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IWW Starbucks Workers Union Update
IWW Starbucks Workers Union Update and Call-In Day
Aug. 1
Posted July 18, 2005
May 24, 2005- Starbucks terminates IWW member Sarah
Bender, a worker at the 17th St. and 1st Ave. store in
Manhattan, for her union activity. Fellow Worker
Bender's termination marks the first time since the
founding of the Starbucks Workers Union over a year
ago that the company has fired a worker purely for
union organizing. Starbucks learned that Sarah was
associated with the Starbucks Workers Union after she
hosted a party attended by Union members. Since then,
the company has arbitrarily disciplined her to build a
phony case for firing her. The pretext for her
termination was that she allegedly came out six
dollars short on her cash register. On the day in
question FW Bender counted the money in her till,
determined she had the correct amount, and placed the
money in a sealed plastic bag. She then deposited the
bag into the store safe. Sarah's store manager, Noura
Glenn, subsequently unsealed the bag and falsely
claimed there was a shortage. Please lend a hand in
the national Call-In Day Against Starbucks on Monday
August 1 to demand Sarah Bender's reinstatement. The
details are at the end of this update.
May 28, 2005- A group of workers at the Starbucks
Store on 9th St. and 2nd Ave. serve their bosses with
a declaration of Union membership! The baristas and
shift supervisors reiterated the demand of the
Starbucks Workers Union for a guaranteed minimum
number of hours scheduled each week. Currently,
workers have no idea how many or how few hours of work
they will receive each week. Without knowing how much
income one will take in every month, paying for life's
necessities becomes all too precarious. 9th and 2nd
workers also joined the Starbucks Workers Union in
demanding Sarah Bender's reinstatement and a cessation
of Starbucks' fierce anti-union campaign. Starbucks
managers instigated the NYPD to write up disorderly
conduct tickets to three Wobblies and a community ally
who were part of a support effort outside the store. A
judge threw out the charges.
June 4, 2005- 60 workers and community members
converged on the 17th and 1st Starbucks to protest the
firing of Sarah Bender. The crowd was energized and
this was just the beginning of the penalty Starbucks
will incur for firing FW Bender. NBC covered the event
with interviews from Sarah Bender and Staten Island
native Pete Montalbano, a Wobbly barista at the 9th
and 2nd store.
June 15, 2005- The NLRB trial on Starbucks' anti-union
threats, bribes, and surveillance scheduled for this
date was postponed by the Board to investigate the
firing of Sarah Bender and discrimination against
Anthony Polanco. The Union objected to the delay
arguing that separate trials could be held as
Starbucks continued to break the law in its attempt to
stop workers from standing together for a better life
on the job.
June 18, 2005- New York Times delivery workers
respected the IWW picket line at the 9th and 2nd
store. Starbucks management became visibly enraged. No
newspapers were delivered that day. Union worker Pete
Montalbano got sent home early for talking union in
front of customers prompting an ad-hoc grievance
committee to confront the boss. The picket was
generally well received by would-be patrons and stores
sales took a definite hit. Leafleting actions are
ongoing with thousands of flyers already handed out to
community members and customers.
June 25, 2005- A contingent of IWW members at
Starbucks in NYC celebrated the 100th anniversary of
the Industrial Workers of the World in Chicago!
Starbucks Workers Union members were so pleased to
learn more about all the profound work taking place
across the One Big Union. We'd like to thank everyone
for the pledges of solidarity to the IWW campaign at
Starbucks and for the generous donations to the Sarah
Bender Defense Fund.
July 6, 2005- Fired Starbucks Wobbly Sarah Bender
begins working at Vox Pop coffee shop in Brooklyn. Vox
Pop is IWW-organized and serves only fair trade
coffee. Sarah's resolve to combat Starbucks and get
her job back is undiminished.
July 17, 2005- 25 unionists and community supporters
converge on Starbucks outlets around the city to talk
to employees about their right to join the Union.
After the flying squads, participants reunited for a
Labor-Community picnic to energize support for Sarah
Bender.
July 17, 2005- Faced with increasing criticism from
the IWW over its relentless anti-union campaign,
Starbucks spends thousands on a full-page ad in the
Sunday New York Times claiming it’s a socially
responsible company.
Recent Media:
Philly Indymedia- "NYC Starbucks Workers vs.
Anti-union Policies"
http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/215
Workers Independent News Service- "Starbucks New York
Worker Says She was Fired for Union Activity"
http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/192
Business Week- "Labor Pains: A Bitter Aroma at
Starbuck's" http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/191
New York Magazine- "A Union Revolution is Brewing at
Starbucks"
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/features/12060/index.html
Action Steps:
CALL-IN DAY TO STARBUCKS NYC DIRECTOR MONDAY AUGUST 1
We must impose a material cost on Starbucks for
finally stooping to the level of firing a worker for
organizing activity.
On Monday August 1, call Starbucks NYC Regional
Director Alex Perez expressing your disgust that he
fired Sarah Bender and demanding she be reinstated:
Phone: 212-613-1280 ext. 2202
Next, Starbucks will not be permitted to derail our
organizing with fear tactics! Therefore, it's critical
to continue to reach out to Starbucks workers
everywhere to let them know about the Starbucks
Workers Union. Materials, including the new 'Worker
Support Team' flyer, are available to help at:
http://www.starbucksunion.org/action/materials/image/posters
Finally, FW Bender is coordinating her own defense and
is in serious need of financial assistance for
campaign expenses. Stand with Sarah as she refuses to
get swept under the rug by Chairman Howard Schultz,
one of America's leading corporate fraudsters. Make a
contribution and/or ask your local union branch to do
the same. The Bay Area IWW General Membership Branch
has kicked things off with a generous contribution.
Checks can be made out to the Starbucks Workers Union
and sent to:
Sarah Bender
260 Irving Ave. #3L
Brooklyn, NY 11237
Campaign updates will continue to be available at:
http://www.starbucksunion.org
Aug. 1
Posted July 18, 2005
May 24, 2005- Starbucks terminates IWW member Sarah
Bender, a worker at the 17th St. and 1st Ave. store in
Manhattan, for her union activity. Fellow Worker
Bender's termination marks the first time since the
founding of the Starbucks Workers Union over a year
ago that the company has fired a worker purely for
union organizing. Starbucks learned that Sarah was
associated with the Starbucks Workers Union after she
hosted a party attended by Union members. Since then,
the company has arbitrarily disciplined her to build a
phony case for firing her. The pretext for her
termination was that she allegedly came out six
dollars short on her cash register. On the day in
question FW Bender counted the money in her till,
determined she had the correct amount, and placed the
money in a sealed plastic bag. She then deposited the
bag into the store safe. Sarah's store manager, Noura
Glenn, subsequently unsealed the bag and falsely
claimed there was a shortage. Please lend a hand in
the national Call-In Day Against Starbucks on Monday
August 1 to demand Sarah Bender's reinstatement. The
details are at the end of this update.
May 28, 2005- A group of workers at the Starbucks
Store on 9th St. and 2nd Ave. serve their bosses with
a declaration of Union membership! The baristas and
shift supervisors reiterated the demand of the
Starbucks Workers Union for a guaranteed minimum
number of hours scheduled each week. Currently,
workers have no idea how many or how few hours of work
they will receive each week. Without knowing how much
income one will take in every month, paying for life's
necessities becomes all too precarious. 9th and 2nd
workers also joined the Starbucks Workers Union in
demanding Sarah Bender's reinstatement and a cessation
of Starbucks' fierce anti-union campaign. Starbucks
managers instigated the NYPD to write up disorderly
conduct tickets to three Wobblies and a community ally
who were part of a support effort outside the store. A
judge threw out the charges.
June 4, 2005- 60 workers and community members
converged on the 17th and 1st Starbucks to protest the
firing of Sarah Bender. The crowd was energized and
this was just the beginning of the penalty Starbucks
will incur for firing FW Bender. NBC covered the event
with interviews from Sarah Bender and Staten Island
native Pete Montalbano, a Wobbly barista at the 9th
and 2nd store.
June 15, 2005- The NLRB trial on Starbucks' anti-union
threats, bribes, and surveillance scheduled for this
date was postponed by the Board to investigate the
firing of Sarah Bender and discrimination against
Anthony Polanco. The Union objected to the delay
arguing that separate trials could be held as
Starbucks continued to break the law in its attempt to
stop workers from standing together for a better life
on the job.
June 18, 2005- New York Times delivery workers
respected the IWW picket line at the 9th and 2nd
store. Starbucks management became visibly enraged. No
newspapers were delivered that day. Union worker Pete
Montalbano got sent home early for talking union in
front of customers prompting an ad-hoc grievance
committee to confront the boss. The picket was
generally well received by would-be patrons and stores
sales took a definite hit. Leafleting actions are
ongoing with thousands of flyers already handed out to
community members and customers.
June 25, 2005- A contingent of IWW members at
Starbucks in NYC celebrated the 100th anniversary of
the Industrial Workers of the World in Chicago!
Starbucks Workers Union members were so pleased to
learn more about all the profound work taking place
across the One Big Union. We'd like to thank everyone
for the pledges of solidarity to the IWW campaign at
Starbucks and for the generous donations to the Sarah
Bender Defense Fund.
July 6, 2005- Fired Starbucks Wobbly Sarah Bender
begins working at Vox Pop coffee shop in Brooklyn. Vox
Pop is IWW-organized and serves only fair trade
coffee. Sarah's resolve to combat Starbucks and get
her job back is undiminished.
July 17, 2005- 25 unionists and community supporters
converge on Starbucks outlets around the city to talk
to employees about their right to join the Union.
After the flying squads, participants reunited for a
Labor-Community picnic to energize support for Sarah
Bender.
July 17, 2005- Faced with increasing criticism from
the IWW over its relentless anti-union campaign,
Starbucks spends thousands on a full-page ad in the
Sunday New York Times claiming it’s a socially
responsible company.
Recent Media:
Philly Indymedia- "NYC Starbucks Workers vs.
Anti-union Policies"
http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/215
Workers Independent News Service- "Starbucks New York
Worker Says She was Fired for Union Activity"
http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/192
Business Week- "Labor Pains: A Bitter Aroma at
Starbuck's" http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/191
New York Magazine- "A Union Revolution is Brewing at
Starbucks"
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/features/12060/index.html
Action Steps:
CALL-IN DAY TO STARBUCKS NYC DIRECTOR MONDAY AUGUST 1
We must impose a material cost on Starbucks for
finally stooping to the level of firing a worker for
organizing activity.
On Monday August 1, call Starbucks NYC Regional
Director Alex Perez expressing your disgust that he
fired Sarah Bender and demanding she be reinstated:
Phone: 212-613-1280 ext. 2202
Next, Starbucks will not be permitted to derail our
organizing with fear tactics! Therefore, it's critical
to continue to reach out to Starbucks workers
everywhere to let them know about the Starbucks
Workers Union. Materials, including the new 'Worker
Support Team' flyer, are available to help at:
http://www.starbucksunion.org/action/materials/image/posters
Finally, FW Bender is coordinating her own defense and
is in serious need of financial assistance for
campaign expenses. Stand with Sarah as she refuses to
get swept under the rug by Chairman Howard Schultz,
one of America's leading corporate fraudsters. Make a
contribution and/or ask your local union branch to do
the same. The Bay Area IWW General Membership Branch
has kicked things off with a generous contribution.
Checks can be made out to the Starbucks Workers Union
and sent to:
Sarah Bender
260 Irving Ave. #3L
Brooklyn, NY 11237
Campaign updates will continue to be available at:
http://www.starbucksunion.org
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
''ANARCHO-SYNDICALISM'' IS ANTI-ANARCHISM !
1. ''Sindicalism'', as it exists in modern Scandinavia, is a secular anti-anarchist religion. As a revisionist negation of anarchist principle; it posits a set of abstract ideas, rethoric and platitudes pretending ''libertarian socialism'' without relating them to the concrete everyday reality of working class people, the unemployed, or other marginalised social groups surviving under the ''social democratic'' LIE. The ''Black Bloc'' is (was?) a fashionable fad that appeals only to middle class youth with a puerile revolt lust. The tragedy of the Scandianvian ''far left'' (sic.) is its propensity for symbolism, religiosity and fashion - the historical trademark of POSEURS.
2. Anarchism purged of ''Syndicalist'' revisionism becomes LIBERTARIAN. Anarchism without ''Syndicalism'' is the fight for personal autonomy and voluntary association AGAINST THE POLITICAL STATE. Anarchists define the political state as the system of law making and enforcement symbolised by the Parliament, the Police and the ''social democratic'' Party-State bureaucracy.
Anarchism is EXTRA-LEFTIST - it fights against the political state independent of any strictures and limits externally imposed by the establishment ''Red'', ''Green'' or ''Blue'' parliamentary political secular religions. While the Anarchist seeks to ABOLISH State Power; the Leftist and its ''Syndicalist'' variable fight to TAKE State power. The ''Syndicalists'' want to become the new state oligarchy. They want their Trade Union State to replace the ''social democratic'' capitalist one.
3.SAC\LS (the putative ''syndicalist'' mileu in Sweden) is a TOY UNION. It has no mass following and no recognition among people who work or among the unemployed or those that the ''social democratic'' LIE keeps in a state of social marginalisation. SAC\LS is a SECT. Its members are for the most part former ''social democrats'' (sic.) who joined SAC\LS as a protest in the late 1990's responding to the official ''social democrat'' (sic.) Party-State turn towards the neo-liberal and xenophobic far right. The ''syndicalist'' mileu in Sweden is at bottom a SOCIAL PROTESTANT formation. SAC\LS bears the same realtionship to the offical ''social democrat'' (sic.) Party-State ; that the Lutheran Church one bore in its day to the Roman Catholic Church. ''Syndicalism'' is to the ''social democrats'' in the Sweden of 2005 what Lutheranism was to the Catholic Church in 1630.
3. ''Syndicalism'' IS NOT Anarchism. As a tendency it split from the Anarchist movement in 1906. In its founding documents ( i.e the 1906 Carter of the French CGT) it clearly states that is is ''not anarchist''. Yet, when it suits for the purposes of ensnaring Libertarian youth into its sectarian clutches the ''syndicalists'' are fond of pretending to be ''anarchist''. When they sense they can milk political benefit from saying they are ''not anarchist'' then they change their tune as it suits.
So which way is it ? ''Anarchist'' or ''not anarchist'' ?
4. The Authentic Anarchist movement aims to extend democracy into the economic and the social by abolishing the political state. The Anarchist concept of democracy is not political representative or limited in an economic reductionist manner to ''workplaces''. The anarchist concept of democracy is POST-POLITICAL, stateless and participatory. Anarchists want to replace the political nation-state and the system of private power it protects with social-economic organisation based on the voluntary association of cooperative groups.
THIS was the vision of Mikhail Bakunin, Emma Goldmann and Enricco Malattesta. Insofar as ''syndicalism'' is a revisionist economic reductionist deviation from anarchism it is a defacto
NEGATION of Anarchist anti-politics.
1. ''Sindicalism'', as it exists in modern Scandinavia, is a secular anti-anarchist religion. As a revisionist negation of anarchist principle; it posits a set of abstract ideas, rethoric and platitudes pretending ''libertarian socialism'' without relating them to the concrete everyday reality of working class people, the unemployed, or other marginalised social groups surviving under the ''social democratic'' LIE. The ''Black Bloc'' is (was?) a fashionable fad that appeals only to middle class youth with a puerile revolt lust. The tragedy of the Scandianvian ''far left'' (sic.) is its propensity for symbolism, religiosity and fashion - the historical trademark of POSEURS.
2. Anarchism purged of ''Syndicalist'' revisionism becomes LIBERTARIAN. Anarchism without ''Syndicalism'' is the fight for personal autonomy and voluntary association AGAINST THE POLITICAL STATE. Anarchists define the political state as the system of law making and enforcement symbolised by the Parliament, the Police and the ''social democratic'' Party-State bureaucracy.
Anarchism is EXTRA-LEFTIST - it fights against the political state independent of any strictures and limits externally imposed by the establishment ''Red'', ''Green'' or ''Blue'' parliamentary political secular religions. While the Anarchist seeks to ABOLISH State Power; the Leftist and its ''Syndicalist'' variable fight to TAKE State power. The ''Syndicalists'' want to become the new state oligarchy. They want their Trade Union State to replace the ''social democratic'' capitalist one.
3.SAC\LS (the putative ''syndicalist'' mileu in Sweden) is a TOY UNION. It has no mass following and no recognition among people who work or among the unemployed or those that the ''social democratic'' LIE keeps in a state of social marginalisation. SAC\LS is a SECT. Its members are for the most part former ''social democrats'' (sic.) who joined SAC\LS as a protest in the late 1990's responding to the official ''social democrat'' (sic.) Party-State turn towards the neo-liberal and xenophobic far right. The ''syndicalist'' mileu in Sweden is at bottom a SOCIAL PROTESTANT formation. SAC\LS bears the same realtionship to the offical ''social democrat'' (sic.) Party-State ; that the Lutheran Church one bore in its day to the Roman Catholic Church. ''Syndicalism'' is to the ''social democrats'' in the Sweden of 2005 what Lutheranism was to the Catholic Church in 1630.
3. ''Syndicalism'' IS NOT Anarchism. As a tendency it split from the Anarchist movement in 1906. In its founding documents ( i.e the 1906 Carter of the French CGT) it clearly states that is is ''not anarchist''. Yet, when it suits for the purposes of ensnaring Libertarian youth into its sectarian clutches the ''syndicalists'' are fond of pretending to be ''anarchist''. When they sense they can milk political benefit from saying they are ''not anarchist'' then they change their tune as it suits.
So which way is it ? ''Anarchist'' or ''not anarchist'' ?
4. The Authentic Anarchist movement aims to extend democracy into the economic and the social by abolishing the political state. The Anarchist concept of democracy is not political representative or limited in an economic reductionist manner to ''workplaces''. The anarchist concept of democracy is POST-POLITICAL, stateless and participatory. Anarchists want to replace the political nation-state and the system of private power it protects with social-economic organisation based on the voluntary association of cooperative groups.
THIS was the vision of Mikhail Bakunin, Emma Goldmann and Enricco Malattesta. Insofar as ''syndicalism'' is a revisionist economic reductionist deviation from anarchism it is a defacto
NEGATION of Anarchist anti-politics.
For more information:
http://www.redsquare2.blogspot.com
The question is really if the union is fighting for injustice or that Sarah is a no good union worker. Just because she is in a "union" does not mean she is a perfect worker. So she could have stolen seom cash, then she should get fired. But OH NO we can not lose a union worker! As a REAL American I work my hours and put in the time needed and I do not have or need anyone to run to if a lay off happens! It is ridiculous that a grown woman can not accept that she is dishonest and if she is innocent then who cares? It is Starbucks. It is sad enough Sarah is still working at a coffee shop at her age. Can you say pathetic? Get a life and start worrying about something important. I hope no one contributes any sort of funding to this fraud.
And learn to think critically. Then come back and make a comment. Your anti-union brainwashing reeks of regurgitated right-wing AM nut radio propaganda. If it weren't for unions, non union's standard of living would be lower. We raise the bar for everyone. The rights that you have, even as a non-union employee were fought hard for by organized labor.
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