Tag: Industrial Workers of the World

Starbucks Workers Union Releases Critical Report on Starbucks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sarah Madden, Sarah.starbucksworkersunion@gmail.com

August 12, 2014

Starbucks Workers Union Releases Critical Report on Starbucks

Company Enriches Shareholders While Maintaining Inadequate Working Conditions

NEW YORK, NY – The Industrial Workers of the World, Starbucks Workers Union released a report today, “Low Wages and Grande Profits at Starbucks” with an analysis of company performance over the last decade. The report describes how Starbucks has dramatically improved profitability at the company since the Great Recession of 2008-2009, and that the company has enriched shareholders at the expense of its nearly 200,000 workers.

The report finds that “an analysis of company performance and staffing before and after the Great Recession of 2008-2009 shows that the stores are now staffed at a lower level, workers are working harder, and they are bringing in much more profit for the company. Instead of funding a living wage for workers, the company has transferred almost $4 billion to shareholders in the past few years, equivalent to over $3 per hour for every worker at the company.”

At a time when retail and fast food workers are organizing for higher wages and the right to organize a union, the working conditions at Starbucks remain inadequate for its “partners” to support a family. Despite the company’s reputation for social responsibility, barista wages are often below the $9.00/hour national median wage. Many workers also lack access to affordable health care, with less than half of the workers participating in the company health plan. There is also erratic scheduling and inadequate hours, with many workers assigned only 20-30 hours per week.

The report calls on the company to compensate its workers with a living wage, ensure better store staffing and scheduling, and respect the workers’ rights to organize a union. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has expressed support for a federal minimum wage increase, but he has the ability to raise wages dramatically for workers at the company now.

Former Starbucks workers Sarah Madden states “The wages and hours at Starbucks result in poverty level compensation, and consistent and stable scheduling is important for workers. Companies like Starbucks claim to offer ’flexible scheduling’ as a benefit of employment. This means workers are given 7 to 1 day notice for their work times and hours vary week to week, making it nearly impossible to schedule doctor’s appointments, plan for childcare, get and keep a second job or internship and maintain a budget.”

The report can be found here.

Portland Wobbly Study Circle

A Portland Wobbly Study Circle recently formed as a project of the Education & Outreach Committee. About half a dozen wobblies will soon begin to read and meet a couple of times per month. The first book scheduled, Detroit, I Do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban Revolution, is directly related to the film shown last month about the radical union among African-American autoworkers during the ’70s (Finally Got the News). The study circle will continue in the future with other books on topics of mutual interest chosen by the group. This project is open to any wobbly who wants to drop in, and it aims to be open to equal participation. There is a blog for the meeting schedule and to facilitate further discussion beyond the meetings online at: PDX Wobbly Study Circle.

Radical Movie Night: Finally Got the News

The IWW Portland Branch is hosting a free Radical Movie Night! The night will begin with a brief introduction about the content of the film. Then a viewing of Finally Got The News: a documentary film about the League of Revolutionary Black Workers. It will be followed by a discussion about the film, radical labor, and African-Americans in the Labor Movement.

The film documents workers’ efforts to build an independent Black labor organization that, unlike the UAW (United Auto Workers), will respond to workers’ problems, such as the assembly line speed-up, dangerous working conditions, an extreme lack of opportunity to advance and inadequate wages faced by African American workers in the auto industry.

 

Major Victory for Janus Workers and the Portland IWW!

After four weeks of informational picketing, everyday for 2 hours outside of Janus Youth Programs’ main office at 707 NE Couch St, workers at the Streetlight/Porchlight shelters and at Harry’s Mother finally gained the right to keep their peer review panel. Both Streetlight/Porchlight and Harry’s Mother are non-profit programs serving youth, and both shops are under contract with the Portland Industrial Workers of the World. Janus told workers at both work sites that they would not sign their labor contracts with the peer review panels that they have had for over 10 years — instead trying to pressure workers into accepting binding arbitration at a cost workers and the IWW could not afford.

After four weeks of picketing, workers took a break for week five, a week that a contract negotiations session with management was scheduled. Management tried to get workers to accept a ridiculously long contract of 8 years, with wage re-openers every two years, in exchange for the keeping the peer review panel. Workers instead said they were only willing to go as long as a 6 year contract, with wage re-openers every 2 years and one additional, non-wages article which could be bargained during the wage re-opener.

Janus negotiators were not willing to budge.

At this point, workers suggested that the offer they were making was more than reasonable, and that there were people willing to get back out on the picket line if Janus would not compromise.

Janus’s negotiators took a caucus, and after a long break, returned to the table and agreed to the workers’ terms.

This is a huge victory for workers who have struggled many weeks for the right to keep their peers in a place to oversee any disputed firings — the peer review panel can overrule any firing decisions that Janus makes against its union workers. Janus workers and the IWW would like to thank the members of the community who have supported them in this effort, including Portland’s Jobs with Justice. A victory for one is a victory for all.

Reflections on COINTELPRO: Past and Present

Oregon Jericho and PDX Coalition Opposing Political Repression present:

Reflections on COINTELPRO: Past and Present

  • Saturday March 12th 2011
  • Time: 6:30-8:30pm
  • Portland State University Smith Memorial Building Cascade Room: 236

Event is free, open to the public, and disability affirmative

 

Speakers:

  • Peter Bohmer- Activist scholar and former COINTELPRO target
  • Arthur Miller- Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee /Northwest Regional Organizer
  • Kent Ford- Co-founder of Portland Black Panther Party and father of Political Prisoner Patrice Lumumba Ford

Panelists will explain their personal experiences with the FBI’s
counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO) dating back to the 1960’s.  The full story and implications of COINTELPRO still have yet to be discovered and resolved including the gross reality of contemporary impacts.  Today, in a time of FBI raids and subpoenas, from Minneapolis to Chicago starting in the fall of 2010, more awareness of the countries quickly dwindling and diminishing civil liberties must be understood in historical context.  As civilians deserve redress for the illegal activities of COINTELPRO, hearings must be reopened and amnesty granted for U.S.-held Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War.  All of this and more will be discussed.

 

Co-sponsored by:
Students for Unity, Student Animal Liberation Coalition, Bmedia
Collective, Portland Central America Solidarity Committee, Portland International Socialist Organization, NW Student Coalition, Portland Coalition Opposing Political Repression, Oregon Progressive Party, Cascadia Rising Tide, Portland Animal Defense League, PDX APOC, Portland Industrial Workers of the World

—
“FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW!”

Oregon Jericho
The Jericho Movement for Political Prisoner Amnesty
oregon.jericho[at]gmail[dot]com
oregon-jericho.org
(503)-750-0523
P.O. Box 17420
Portland, Oregon 97217

Janus Picket Week 4: Everyday Til We Get Our Way!

This week’s picket: Monday thru Friday, from 3 to 5pm, at 707 NE Couch.

We’ll be out there again, in front of Janus Youth Programs, to protest Janus’s union busting tactics. They are taking away a time-honored peer review panel which allows for democratic oversight of fired workers. This panel has never cost Janus any money, and has been in place for 10 years, and now they are telling workers at two IWW-represented shops that they won’t sign their labor contracts with these panels in place.

What you can do:

  • Come to the picket and show your solidarity with these frontline workers, whose minimal wage increase is being held hostage until they agree to have this panel taken away from them and replaced with arbitration that could cost up to $1500 per day.
  • Let Dennis Morrow know you support the workers and don’t think they should lose this peer review panel, and be forced to have mandatory arbitration, an unaffordable expensive alternative. Call his assistant and leave a message at: 503-542-4608.

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