and these are the same idiots that pay even BIGGER money to drink coffee made from beans that have been crapped out of an ocelot or a civet or some such...
Posted on 08/07/2006 6:41:13 PM PDT by sig226
SEATTLE - Starbucks Corp. has fired the co-founder of a union claiming to represent employees at six of its Manhattan coffee houses.
Daniel Gross, a barista and organizer for IWW Starbucks Workers Union, a branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, said Monday that he is challenging his termination, which followed a company investigation into an allegation that he made a threatening remark to a district manager at a recent union rally.
Gross, who has led union organizing efforts at Starbucks for the past three years, countered that he was simply making a statement of solidarity when he told District Manager Allison Marx that a fellow employee should not be fired.
Gross, 27, said the IWW filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday alleging he was wrongfully terminated.
"By terminating me on Saturday, Starbucks has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's an anti-worker, anti-union company," Gross said in a phone interview from New York City on Monday.
Starbucks confirmed Gross no longer worked for the company but would not comment on the circumstances that led to his firing.
Valerie O'Neil, a spokeswoman at Starbucks' corporate headquarters in Seattle, insisted the company does not discourage union organizing. "We don't retaliate against anyone who tries to organize or be part of a union," she said. The world's largest specialty coffee retailer, which is often lauded for offering generous benefits that include health insurance for part-time workers, contends there are no unionized Starbucks stores in the United States.
And while the IWW Starbucks Workers Union has not been formally certified under the National Labor Relations Act, it claims to represent dues-paying members who have bargained for certain job improvements, including pay raises.
Gross refused to disclose how many members the union has, saying only that it's a "modest-sized group" with "positive membership growth."
In March, Starbucks settled an unfair labor practice charge the union filed with the NLRB, accusing the company of violating federal law by creating a national policy prohibiting workers from sharing written union information or wearing buttons.
The company admitted no wrongdoing in its settlement, but was forced to post at three stores named in the complaint detailed notices explaining workers' rights to organize. It also offered two workers their jobs back and gave three employees back pay totaling less than $2,000.
Gross said he is the fourth IWW member at Starbucks who has been fired in the last year. One day in mid-July, Gross said he joined a protest on behalf of a shift supervisor who had been threatened with termination _ and later fired _ over an altercation with a co-worker.
In addition to claiming that Gross made a threatening remark at that protest, Starbucks gave Gross an unfavorable performance review the day it fired him, saying he failed to communicate employee morale issues to his store manager, including complaints about wages and work hours, Gross said.
O'Neil said she could not confirm whether that was one of Starbucks' reasons for firing Gross but did verify that one of the "core competencies" it requires of its employees is that they help store managers create a positive work environment. Gross said the three other IWW members fired by Starbucks are formally challenging their dismissals, including the shift supervisor Gross defended at the mid-July protest. Gross said IWW believes that worker was fired because of his union activism.
On the Net:
Starbucks: http://www.starbucks.com
IWW Starbucks Workers Union: http://www.starbucksunion.org/
A service of the Associated Press(AP)
Lehrer was actually one of the few liberals that actually was funny.
and these are the same idiots that pay even BIGGER money to drink coffee made from beans that have been crapped out of an ocelot or a civet or some such...
Okay, how about Jackson Browne?
I'm just a rolling away from yesterday, behind the wheel of a stolen Chevrolet...
Do they do it with Photoshop?
I found this doing a google search on "animal crap coffee".
"Thankfully Armeno Coffee Roasters offers it in a four ounce sampler for a mere $30."
Enjoy!
I don't know, but I understand that Reuters is the distributor...
I'm strictly a tea guy -- never drink coffee -- and my normal routine is to stop at Starbucks after my daily run, so I figure at worst I'm only putting back a few of the calories I just burned. In fact, a lot of times they just give me my drink for free because I'm a regular customer and they are already making a fortune off of me. I never get the baked goods or the stuff with whipped cream in it. It's hard to walk two blocks in any direction without running into a Starbucks, and there is always a line. Their profit margin must be enormous.
Well, rhyne, actually...
Gad! I can't believe I remember the words for "The Folksong Army". Well, we know how old you are, Mom.............FRegards
You will eat by and by
In that wonderful land above the sky.
Work and pray, live on hay.
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.
Joe Hill, 1911
And in continuing said that if the employee was fired there was a bag of cement that would be put to use. //sarcasm//
Fight fiercely, Harvard!
Also hard to believe how many members of this board spend their money with such a liberal supporting corporation...
I don't care how much money you have....$5 for a cup of coffee is stupidity.
Plenty of idiots with money though.
And to help us continue to celebrate the new Pope, what could be better than...... The Vatican Rag!
First you get down on your knees,
Fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect,
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!
Do whatever steps you want if
You have cleared them with the Pontiff.
Everybody say his own
Kyrie eleison,
Doin' the Vatican Rag.
Get in line in that processional,
Step into that small confessional.
There the guy who's got religion'll
Tell you if your sin's original.
If it is, try playin' it safer,
Drink the wine and chew the wafer,
Two, four, six, eight,
Time to transubstantiate!
So get down upon your knees,
Fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect,
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!
Make a cross on your abdomen,
When in Rome do like a Roman;
Ave Maria,
Gee, it's good to see ya.
Gettin' ecstatic an' sorta dramatic an'
Doin' the Vatican
Rag!
I thought that title was taken by janitors.
I forgot to ask. Why was a district manager at a union rally? That doesn't add up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.