A-Infos (en) US, IWW* Protest Challenges Starbucks Unionbusting (GRIID)

EAST GRAND RAPIDS -- Former Starbucks Corp. workers who say the company fired a barista in 
East Grand Rapids for attempting to organize a union held an informational protest 
Saturday outside the coffee chain's location in Gaslight Village. ---- A group of about 15 
people gathered outside the entrance at 4:30 p.m. holding signs and banners and 
occasionally chanting pro-union slogans. They claimed to passers-by that the Seattle-based 
coffee chain engages in unfair labor practices. ---- The group was joined by former East 
Grand Rapids employee, Cole Dorsey, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World union, 
who was fired in June 2008. Dorsey said he has been trying to get reinstated since the 
company settled a complaint in January with the National Labor Relations Board made on his 
behalf.

Cole, who is unemployed, said he still wants his job back and for other workers to have a 
stable work schedule and be given enough hours to qualify for health benefits.

"We should be able to have our rights not trampled on," Cole said.

Media representatives from Starbucks Corp. did not return a telephone call and email from 
The Press.

Erik Foreman, a union member who said he is a barista at the Mall of America in 
Minneapolis, Minn., said he came out to support Cole and Starbucks employees in Quebec who 
recently joined the union. Foreman said Starbucks workers should be paid a living wage and 
have guaranteed hours.

"A lot of (baristas) struggle to pay their bills," Foreman said. "We're not the only 
workers that think America needs a raise...especially because increasingly these are the 
only jobs out there."

Dozens of local news media outlets were contacted about this protest, but only the Grand 
Rapids Press and WOOD TV8 showed up. However, as of Sunday morning, channel 8 had not 
posted anything on their website about the IWW action, instead they featured a 2-day event 
outside of one of the downtown bars that included trampoline demonstrations.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapid...s_hol.html

http://grsbuxunion.blogspot.com/2009/...bucks.html
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* An antiauthoritarian anticapitalist syndicate
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