Can 'ethical' companies be union-busters?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/08/news/starbucks.php

Can 'ethical' companies be union-busters?

By Daniel Gross
Published: April 8, 2007

NEW YORK: On March 30, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board's New York office delivered a stinging accusation against one of the most popular retail outlets in the United States. The labor board charged that Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee chain, had committed 30 violations of law in trying to ward off union activity at four outlets in the New York borough of Manhattan.

This may be the latest salvo in a new kind of labor battle: union workers versus corporate do-gooders.

The allegations that Starbucks fired employees who were supportive of unionization and threatened to fire others seem to conflict with the culture of a company that wears its conscience on its recyclable coffee-cup sleeves.

"The NLRB's complaint illustrates that this is a company with a profound disrespect for workers' rights," said Daniel Gross (no relation to author), a union organizer who dished out frappuccinos and mocha lattes at Starbucks before being fired last August.

Gross and other union organizers are pushing Starbucks for higher wages and more hours, asserting that the $8.75 an hour that some New York coffee clerks, or baristas, earn is too little. They also want the company to guarantee a minimum of 25 or 30 hours of work a week for many of its employees.

Starbucks strongly denies the charges and says it will fight them in court. But Starbucks has not suffered anything like the fate of Wal-Mart, another national chain known for its opposition to unions. While Wal-Mart has been rebuffed in its efforts to enter the New York City market, Starbucks does not seem in danger of becoming a pariah.

FULL story at link.

[baldguy]

1. No.

[Bluzmann57]

2. "ethical" companies can and do bust Unions

Ethical companies aren't. First hand knowledge.

[mn9driver]

3. Corporations are not human.

The curious entity known as the "Corporation" has no morals, no ethics and no compassion. It does not care about workers or customers. It does not care about environmental damage or any other possible adverse consequence of its actions.

It cares only about money. The curious thing is that the human beings who control these monsters have no personal responsibility for what the corporation does. The "people" don't do the bad things; it's the "corporation". The legal system protects these soulless creations and gives them the same rights as real humans. This legal fiction makes it easier to believe that "corporations" are somehow sentient, willful beings.

Starbucks cannot be ethical, because it isn't alive. The people who control it will look you right in the eye and tell you that they aren't responsible; it's just business in the corporate world. They truly believe that. And the courts will back them up.