Slammed by slowing consumer demand and laying off workers by the score, Starbucks Coffee found fresh reason for grief Friday when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) said it found evidence of labor violations at its Mall of America stores.
The board's announcement followed a three-month investigation of complaints made by barista Erik Forman, who has campaigned to unionize the Seattle-based coffee chain.
"Our right to organize has been under assault since the inception of the campaign," said Forman, a barista at one of the two Starbucks shops at the Mall of America. "We can only hope that Starbucks does the right thing."
The Mall of America fracas is only the latest in a string of charges the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) has filed against Starbucks since launching its campaign, and comes amid a moribund period for the onetime darling of the caffeinated Internet age.
After recording years of seemingly unstoppable growth, the national chain that boasts 16,862 locations saw its profit fall sharply with the onset of the recession. It laid off 6,700 workers in January. Profit fell 77 percent in its most recent quarter, the company said this week. Store openings will fall short of this year's plans, and some 300 locations will close. That's after 600 store closings last year, including 27 in Minnesota.
Forman's complaint, originally filed three months ago, alleges the company interfered with employee efforts to promote membership in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union, a group begun five years ago that now claims 300 members, some of them former employees.
"We've certainly found merit to allegations that Starbucks violated the National Labor Relations Act," said Marlin Osthus, attorney for the NLRB.
The allegations include prohibiting union postings in nonwork areas, removing union postings in nonwork areas, and instructions to employees to not speak about the union inside the stores, among other things.
The Wobblies, are they still around? It appears so, see here, here and here. This one, alleging dismissal of a Starbucks worker for blogging is particularly galling to me, because I recently went through an examination of aspects of free speech on a blog, and in general.
Actions aimed at chilling free speech are unAmerican - Free Speech is an essential Constitutional right.
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THE IMMEDIATE QUESTION: What about the Minnesota chain with offshore ownership ties, Caribou Coffee? Any reader out there with organizing effort info regarding Caribou? Or is Caribou a big happy family?