During anti-RNC week
Supporters rally for Starbucks workers
By Tony Murphy
New York
The coffee giant Starbucks has frequently been a target of
protesters, mostly for its anti-environmental, pro-corporate
and anti-people practices. On the first day of the
anti-RNC-protest kickoff weekend, a mid-Manhattan Starbucks was
again the target of a demonstration--this time supporting an
effort by its workers to form a union.
Starbucks workers in New York generally start at under $8 an
hour. While employees who work 20-plus hours are eligible for
medical coverage, 40-hour work weeks are rare. In fact, bosses
shuffle schedules to avoid them.
The workers' central demands at this store are increased
pay, guaranteed hours with the option of full-time status, and
an end to understaffing.
In July, Starbucks appealed a National Labor Relations Board
decision in favor of a union certification election. On July
28, the board accepted Starbucks' appeal of the decision.
That effectively blocked the election since a ruling on the
appeal could take years.
But the Starbucks workers' struggle has attracted
supporters. On Aug. 28, over 150 people protested in a dynamic
demonstration, marching from the site of the organizing drive
to Starbucks' regional office and back.
Demonstrators included someone dressed as a giant coffee cup
with workers' demands printed on it, participants fresh from
the day's earlier March for Women's Lives, and teams of legal
observers from the New York Civil Liberties Union and the
National Lawyers Guild.
Like the public fight between New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg and anti-war groups over the right to protest, the
solidarity rally for the Starbucks workers was also a free
speech battleground. The New York Police Department deployed an
array of beat cops, plainclothed motor-scooter cops and others
who generally harassed the protest by drawing and re-drawing
"protest zones."
Demonstrators held their ground, vocally asserting their
constitutional right to protest and assemble. The police tried
to block the final 100 feet of the march by refusing to let
protesters end in front of the store where it began--but gave
in when the protesters chanted, "Let us march! Let us march!"
and surged forward.
Ultimately four people who decided to challenge the
restrictions were arrested. Two of them, store workers Daniel
Gross and Anthony Polanco, were arrested when they stepped
outside the designated protest area.
After being released, Gross expressed confidence about
continuing the campaign to win union rights for service and
low-wage workers through campaigns that rely less on NLRB
elections and more on militant tactics.
More information is available at www.starbucksunion.org.
Reprinted from the Sept. 9, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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