IWW Takes On ... Starbucks

[Gary Sisco]

This is one of the funniest things I've ever read. Should be for anyone who knows anything about the real IWW, when there was one.

Nothing like moving from no compromise at all with anything to one of the dumbest reformist issues in history.

Their members -- what, all three of them? -- gain weight when working at Starbucks?

How about not eating or drinking their crap while at work then? And what in the world is IWW doing in such an absolutely unproletarian workplace as Starbucks?

Oh, I forgot. No one's responsible for their own lives, never mind fate, anymore. Something the real IWW would have found as hilarious as I do.

Kind of puts a new spin on "One Big Union!"

[patricia]

Blame the availability of food to the glutton on Starbucks , not the glutton. If an employee gains weight, it's because he/she is eating more than he/she uses for energy. Has that now changed?
Are people not even responsible for their own eating habits anymore?? Good grief!! Are we now all slow-witted children??

Got a link? Oh nevermind, I'll google IWW and maybe get lucky.

[Sergio Zamora]

I found this on the web

http://www.starbucksunion.org/

In all fairness, it is some other organization which has initiated the campaign, which is targeted at consumers, not workers. The starbucks union is only adding its support. An associated article indicates thath the union has simply issued a warning to its members regarding the health risks, nothing more.

The website also says:

We are Starbucks Workers Coming Together for:

• Increased pay and raises
• Guaranteed hours with the option of fulltime status
• An end to understaffing
• A healthier and safer workplace

Now, this may not be the IWW of Big Bill Haywood's day, and these may not be burly, hard-as-nails dock or steel workers, but they are still workers. If they decide to organize, more power!

[Gary Sisco]

It's not the IWW. It's someone's imagination, again. The IWW belongs to history.

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

It's not the IWW. It's someone's imagination, again. The IWW belongs to history.

I agree it's stupid of them to use the name. Like I said, clearly this is not Big Bill's IWW. Nevertheless, they they're still workers and they're trying to organize. That alone, to me, is deserving of respect.

[Enforcer]

A union with the Baristas at my local Starbucks? Sign me up! Yeah!

Oh, wait, you mean a labor union. Never mind.

[groover]

Sounds like IWW has a common cause with WWI - Weight Watchers International.

[tristano's ghost]

I favor my local coffeehouse (Soma--great place to hang if you're ever in Bloomington), but even their owner thinks Starbucks-bashing is ridiculous. And they're a "blue" corporation--they donate almost exclusively to the Democratic Party.

[Chris D]

My old man was a real Wobbly, when it meant something.

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally Posted by tristano's ghost

I favor my local coffeehouse (Soma--great place to hang if you're ever in Bloomington)

I think I've been there. A real granola place, right? I think I worked a couple of blocks behind it (I believe I was on 3rd and Grant, but don't remember the name of the building)

[Enforcer]

My favorite coffeehouse is just too far from where I live to visit regularly.

[tristano's ghost]

Originally Posted by Sergio Zamora

I think I've been there. A real granola place, right? I think I worked a couple of blocks behind it (I believe I was on 3rd and Grant, but don't remember the name of the building)

Where did you work, Sergio? It's actually at the corner of 5th (aka Kirkwood) and Grant, in a large stone building that also housed/houses the Laughing Planet (health-food burrito restaurant), Cactus Flower (vintage clothing) and TD's CDs and LPs. A sort of ground-zero of hipness in downtown B-town... the Runcible Spoon, just a couple of blocks away on 6th Street, is also very good. Jazzcorner poster Jason Bivins used to hang at these places before he got a teaching job and moved away.

Re: unionization of Starbucks employees, I'm all for it, and if Starbucks tries ruthlessly to quash such drives, I'll be more inclined to drop them from my occasional-purchase list.

[lynn]

On a Corporate Level, I hear SB is a great place to work.

I prefer Tully's for actual coffee. They are the best in Seattle but there are so many neighborhood coffee houses who roast and grind their own blends it's hard to choose.

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally Posted by tristano's ghost

Where did you work, Sergio? It's actually at the corner of 5th (aka Kirkwood) and Grant, in a large stone building that also housed/houses the Laughing Planet (health-food burrito restaurant), Cactus Flower (vintage clothing) and TD's CDs and LPs. A sort of ground-zero of hipness in downtown B-town... the Runcible Spoon, just a couple of blocks away on 6th Street, is also very good. Jazzcorner poster Jason Bivins used to hang at these places before he got a teaching job and moved away.

Like I said, I don't remember the name of the building, but it was an IU extension building. It was two stories, but I worked in the basement. It was across the street from a bed and breakfast where I stayed for couple of months before I moved to a hotel.

I think I may have been thinking of the Runcible Spoon, but I think I was at Soma too. In any case, memory is a little hazy but I do remember some of those shops, since I had lunch around that area every day for about eight or nine months back in the early 2000s.

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

This is one of the funniest things I've ever read. Should be for anyone who knows anything about the real IWW, when there was one.

I suppose you provide the answer -- hang around Vermont and smoke pot.

At least they are doing something.

[jesus marion joseph]

Originally Posted by rollhead

I suppose you provide the answer -- hang around Vermont and smoke pot.

Maye he could toot his whistle outside Starbucks, at the precise moment customers are placing their orders.

[rollhead]

Originally Posted by jesus marion joseph

Maye he could toot his whistle outside Starbucks, at the precise moment customers are placing their orders.

That contract -- involving 52,000 workers -- was settled just a few days after we blew our whistles -- a bigger political accomplishment than Sisco has managed in 10,000 bloviated posts on this site.

I am sure if we had been "reasonable" with the Republican governor, as all of you here recommend, we would still be negotiating.

For the record -- not that it matters to union bashers like Gary Sisco -- the Starbucks IWW union does have a record of accomplishment.

http://enchantedrock.ezoshosting.com...sgovsettle.pdf

[jesus marion joseph]

Whistles For Justice