The IWW Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) called for the world's largest coffee chain to honor slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by paying workers a holiday premium on the federal holiday named for him. While Starbucks claims a commitment to racial diversity and pays a holiday premium on federal holidays including the Fourth of July and New Year's Day, baristas receive no added compensation for working through the MLK Day holiday.
"Dr. King is a hero to many baristas and it's only right that Starbucks- with its claimed commitment to diversity- treat his holiday with respect," said Liberte Locke, a member of the SWU. "King stood up courageously for economic justice and no doubt would smile upon low-wage fast food workers taking home much needed extra money at the end of the day."
Starbucks claims a commitment to diversity but has a poor record when it comes to equal opportunity. While 30% of Starbucks employees are people of color, only 15% of Starbucks executives are of color, according to the company. Starbucks will hire workers of color for low-wage barista positions, but such workers are significantly underrepresented in upper management.
The SWU is currently in a dispute with the coffee chain over African-American barista Simone Gordon who was targeted by a racist Starbucks store manager, demoted, and eventually fired by Starbucks.
MLK day will be celebrated on January 21 in 2008 and the union insists that Starbucks should signal a real commitment to diversity by honoring the holiday. A tireless advocate for economic justice as well as civil rights, Dr. King was murdered while supporting the right of sanitation workers in Memphis to join a labor union and assert their human dignity. 1 out of 3 employers give workers a paid day off for MLK Day; the union is making the modest demand of a holiday premium for Starbucks workers.
Though it spends lavishly on social responsibility PR, Starbucks is a poverty-wage, anti-union employer. In addition to wages as low as $6 or $7 per hour, the coffee giant requires all its baristas to work part-time with no guaranteed hours of work. Starbucks deceived the American people into believing that it was a leader in employee healthcare when it actually insures less than 41% of its workforce- worse than Wal-Mart which covers 47% of workers.
The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is an organization of employees at the world's largest coffee chain united for higher wages, secure work schedules, and respect. Starbucks has fired eight SWU members for union activity and has been cited by the Labor Board multiple times for illegal union-busting conduct. The SWU uses direct action on the job and in the community to win workplace demands and to win respect for their contribution to the company.
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