Starbucks workers add shot of unionizing

[bperci108]

Starbucks workers add shot of unionizing - Historic local group works with baristas

By Ron Grossman - Chicago Tribune, September 4, 2006.

{from : http://www.iww.org/en/node/2835 }



In the city of its birth, and 101 years later, the Industrial Workers of the World is still trying to strike a blow for the working class...

...The match of cheery Starbucks baristas and one of the nation's oldest fire-breathing labor organizations may seem curious. Certainly a century ago, when the union held its inaugural meeting on June 27, 1905, no one could imagine that the nation's economy would be dominated by McDonald's, Home Depot and other giant chains.

But a line of continuity joins the vision of the original "Wobblies," as they were known to friend and foe, and their latter-day disciples in Logan Square. The IWW set out to organize the unorganized--low-paid, often itinerant workers in the mines, mills and lumber camps that were the backbone of the nation's economy....


...Currently, a war of words is being fought on bulletin boards and over the counters of the Logan Square Starbucks. Morin said management has posted memos warning employees that the IWW is a radical organization, outside the mainstream of the union movement.

Morin said she and Tessone devised a counterattack. At Starbucks, employees are known as "partners."

"But we've started greeting each other as `fellow worker,'" said Morin, 21...


...Tessone said he was inspired to join that parade by the IWW's spirit of self-help. A friend in Joliet, where he grew up, introduced him to the organization, which also is working with Starbucks workers in New York City. Tessone was impressed by its grass-roots flavor--and price. Dues were $6 a month...

...The IWW was formed not only to take on the factory owners, but as a challenge to the more conventional union tactics, said Clancy Sigal, a Hollywood screenwriter. Sigal recently published "A Woman of Uncertain Character," a memoir of growing up in Chicago in an Old Left household.

"The older union leaders said they wanted a bigger slice of the pie for their members," Sigal said. "The Wobblies said we want to bake a new pie.


More at: http://www.iww.org/en/node/2835