primitive discusses Starbucks

[franksolich]

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5681902

Oh my.

I was under the impression the primitives liked Starbucks.

Anyway, the orange marmalade primitive:

marmar  (1000+ posts)        Tue May-19-09 07:37 AM
Original message
 
Coming Soon: The Truth About Starbucks

A new campaign exposing Starbucks' history of terminating, harassing, intimidating, and discriminating against employees attempting to unionize.

Watch: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/workplace/140086/coming_s... /

Put down that grande non-fat caramel macchiato or whatever Starbucks concoction you're drinking. Turns out the coffee giant has a history of being anti-barista, anti-union, and thus anti-Employee Free Choice Act.

In fact, Starbucks' nasty labor practices make the company look an awful lot like Wal-Mart. The National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly found Starbucks guilty of illegally terminating, harassing, intimidating, and discriminating against employees attempting to unionize. Starbucks has settled five labor disputes in the last few years in New York, Minnesota, and Michigan, spending millions on legal fees to avoid exposing their anti-worker ways. And Starbucks has led the charge on a so-called Employee Free Choice Act "compromise," which would require 70 percent of workers to sign union authorization cards instead of the much more manageable 50 percent initially proposed by this legislation.

We've known for a while where Starbucks billionaire CEO Howard Schultz stands on unions. After all, it was Schultz who once said that if workers "had faith in me and my motives, they wouldn’t need a union." While Starbucks pretends to be pro-barista, claiming to offer workers decent wages and health insurance, these "progressive" policies are less substantive than the company's frothy milk-based beverages. The reality is, as Liza Featherstone has noted, Starbucks insures a lower percentage of its workers than Wal-Mart.

Less than 42 percent of Starbucks' 127,000 baristas in the U.S. are insured by the company, whereas Wal-Mart insures 47 percent of its employees. To make matters worse, Starbucks offers its workers wages similar to those earned by Wal-Mart employees, and Starbucks does not guarantee workers set hours. Instead, the company follows an Optimal Scheduling policy that requires baristas to make themselves available 70 percent of open store hours just to work full time in any given week. This means that low-wage earning baristas do not have time to take a second job. Moreover, it precludes tens of thousands of Starbucks employees from working the 240 hours per quarter needed to qualify for the company's health insurance.

Brave New Films is gearing up to take on Starbucks with the same tenacity used in the fight against Wal-Mart. Tomorrow, BNF will spill the beans about Starbucks' labor practices with the first video in its newest campaign, Stop Starbucks. In the meantime, sign the memo to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz insisting he allow workers to unionize.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/workplace/140086/coming_s... /

I can hardly wait for the expose of Ben & Jerry's, another primitive favorite.

[jtyangel]

Yawn. It's an unskilled job. I'm tired of unskilled laborers bitching and whining about pay and such when most at that pay rate have the opportunity via grants and such to change their circumstances--when did everyone else have to 'raise up' someone so hell bent on a mediocre lifestyel for themselves? Why does everyone else have to give a damn for someone who CHOSE this(not always, I know, but many do via their lifestyle choices)? Last I checked, we don't live under a caste system like India and people are not doomed to a life of a mediocre--they can choose, and oftentimes with a crapload of assistance, to improve their own condition.

 I'd also be curious how many baristas are still on their parents' health insurance. Isn't that up to age 25 now? And the majority I've seen in those positions look to be at most in their late 20's. I really wish the figures that are always shown for these things would tell the truth about the percentage who do not have health insurance. While some may validly not be able to afford the premium and do not have insurance at all, I'm sure a fair majority are covered under some kind of other health coverage or just opt out because they'd rather have the extra cash and are young and figure they don't need it(I don't consider the latter who is uninsured to be 'in need' since that is a choice to not purchase the insurance). I'm tired of the US being the land of 'make whole the mess I've made of my own life' or 'distort and use facts and figures to misrepresent the actual working situation or conditions' or 'pay for my necessities of life so that I can have more disposable income' .

[Doc Savage]

It does not take a 15 dollar an hour employee to make a venti cappaccino.  These primitives are the same ones that compain about the cost of a plumber coming to the house.  can't have it both ways

[ReardenSteel]

Brave New Films is gearing up to take on Starbucks with the same tenacity used in the fight against Wal-Mart.

Talk about a coffee spewing sentence. (now I have to go back to Starbucks) Seriously, that has to be the least threatening sentence I've read on DU since "Bush belongs in The Hague!". Watch out Mr. President, or feel the wrath of the Netherlanders! lol

[Celtic Rose]

Yawn. It's an unskilled job. I'm tired of unskilled laborers bitching and whining about pay and such when most at that pay rate have the opportunity via grants and such to change their circumstances--when did everyone else have to 'raise up' someone so hell bent on a mediocre lifestyel for themselves? Why does everyone else have to give a damn for someone who CHOSE this(not always, I know, but many do via their lifestyle choices)? Last I checked, we don't live under a caste system like India and people are not doomed to a life of a mediocre--they can choose, and oftentimes with a crapload of assistance, to improve their own condition.

 I'd also be curious how many baristas are still on their parents' health insurance. Isn't that up to age 25 now? And the majority I've seen in those positions look to be at most in their late 20's. I really wish the figures that are always shown for these things would tell the truth about the percentage who do not have health insurance. While some may validly not be able to afford the premium and do not have insurance at all, I'm sure a fair majority are covered under some kind of other health coverage or just opt out because they'd rather have the extra cash and are young and figure they don't need it(I don't consider the latter who is uninsured to be 'in need' since that is a choice to not purchase the insurance). I'm tired of the US being the land of 'make whole the mess I've made of my own life' or 'distort and use facts and figures to misrepresent the actual working situation or conditions' or 'pay for my necessities of life so that I can have more disposable income' .

Very true.  Kids are covered under their parents' insurance as long as they are full time students until they are 25.  I would also like to see the numbers of how many employees are not students, and are not covered by their parents' insurance.  Starbucks is what I consider a starter jobs.  Good for people just starting out in the working world, but not a career I would expect someone to be making a lifelong career out of.  I just took a look at their website, and they say that they individualize benefits packages for each employee.  Probably very good business practice not to offer insurance to employees who are already insured, but I'm sure that those who need insurance could request it when they were hired. 

This is the United States, nobody is forced to take any job, or to stay at a job that they don't want to. 

[Lord Undies]

The Little Goons have a Norma Rae fantasy that all employees long to be in a union.  They are flat wrong about that.  Unions are dying because the workers shun them.  I and a lot of other intelligent folks applaud companies who fight the unions away for the general welfare of their employees.  Today's unions are nothing short of legal organized crime organizations.

Generally, people aren't near as stupid as the Little Goons, or as stupid as the Little Goons need them to be in order to validate and perpetrate the Little Goon Worldview.

[USA4ME]

Starbucks is in business because they built a name and you know that no matter where you go you'll get the same product flavor, just like you would at McDonald's or Burger King.  Unionize those businesses and the additional overhead will inflate the prices beyond what a significant portion of their current customer base are willing to pay.  An increase in payroll and related expenses coupled with even a small drop in customers due to prices increases is all it takes to get the ball rolling to seeing the out-of-business signs.  Which may be their goal, I'm not putting that past them, they are anti-capitalists.

.

[RobJohnson]

With thousands of Starbucks closing right now, it might not be a good idea to try and demand higher wages.

If the Starbucks employees does a good job, they will earn tips. The job does not look that hard, but they do get busy at times, & you have to be able to work under pressure.  All this while you continue to smile. Something I'm sure most DUmmies could not do.

[GOBUCKS]

This anti-Starbucks campaign will go nowhere. DUmmy outrage depends entirely upon ownership of the gored ox. Judging from all the sissyboys and Macbook-toting misfits I see through the window when passing a Starbucks, the vast majority of their clientele are of a DUmmy bent.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

It's just a cup of @#$%in' coffee, people...and not even good coffee at that.

[thundley4]

It's just a cup of @#$%in' coffee, people...and not even good coffee at that.

I've never had any coffee from Starbucks, nor from any other "boutique type" of coffee place.

[Lord Undies]

I've never had any coffee from Starbucks, nor from any other "boutique type" of coffee place.

Are you bragging, complaining, or admitting you are socially awkward?  I'm not getting a clear picture.

[BannedFromDU]

It's just a cup of @#$%in' coffee, people...and not even good coffee at that.

     When I ask someone what they do, and they say "I'm a barista," I feel like saying, "Oh, you're a coffee monkey. Got it."

     

[AprilRazz]

It's just a cup of @#$%in' coffee, people...and not even good coffee at that.

I can burn my own coffee. I don't need to spend $4 for the privilege of someone doing it for me. Besides Boca Java has better coffee and they support the military.

[jtyangel]

I can burn my own coffee. I don't need to spend $4 for the privilege of someone doing it for me. Besides Boca Java has better coffee and they support the military.

It's only 4 bucks if you get the super fattening speciality drinks. A cup of coffee at Starbucks--I mean regular coffee is just a little more then Tim Horton's or McDonald's in this area actually. I used to share this notion they were ridiculously expensive when all I bought was the speciality drink...one day I realized I could just order a cup of coffee and voila. lol

And the notion that it's filled with a bunch of liberals really has changed since they started inserting them in ever store imaginable from Kroger's to Target to Barnes and Noble. Anymore your just as likely to see a stay at home mother in a more conservative area of Ohio in one after grocery shopping as an I Mac toting sissy boy. I have no love for Starbucks...they aren't my favorite coffee place by a longshot, but they have been undergoing some changes in recent years as they've had to downsize and scrap some of their expansion plans that were a joke in the first place.

[thundley4]

Are you bragging, complaining, or admitting you are socially awkward?  I'm not getting a clear picture.

I just can't seeing their inflated prices just to have a cup with their logo on it.

[Lord Undies]

I just can't seeing their inflated prices just to have a cup with their logo on it.

I see.  So it's a combination of the three.   

[thundley4]

I see.  So it's a combination of the three.   

Yep. Much the same as I don't wear T-Shirts advertising any company, but I do have a couple of Cubs shirts and caps.

[RobJohnson]

Yep. Much the same as I don't wear T-Shirts advertising any company, but I do have a couple of Cubs shirts and caps.

The Cubs need any help they can get. 

[JohnnyReb]

Are you bragging, complaining, or admitting you are socially awkward?  I'm not getting a clear picture.

socially awkward? ???? I'll have to tell the fellows at Joey's gas station that they're socially awkward?

Joey's gas station opens at 5 am and has 69 cent all you can drink coffee and it ain't bad as long as you don't slip up and get that funky cream with the vanilla extract or whatever it is in it.