ps - for others who haven’t seen this:

————PLEASE HELP: PREGNANT BARISTA FACING DISCRIMINATION AND IMMINENT
TERMINATION————

Sisters and Brothers:

Starbucks barista Christina Rosevear and her 19 month-old daughter need your help now. Christina recently learned that she was pregnant with her second child and she promptly informed the store manager at the Northern California Starbucks where she works. Instead of being considerate of Christina’s pregnancy, Starbucks began to discriminate against her.

Christina developed severe morning sickness and needed to take the occasional day off. On several occasions after she took a day off, she’d find that her work hours would be cut the following week depriving her of much needed income.
Sometimes she’d receive as little as four hours of work per week! As a single mom and a low-wage worker, Christina can’t afford such a dramatic pay cut. Things only got worse and now Christina is facing the prospect of an unjust termination.

Christina’s doctor ordered her to take time off work to deal with a pregnancy-related back ailment that may be connected to heavy lifting at Starbucks. When Christina was ready to come back to work, the store manager warned that he might fire her for being away from the job. Christina has a
meeting coming up with the manager and it’s critical that Starbucks hear from people of conscience now that discriminating against someone for a pregnancy or illness is wrong.

Instead of being brushed under the rug like so many retail workers are everyday, Christina has chosen to fight back and has joined the Starbucks Workers Union [StarbucksUnion.org]. In her own words, “I need some help because I refuse to let a big corporation like Starbucks push me around.”

Please lend a hand and stand by Christina as she fights this abuse from Starbucks: Take a moment to participate in this e-mail action demanding that Starbucks not fire Christina and immediately cease discriminating against her:
http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/1641.

Thank you for your solidarity and please contact Dean Dempsey of the Bay Area IWW to get further involved in the continuing defense effort at dean@iww.org.

StarbucksUnion.org

For Immediate Release:
IWW Starbucks Workers Union, StarbucksUnion.org
May 17, 2007

Contact: starbucksunion@yahoo.com

SWU Commemorates Third Anniversary as Union Expands to
Second Chicago Store

Workers Around the World Take Part in Day of Action
for Starbucks Workers and Farmers

Chicago, IL- A group of Starbucks baristas here
marched into their store today and served a
declaration of union membership on their store manager
as working people in countries around the globe
demonstrated in solidarity with Starbucks coffee
farmers and café workers.

“As members of the Industrial Workers of the World, we
won’t allow Starbucks to play dice with the amount of
work hours we get each week,” said Liz Clarkson, an
IWW barista at the Chicago store. “Taking this action
for secure work hours and a livable wage on the third
anniversary of the SWU’s founding makes it all the
sweeter.”

Workers in countries including Austria, England, Spain
and Australia as well as several U.S. states
commemorated the founding of the IWW Starbucks Workers
Union [www.StarbucksUnion.org] by taking to the
streets in demonstrations against the Starbucks
union-busting and greenwashing operation.

May 17th also saw IWW baristas in Grand Rapids,
Michigan announce they are filing a legal challenge
against Starbucks’ unlawful anti-union campaign.
Starbucks, among other things, initiated a four-camera
surveillance system with controversial security
contractor Diebold to monitor barista organizing
activity in Grand Rapids. The company will now have
to muster a legal defense on two fronts as Starbucks
is set to go to trial over its relentless New York
City union-busting effort this summer. Six IWW
baristas remain out of a job through retaliatory
firings by Starbucks.

“Starbucks’ crude union-busting is not welcome in our
store or in any store,” said Cole Dorsey, an IWW
barista at the Grand Rapids location. “Chairman
Howard Schultz needs to pay baristas and coffee
farmers fairly and get over his deep-seated aversion
to unions.”

In contrast to its carefully crafted socially
responsible image, Starbucks pays a poverty wage and
maintains a 100% part-time café workforce. 75,000
Starbucks workers in the United States are without
company health insurance. The coffee giant actually
insures a lower percentage of its workforce than
Wal-Mart. The Starbucks work environment is extremely
fast-paced and strains, burns, and exhaustion are
common. At the same time, coffee farmers growing
beans for Starbucks contend with malnourishment and
difficulty accessing clean water.

The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is an organization of
employees at the world’s largest coffee chain united
for a living wage, secure work hours, and respect on
the job. Just three years after creating the first
union in the United States at Starbucks, IWW baristas
at ten stores in four states are publicly fighting and
winning on workplace demands while baristas in several
other stores are organizing quietly until they reach a
critical mass of support.

Using an organizing model known as solidarity
unionism, pressure from the SWU has resulted in wage
increases and grievance remedies for Starbucks
workers. By avoiding governmental and bureaucratic
barriers to organizing, solidarity unions use direct
action against a corporation to make gains on the job.

Founded in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World
is a grassroots union for all workers.

IWW STARBUCKS WORKERS UNION SPECIAL EVENT

TWO SHORT FILMS BY NEW YORK CITY IWW MEMBER DIANE KRAUTHAMER: “TOGETHER WE WIN: THE FIGHT TO ORGANISE STARBUCKS”

PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN UNDERCOVER DOCUMENTARY - UNION BUSTING IN STARBUCKS

This is a rare opportunity to find out about the historic and groundbreaking organising work taking place inside Starbucks in the US and to hear from the film-maker and other IWW organisers about the recent international campaigns by the IWW; Solidarity Federation; UNITE; CNT-F; CGT-F and CGT-E to organise Starbucks workers in the UK, New Zealand, Germany, France and Spain.

6.30pm food for 7.30pm start:

THURSDAY 7th JUNE 2007
THE BREAD AND ROSES
68 CLAPHAM MANOR STREET
LONDON SW4 6DZ
(nearest tube – Clapham North)

This event is hosted by the Industrial Workers of the World, London Branch with kind support from the Battersea & Wandsworth TUC

For more information please contact the IWW on:
07882 972 754
rocsec@iww.org.uk
www.iww.org.uk
www.starbucksunion.org

Denise Wurn, pharmacy tech
Alan Haber, woodworker
Ruth Borgett, office worker
Tom Rico, office worker
Gregg Shotwell, S.O.S
[soldiersofsolidarity]
Jim Griffin, Screen Actors Guild and
Michigan Emergency Committee
Against War and Injustice
William Frazier, Michigan Public School
Teacher
Shannon Williams, paramedic
Khedija Gadhoum, Ph.D., Assistant
Professor of Spanish / Latin
American Studies, Department
of Modern Languages and
Literatures, Latin American
Studies Program, Grand Valley
State University
Jeff Smith, Grand Rapids Institute for
Information Democracy
Kyle Taylor, University of Michigan,
Ross School of Business,
Educational Workers (IWW-620)
Mike Saunders, Division Ave Arts
Cooperative board member,
Plastic Son Productions, Co-
President
Todd M. Jordan, UAW Local 292
Ken Mathenia, retired member UAW local
651, Delphi, Flint
Jaron Siegel, owner, Natural Foods Co.
Rebecca Machiela, student, natural health
educator
Jennifer Loveless, student, cashier
Petra Alsoofy, student
mediamouse.org, Grand Rapids indymedia
Chuck Neller, Positive Images
Jackie Wood, social worker
Louis Palus, chef
Jean Cartier, Video Editor
Connie Cunningham, Artist
All City Kicks
Reb Roberts, Sanctuary Folk Art Gallery
Herm, Vertigo Music
Kathryn Kelley, Clerk
Mathew Russell
Richa
Richard Kuszmar
Jake Terpstra
Future of the Union.com
Mary Alison Cooper, Health Care Worker
Laura Casaletto, IGE Board member, and UFCW Local 951 member
Institute for Global Education
Matt Erard, University of Michigan.
Socialist Party of Michigan
Monroe for Peace and Justice IHM Justice
Radiant Justice Implementation Group
Jason Adams, PhD Student, University of Hawaii
Jamaal Cannon, Fresh Boutique & Native Sun Ink.
Grand Rapids Hip Hop Coalition
Students Against Sweatshops Grand Valley State University
Alicia Steele student
Heather Scheffler
Bev Pels student
Lori Freye
Claire O’Neill student
Lara Dendel student
Rodney Osip student
Kathy Sain
Deb Bosscher
Michael Tate Artist
Bill D. Heath
Aaron Bennett
Jim Jones
Pete Richardson Ph.D.
Center for the Ethnography of Everyday Life
Institute for Social Research
Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations
Department of Anthropology
University of Michigan
John K. Fitzpatrick, worker
Rick Tormala, 2nd Ward Grand Rapids City Commissioner
Chris V. , ACORN
David Grillo, University of Michigan School of Social Work
Benjamin Hunter,
Recoil Magazine Director of Public Relations
GVSU School of Communications Adjunct Professor
Grand Rapids Peace Team
James Jendrasiak, 1st Ward Grand Rapids City Commissioner
Tonya Cornelisse, Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity Association
Lance Cohn - A.F.T. Loc. 1 (Chicago Teachers Union)
Jim Hofer, musician
Military Families Speak Out, Michigan Chapter
Jim Abbott, Detroit Branch-IWW
Mathew Cross, Professor, Macomb Community College
Brette Christe, Technical Writer
Stephen Ford, retired
Richard Kessler, Immigration Attorney
Suzanne Gasstner, Aquinas Professor
Audrey Eisele
Samantha Schwarz, student
Heidi DeYoung, Social Worker
Melissa Leitch, Seamstress
Christina Fong, Musician
Gloria Switzer
Matt Floyd
Mary Jo Herendeen, retired
Kate Lyon
Chelle Skinner
Lindsay Wallin
Dayle Maples, physician
James Q. Rose
Rachelle Mack, unemployed
Karen Pitts, unemployed
Jeff Vandenberg, self-employed
Levi Bailey, self-employed, musician
Ray McGovern, retired CIA Analyst
John Leitch, Student
Harvey Sanders, Student
Meaghann Matjas, Teacher
Pat Haggerty, Municipal Employee
Joel Klompenber, Municipal Employee
Peace Presence