Knight Ridder reports that Starbucks Coffee is facing a unionization movement in New York City as the left-leaning Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), better known as “the Wobblies,” has joined with group describing itself as the Starbucks Baristas Union looking for certification from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
The NLRB will decide shortly who will get to vote on unionization – workers at just one ship in lower Manhattan (which is what the organizers want, because they believe they can win there), or workers at 50 lower Manhattan cafes (which is what Starbucks prefers because it believes it can win on the broader canvas).
Only nine Starbucks stores throughout the world are unionized – all of them in Canada.
The NLRB will decide shortly who will get to vote on unionization – workers at just one ship in lower Manhattan (which is what the organizers want, because they believe they can win there), or workers at 50 lower Manhattan cafes (which is what Starbucks prefers because it believes it can win on the broader canvas).
Only nine Starbucks stores throughout the world are unionized – all of them in Canada.
- KC's View:
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Let’s all sing together…
Arise ye prisoners of starvation
Arise ye toilers of the earth
For reason thunders new creation
`Tis a better world in birth.
Never more traditions' chains shall bind us
Arise ye toilers no more in thrall
The earth shall rise on new foundations
We are but naught we shall be all.
(Chorus)
Then comrades, come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale
Unites the human race.
The question is whether a successful movement in lower Manhattan will spread elsewhere in the city and beyond. And, if the Wobblies get a little traction at Starbucks, whether they will aim at a bigger target (you-know-who).
