How to Make Work Safer with Direct Action: An IWW Story at Starbucks

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=10905

How to Make Work Safer with Direct Action:
An IWW Story at Starbucks
by Daniel Gross
and Joe Tessone

September 08, 2006

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Requests have been routinely made and ignored for the purchase of a stepladder. It is vital for our safety that we have a stepladder available to use for such tasks as changing light bulbs, reaching boxes on high shelves, and cleaning ceiling tiles. Currently, we are forced to balance ourselves on unstable cafe tables to accomplish tasks in hard to reach places. Our store is not ergonomically designed and until it is, the purchase of a stepladder would be a simple solution to a number of safety concerns.

-Excerpted from an IWW Starbucks Workers Union demand letter and declaration of union membership served on management by baristas at a Chicago Starbucks on April 29, 2006

Reckless Disregard for Worker Safety

For years, baristas at the Logan Square Starbucks in Chicago requested a stepladder to make their job safer. Baristas constantly strained muscles and risked serious falls to do their job without one. Workers would hoist themselves up on shelves to reach heavy boxes of coffee beans stacked out of reach. Toilet paper and other supplies were locked in a box suspended near the ceiling in the store's bathroom.

To reach the supplies, workers were forced to balance themselves on the toilet bowl and stand on tiptoes to maneuver the key into the lock and remove the needed bathroom products. Workers did a similar balancing act standing on cafe tables to clean the ceiling and change light bulbs.

In addition to the clear health risks stemming from musculo-skeletal strain and the possibility of serious falls, baristas were downright annoyed and outraged that Starbucks, a 23 billion dollar company and the world's largest coffee chain, refused to purchase a simple stepladder that workers needed. Annoyed but not surprised. After years of insult and injury on safety and many others issues, a group of workers at Logan Square decided to join the IWW Starbucks Workers Union (www.StarbucksUnion.org).

The IWW Brings Solidarity Unionism to Starbucks

The Chicago baristas were struck by gains Wobbly baristas had made in New York City since Starbucks had for years remained impervious to organization by the traditional trade unions. The Industrial Workers of the World was using the solidarity unionism model to make both systemic changes at the company and remedy individual grievances with management. Through direct pressure on Starbucks, the union had won three wage increases, more secure hours, and had successfully addressed a diverse array of issues from religious discrimination to rat infestation.

Solidarity unionism is a term coined by the great labor activist and author, Staughton Lynd, to describe a rank and file organization of workers who fight directly to win demands without resorting to government certification or union bureaucracy. One of the many benefits of the solidarity union approach is its scalability. A solidarity union is simply a group of workers uniting with each other and other workers in the community and (with the internet) around the world, to apply direct pressure around issues of concern at work. Therefore, with some hard work and a willingness to take a stand, baristas anywhere could join the IWW Starbucks Workers Union to fight collectively for a better life on the job and an independent voice in society.

Chicago Baristas Go Union

The night of Tuesday, April 29, 2006, baristas at the Logan Square Starbucks in Chicago demonstrated the scalability of solidarity unionism by becoming the first workers outside of New York City to declare their membership in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union.

FULL story at link above.