Massive Labor Board Complaint Implicates Top Managers at Starbucks

November 25, 2005

New York, NY- The National Labor Relations Board has
charged 15 Starbucks officials with an extensive array
of anti-union acts including the discharge of two
baristas for organizing activity. The multi-count
complaint, detailing unlawful activity at three
Starbucks stores, comes after an independent
investigation of the world's largest coffee chain
triggered by charges from the IWW Starbucks Workers
Union.

The NLRB complaint alleges that Starbucks fired union
member Sarah Bender to discourage employees from
engaging in protected union activity. The complaint
further alleges that the company surveilled,
interrogated, and discriminated against union member
Charles "Anthony" Polanco. Then Starbucks, contrary to
past practice and policy, refused to allow Mr. Polanco
to revoke his stress-induced resignation before it
became effective.

"Yes, the 'happiest company on Earth' dismisses people
for exercising their right to form a union," remarked
Sarah Bender. "I'm now just looking forward to getting
my job back to continue the organizing drive."

In one of Starbucks' more absurd violations detailed
in the complaint, Julian Warner, the store manager at
9th St. and 2nd Ave. in Manhattan, issued a negative
performance evaluation to Laura De Anda under the
category of "Ethics and Integrity" explicitly because
of her union membership. Another 9th and 2nd worker,
Pete Montalbano, was surveilled and sent home for
supporting the Union. In a sign of how much Starbucks
wants to avoid an organized workforce, the company was
so scared of workers wearing IWW pins that it
implemented an unlawful no-pin policy and forced union
workers to take off their pins.

"The sheer breadth of Starbucks' anti-union activities
is remarkable," said Stuart Lichten, the Union's
attorney from the labor law firm Schwartz Lichten and
Bright. "The company has simply been breaking the law
with impunity."

In upper management, the complaint names four district
managers, one regional director, and even Starbucks
Senior Vice President Martin Annesse. The Starbucks
Workers Union has called on the company to fire all
managers found to have violated the law. Trial on the
charges is set for February.

"It's interesting that all of this lawlessness took
place while Starbucks was acting under the close
guidance of its chief 'union avoidance' lawyers,
Daniel Nash and Gregory Knopp, of the corporate firm
Akin Gump," said Daniel Gross, an IWW organizer and
Starbucks barista. "To me, the NLRB complaint
illustrates the ugliness of anti-union lawyering. I
guess you can't expect too much from a firm with a
partner who serves on Wal-Mart's board of directors.
Starbucks needs to sever ties with Akin Gump now and
put the money it saves into workers' pockets instead
of its effort to break the workers' union."

The IWW Starbucks Workers Union continues to grow and
fight for a better life on the job. Last Friday,
workers at a third U.S. Starbucks store went union,
demanding 30 guaranteed hours of work per week and an
immediate cessation of the anti-union campaign.