Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday! Call Starbucks management and tell them to recognize!
On February 20, 2009 baristas at Chicago?s Belmont and Leavitt Starbucks store announced their membership in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union. The workers had given management 7 days to respond to their request to sit at the negotiation table in professional manner to discuss, in good faith, the satisfaction of their demands. That deadline is now 3 days past with no response. This past weekend management received a small number of very respectful phone calls from union baristas encouraging management's participation in negotiations. However, they continue to refuse to meet with us a union, willing only to meet with us "as individuals." Now we need your help! Please call these managers and tell them to RECOGNIZE! The more phone calls they receive, the more pressure they will feel to negotiate with us. Be polite, but firm. District Manager, Lupita Sanchez (773) 391-0820 Regional Director, Kristen Driscol (773) 209-8069 Please call once each day: today, tomorrow, and Wednesday! We are aiming for 20-40 phone calls to each person, each day. If we still have no response, we will up the ante. An example of what you might say is... "Hello, my name is__________. I'm calling to encourage you to meet, as a collective bargaining agent, with the IWW Starbucks Workers Union in order to discuss the list of demands submitted to you by the union baristas at Belmont and Leavitt. It saddens me that Starbucks is attempting to ignore the concerns of its workers. Remember that diplomacy requires a willingness to negotiate. Please live up to your call for respect and dignity and negotiate, in good faith, with the IWW Starbucks Workers Union. " DEMANDS INCLUDE (full descriptions below): -Pay increase to a living wage, abolition of maximum wage cap, and standardized raises -Guaranteed Minimum Hours and Benefits -Immediate Disbandment of Current ?Optimal Scheduling? Policy -Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a recognized holiday -Bonuses for Learning Coaches -Quarterly, democratically-run store meetings -Respect for the Personal Lives of Workers -Workers be reinstated with hours on the schedule and be paid $150.00 for every week that Starbucks has refused them the right to work. -An end to understaffing. End of the -.3% labor goal. -15 minute break every 2 hours. Full description of Belmont and Leavitt's Demands... -Pay increase to a living wage, abolition of maximum wage cap, and standardized raises Starbucks workers are employed by an extremely profitable company, yet workers are earning less than a living wage. We demand that all wages be increased to 30% above the National Poverty Line; a rate $13.25 per hour. We furthermore demand that maximum wage caps for baristas and shift supervisors be removed. The current system acts to disenfranchise workers who have dedicated years of their lives to the company. Experience and dedication should continually be respected and rewarded. As vital aspects to company profitability, Starbucks workers should receive raises as their time in service matures and not based on the current system of subjective performance reviews. To keep up with cost of living increases, a raise of pay should equal fifty cents every six months, regardless of the results of the performance review. The performance review should act only as a guide to help a barista or shift supervisor develop as a Starbucks employee. -Guaranteed Minimum Hours and Benefits We demand an unconditional guaranteed minimum number of hours every week for any worker that requests it. Without guaranteed hours we cannot be financially stable and we cannot ensure employee benefit eligibility. We expect this demand to be implemented immediately while maintaining adequate staffing levels at all hours of the day. If Starbucks cannot guarantee our hours, the company should renegotiate its health insurance plan to allow eligibility for all part-time employees, regardless of how many hours they work. -Immediate Disbandment of Current ?Optimal Scheduling? Policy The Optimal Scheduling policy is putting part-time workers? hours and benefit eligibility at risk. It has unreasonable availability expectations, especially for ?full-time? workers. The new standards make it extremely difficult to arrange a stable childcare schedule, attend college full time, or juggle two jobs, as many Starbucks workers must do in order to maintain a decent living standard. We demand that these unfair availability expectations be disbanded and we demand that no worker be laid off for not meeting the expectations of the ?Optimal Scheduling? policy. -Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a recognized holiday As Starbucks claims to embrace diversity, there should be no question that Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be recognized s a company holiday. Many Starbucks workers believe in what Martin Luther King Jr. stood for and we demand that the company recognize this holiday with time and a half pay for all those scheduled to work. We demand that the company respect and embrace diversity all of the time and not only when it is profitable to do so. -Bonuses for Learning Coaches Learning Coaches are given an extra amount of responsibility because of their knowledge and experience. Proper training of new workers depends on the proficiency of the Learning Coach. Consequently, Learning Coaches deserve a bonus in pay for their dedication and extra work. -Quarterly, democratically-run store meetings Baristas and shift supervisors demand an equal say in store matters. We are the backbone of an efficient and profitable store and should therefore have a voice in the day to day operations within our workplace. We do not want one-on-one meetings with managers. In addition to the fact that requests made in meetings are routinely ignored, one-on-one meetings are frequently used to intimidate workers and scare them away from expressing their true feelings. Thus, we demand democratically-run meetings as an entire store. . -Respect for the Personal Lives of Workers We demand that management give respect and recognition to the personal lives of workers. We expect management, from this point forward, to give greater respect to workers? availability and requests for time off. Furthermore, if a worker is sick, management should not expect that person to work on the floor for any reason, since this is not only an uncomfortable situation for the worker, but it is also a public safety concern. Likewise, when a person calls in sick, it should be the job of the management team, not be the responsibility of that person, to find coverage for their shift. Ultimately, it should be the manager?s duty to work the shift if they cannot find coverage and there should be no threat or corrective action measures for anyone who cannot work a shift due to illness. Additionally, workers who are not paid salary should not be expected to tend to non-emergency, work related issues outside of their scheduled hours. This means no unnecessary phone calls or text messages. These types of activities not only intrude on the personal lives of workers, but they cost workers money. -Workers be reinstated with hours on the schedule and be paid $150.00 for every week that Starbucks has refused them the right to work. We demand that baristas Tracey Diederich, Nidia Cruz-ortiz, Jaydahl Leong-yee, Elizabeth Anderson and Christine Martinez be reinstated with hours on the schedule, given the hours that were agreed upon at the start of their employment, and the above workers in addition to Chace Brisby be given back pay for the time that they have been completely removed from the schedule. Starbucks is an extremely profitable company, and even during this time of economic uncertainty they have maintained profitability. It is completely inexcusable, unacceptable, and appalling for Starbucks to refuse these workers the right to work as was agreed upon at the start of their employment. Starbucks has forced these workers into an inhumane limbo, making it impossible for them to receive any unemployment benefits, as they are still technically employed. We demand that these workers be reinstated on the schedule at the store they are employed and be paid $150.00 for every week that Starbucks has refused them the right to work. -An end to understaffing. End of the -.3% labor goal. Because of Belmont and Leavitt?s sale volume, we are often scheduled with only two workers on the floor. This makes it difficult to run breaks in a timely manner, or to provide good customer service if it becomes busy. We demand a minimum of at least 3 workers scheduled to be on the floor between the hours of 7am and 2pm with adequate overlap to allow for afternoon and evening breaks and 30 minute breaks. As it stands we are often asked to interrupt our break or our 30 minute meal break to assist the one person left on the floor during those times. Furthermore, the company wide labor goal of -.3% a week is inhumane and clearly puts profit before worker consideration. While adding more and more responsibility to baristas job requirements, Starbucks has also quietly cut the number of hours it allows each manager to use each week. This has left literally every single hour of every single day understaffed. We demand that Starbucks invest enough coverage in their stores to insure that Baristas are properly assisted and supported in meeting their job?s varied and constantly evolving requirements. -15 minute break every 2 hours. Starbucks baristas spend all of their shifts on their feet. They are required to move quickly, bend and lift heavy boxes and gallons of milk. This is especially true at Belmont and Leavitt as we are often scheduled to work with only two people at the store for hours at a time. This means that if it becomes busy, we have no option other than to work faster in order to meet our job expectations. Currently we are allowed to take a 10 minute break every 2 hours that we work. Oftentimes we are not able to receive our breaks until 3 or 4 hours into a shift or are left with no choice other than to skip them all together because we do not have enough coverage on the floor to run them on time. A 10 minute break barely leaves us enough time to order and receive our drink or food, let alone to rest. We demand that we be allowed to take a 15 minute break every 2 hours. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Internet group address: http://groups.google.com/group/ChicagoMayDay To send e-mail: [email protected] To unsuscribe: [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
