Starbucks signed a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board last week agreeing to let Minneapolis-area employees post union materials in their break areas and discuss union issues while on the job, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their performance.
The settlement does not include financial payment, and it will not be final until the NLRB decides whether to address objections to the settlement by union organizers at the Industrial Workers of the World, according to Marlin Osthus, acting director of the NLRB’s upper midwest region office.
The IWW initiated the complaints that led to the settlement and, according to a press release, considers it a victory at this point.
It’s Starbucks’ sixth labor settlement in three years and its second in Minneapolis. In December, the coffee chain also lost a battle in administrative-law court when a judge determined that Starbucks had unfairly imposed work rules on employees who supported the IWW.
The company is appealing the court’s decision and has not acknowledged wrongdoing in any of the settlements.
Starbucks said in a statement that since early January, 15 unfair labor practice charges filed by a “small group of individuals” have been dismissed by the NLRB or withdrawn.
“Starbucks chose to settle the one remaining charge,” the statement said. It called the settlement “the latest in the IWW’s ‘kitchen sink’ approach to criticizing all things Starbucks…. [W]e strongly believe we would have prevailed had the one remaining case gone to trial, but the time and expense required to do so was not justifiable.”
Starbucks’ labor record is the subject of a new online film by Brave New Films, which is known for viral video campaigns against John McCain, Wal-Mart and others.
So far the Starbucks video, which features tales told before by union activists (and which I covered here and here), has been viewed 60,599 times on YouTube. According to a site that supports the film, a form letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz decrying Starbucks’ union stance — including its recent decision to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act — has been sent by 14,845 people.
Starbucks signed a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board last week agreeing to let Minneapolis-area employees post union materials in their break areas and discuss union issues while on the job, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their performance.
The settlement does not include financial payment, and it will not be final until the NLRB decides whether to address objections to the settlement by union organizers at the Industrial Workers of the World, according to Marlin Osthus, acting director of the NLRB’s upper midwest region office.
The IWW initiated the complaints that led to the settlement and, according to a press release, considers it a victory at this point.
It’s Starbucks’ sixth labor settlement in three years and its second in Minneapolis. In December, the coffee chain also lost a battle in administrative-law court when a judge determined that Starbucks had unfairly imposed work rules on employees who supported the IWW.
The company is appealing the court’s decision and has not acknowledged wrongdoing in any of the settlements.
Starbucks said in a statement that since early January, 15 unfair labor practice charges filed by a “small group of individuals” have been dismissed by the NLRB or withdrawn.
“Starbucks chose to settle the one remaining charge,” the statement said. It called the settlement “the latest in the IWW’s ‘kitchen sink’ approach to criticizing all things Starbucks…. [W]e strongly believe we would have prevailed had the one remaining case gone to trial, but the time and expense required to do so was not justifiable.”
Starbucks’ labor record is the subject of a new online film by Brave New Films, which is known for viral video campaigns against John McCain, Wal-Mart and others.
So far the Starbucks video, which features tales told before by union activists (and which I covered here and here), has been viewed 60,599 times on YouTube. According to a site that supports the film, a form letter to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz decrying Starbucks’ union stance — including its recent decision to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act — has been sent by 14,845 people.
Starbucks a hub of union-busting and worker exploitation?Say it ain’t so, Howard Schultz!
The Starbucks chief executive, who actively cultivates a socially progressive image, is in the cross-hairs of a new-media campaign designed to bolster union representation at the retail giant and beyond.
For five years, Starbucks has been the target of a limited but sometimes nasty unionization drive that has tarnished its reputation for high-minded benevolence.
But last week, Brave New Films in Culver City launched an ambitious “Stop Starbucks” offensive, including a website (StopStarbucks.com) featuring a four-minute video that was also posted on YouTube assailing Starbucks’ treatment of workers, along with a petition demanding that Schultz “quit following Wal-Mart’s anti-union example.”
By week’s end, almost 12,000 had signed the petition, and nearly 40,000 had viewed the video, organizers said.
The anti-Starbucks onslaught also featured a Twitter “hijacking” designed to undermine a Starbucks promotion in which contestants vied for prizes by submitting photos of themselves at Starbucks cafes. The virtual saboteurs forwarded the required “Twitpics” but hoisted signs blaring seditious mottos such as, “I want a union with my latte” or “Shultz makes millions, workers make beans.”
The new-media assault, say Starbucks officials, presents a distorted portrait of management’s collaborative relationship with its “partners,” a reference to the company’s 135,000 U.S. workers.
“Calling Starbucks a bad employer simply doesn’t ring true with the overwhelming majority of our partners,” said Jim Koster, Starbucks senior vice president.
The anti-Starbucks blitz is indicative of how some unions and pro-labor activists have begun to embrace new media. The Communications Workers of America, representing some 80,000 AT&T employees seeking a new contract, also has posted videos of its rallies on YouTube. It uses text messaging to keep its members informed.
“It’s a good way to spread the word and get people to participate and feel they’re part of something bigger as well,” said Peter O’Brien, organizer and executive board member of CWA Local 9510, based in Orange. “It goes viral pretty quickly.”
Most major unions boast extensive websites where workplace issues, political objectives and other concerns are thoroughly aired.
“New media is playing a central role in organizing workers in the service sector,’’ noted Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at UC Berkeley.
But employers also have well-developed Web presences and often work aggressively to refute what management views as misleading statements posted online.
“I don’t see the use of the Internet and social media as giving the unions a tremendous upper hand, though to some extent it does allow them to make initial contact with a wide variety of people,’’ said Nelson N. Lichtenstein, a professor at UC Santa Barbara. “The companies also have the same abilities.’’
Organizers say the Stop Starbucks campaign already has resounded through social networks on the Internet. The video was prominently displayed on the popular BoingBoing blog, along with various others.
“What happens with these things is that people watch it, send the link to friends, and you can see it build,” said Robert Greenwald, head of left-leaning Brave New Films. “Its a tool that doesn’t cost billions of dollars.”
Filmmaker Robert Greenwald’s documentary about sleazy unionbusting at Starbucks debuted the same day as Starbucks new Twitter campaign, so he hijacked the campaign to spread information about Starbucks’ bad labor practices.
On a blog post published at the anti-Starbucks website Brave New Films created, people were encouraged to take pictures of themselves in front of Starbucks stores holding signs targeted at the company’s “anti-labor practices.” These users are then told to upload these photos onto Twitpic and tweet them out to their followers using the hashtags #top3percent and #starbucks. According to the post, these are the official hashtags that were designated by Starbucks itself for those who wanted to enter its contest. Within hours, several people had followed these guidelines and there were dozens of Twitpics in front of stores across the country.As of this writing, the anti-Starbucks YouTube video has amassed over 30,000 views and was featured on the front page of social news site Digg. Greenwald said that Brave New Films is not done with its offensive against the coffee company, but he was hesitant to reveal his next steps.
On Monday, the New York Times published a story detailing a multi-million dollar ad campaign launched by Starbucks in which the company put up advertising posters in six major cities and attempted to “harness the power of online social networking sites by challenging people to hunt for the posters on Tuesday and be the first to post a photo of one using Twitter.” Those who posted the pictures to the microblogging site were to use predetermined hashtags that were listed in the contest rules.
Unfortunately for Starbucks, liberal activist and filmmaker Robert Greenwald, founder of Brave New Films, came across that Times article early Tuesday morning. Greenwald, who has directed films for major studios and launched Brave New Films a few years ago, had been working for months on shooting an anti-Starbucks video that debuted on YouTube that very day. The mini-documentary features interviews with several former and current Starbucks employees and makes the argument that the company — despite popular perception that it treats its employees well — has unfair labor practices and has aggressively fought off union organizing.
“Tuesday morning was when we launched the video,” Greenwald told me in a phone interview. “I’m a very early riser, I get up at 6 o’clock here, and I look at the New York Times and there’s a story about this contest that Starbucks is having on Twitter. And I was like, ‘ah, what timing!’ So I sent an email around to several of my colleagues and we immediately jumped on it … When we saw that they had a contest, we immediately decided that we should enter the contest, which we did in very short order. And I don’t know if it’s connected or not, but a few hours later after we sent in pictures of people with suggestions for [Starbucks CEO] Howard Schultz to be more fair to his workers, I think the rules were changed and at least that phase of the contest was ended.”
On a blog post published at the anti-Starbucks website Brave New Films created, people were encouraged to take pictures of themselves in front of Starbucks stores holding signs targeted at the company’s “anti-labor practices.” These users are then told to upload these photos onto Twitpic and tweet them out to their followers using the hashtags #top3percent and #starbucks. According to the post, these are the official hashtags that were designated by Starbucks itself for those who wanted to enter its contest. Within hours, several people had followed these guidelines and there were dozens of Twitpics in front of stores across the country.
As of this writing, the anti-Starbucks YouTube video has amassed over 30,000 views and was featured on the front page of social news site Digg. Greenwald said that Brave New Films is not done with its offensive against the coffee company, but he was hesitant to reveal his next steps.
Given that the the filmmaker was able to take Starbucks’ own Twitter marketing campaign and turn it against it, I asked Greenwald what this means for corporations dipping their toes in social media marketing.
“Well it says that democracy is a wonderful thing, and that we should be very happy with it,” he replied. ” …I think that the corporations will learn very quickly that if they want to function in a social marketing arena, then they’re going to have to change some of their practices or else they’ll have to get out.”
For press inquiries, please contact Martha de Hoyos at or 310-204-0448 x225.
On Monday, the New York Times 
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