollars for basic little shirts at Target years ago. Those same type shirts are still just five or six dollars! (The fabric is pretty crappy, though. :( )

[Buenaventura]

9. No - the hard part is organizing. Wobblies know

that bargaining only leads to compromise. Why compromise when "every wheel in the creation, every mine and every mill, fleets and armies of all nations will at our command STAND STILL." Solidarity!

[kestrel91316]

2. Expect Starbucks to promptly CLOSE the unionized store, claiming

it's not profitable enough to keep open.

[Mithreal]

5. Let em. My wife and I drink Starbucks and buy their grocery store product as well

but if they close that store, I vow to spend my money elsewhere. Not hard to do considering all the other coffee shops in the Seattle area. Let's see them do it. If they do, I will pick up the phone and tell Starbucks why I will grassroots campaign against them.

[Razoor]

6. they probably will

I am sure they will close it down due to "claims" of losing profits. I hate companies who claim they are pro-associate and not anti union and then when a store starts a union they close it down.
so basically lying

[pscot]

3. Does this mean they are no longer

Howard's "partners"?

[Mithreal]

4. Woot! Good on them and good for us all! nt

[Kalifornia.Kid]

8. Expect this store to close for a new location within a super-market.

[shadowknows69]

10. Good for them but it may be a moot point

The franchise will probably just close the shop. SB's is hurting in a big way.

[fascisthunter]

11. Power to the Average American Worker

If executives, CEO's and their Board of Directors took a pay cut, I'm positive their companies would not have to lay so many off.

[OhioChick]

12. Good for them.

K&R