Starbucks’ baristas walk off the job

published December 1, 08

Baristas from Starbucks Coffee at Nicollet and Franklin walked off the floor one day last month to present a petition to management, signed by more than 500 concerned customers and community members, demanding that Starbucks hire a security guard to ensure the safety of its patrons and partners. 

The workers in turn declared their affiliation with the Starbucks Workers Union, a campaign of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union, becoming the first Starbucks in Minneapolis and the second in Minnesota to go union.

Initially, they circulated an internal petition, compiling signatures from most of the store’s employees, requesting a meeting to discuss the security situation.  After receiving no productive response from either the store manager or the district manager, the employees turned to the customers to prove their point.

“We hoped management would recognize the need to discuss these concerns with us, but when they refused to even hold a meeting, we knew more action was needed,” said Aaron Kocher, a current store employee.  “We can’t work when we are constantly being harassed, threatened and intimidated, or trying to protect our customers from the same mistreatment,” he said.

Nancy Athanasselis, a regular customer known to everyone at the store, was gratified to see someone

finally doing something about the problem.  “The baristas are very busy running the store.  It shouldn’t be up to them to take care of security problems, but that is what ends up happening.  If Starbucks is not going to look at the human aspect, they should at least look at how much time they spend dealing with security,” she said.

Since the beginning of 2008, there have been more than 500 police reports filed for the immediate area surrounding Starbucks.  On Aug. 3, the McDonald’s restaurant located two blocks south of Starbucks was held up at gunpoint.  On Nov. 3, the Money Xchange less than one block from Starbucks was robbed at knifepoint at 8:30 in the morning.

Christa worked for Starbucks for three years, but she was forced to choose between self-preservation and her position: “I loved the people I worked with, but there were problems.  I can’t tell you how many times we had to clean up feces, urine, blood or vomit from customers who came in drunk.  One time a guy didn’t want to pay an extra four cents for his coffee.  He started screaming at me.  He came back later with a friend and started photographing me, saying, ‘That’s the one.  I’m going to kill her.’  I’m not going to risk my life for $8.50 an hour.”

The customers and baristas at the Franklin and Nicollet Starbucks create a dynamic, diverse community in a changing neighborhood.  The security conditions at Franklin and Nicollet have made performing the essential job duties nearly impossible. 

Since organizing the petition, some of the employees have been transferred and others arbitrarily put on probation. But those actions on the part of management have resulted in more people joining the union, and the union organizers have gone to the National Labor Relations board to file Unfair Labor Practice charges against Starbucks.

Background on the Starbucks Workers Union
The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is a grassroots organization of over 200 current and former employees of the world’s largest coffee chain united for secure hours and a living wage.  The Union has members throughout the United States fighting for systemic change in the company and remedying individual grievances with management.  The SWU has been especially active in New York City, Chicago, Grand Rapids and Minneapolis.