E-mail Action: Pregnant Barista Facing Discrimination and Imminent Termination

Submitted by SWU on Thu, 05/24/2007 - 1:24am.

Starbucks barista Christina Rosevear and her 19 month-old daughter need your help now. Christina recently learned that she was pregnant with her second child and she promptly informed the store manager at the Northern California Starbucks where she works. Instead of being considerate of Christina's pregnancy, Starbucks began to discriminate against her.

Christina developed severe morning sickness and needed to take the occasional day off. On several occasions after she took a day off, she'd find that her work hours would be cut the following week depriving her of much needed income. Sometimes she'd receive as little as four hours of work per week! As a single mom and a low-wage worker, Christina can't afford such a dramatic pay cut. Things only got worse and now Christina is facing the prospect of an unjust termination.

Christina's doctor ordered her to take time off work to deal with a pregnancy-related back ailment that may be connected to heavy lifting at Starbucks. When Christina was ready to come back to work, the store manager warned that he might fire her for being away from the job. Christina has a meeting coming up with the manager and it's critical that Starbucks hear from people of conscience now that discriminating against someone for a pregnancy or illness is wrong.

Instead of being brushed under the rug like so many retail workers are everyday, Christina has chosen to fight back and has joined the Starbucks Workers Union [StarbucksUnion.org]. In her own words, "I need some help because I refuse to let a big corporation like Starbucks push me around."

Please lend a hand and stand by Christina as she fights this abuse from Starbucks: Take a moment to participate in this e-mail action demanding that Starbucks not fire Christina and immediately cease discriminating against her.

Thank you for your solidarity and please contact Dean Dempsey of the Bay Area IWW to get further involved in the continuing defense effort at dean [at] iww.org.


http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/1643


http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/1641