Throughout the summer, we have been touring Europe with presentations of film and discussion to draw attention to the efforts of Starbucks workers organizing with the IWW, and to bring to light the vicious union-busting campaign that has been waged by Starbucks Coffee Company. Comrades throughout the continent are expressing immense support with the six fired baristas in New York City and workers struggling in such retail jobs throughout the world. We have reached out to many baristas and have had nothing but positive reactions from fellow workers the IWW, the Confédération Nationale du Travail (CNT-F) in Paris and in Die Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter Union (FAU-IAA) in Berlin. But what's important now is the reaction of Schultz & Co., in light of such events, as their reaction consists of worker intimidation and vicious PR manuevers that had not previously developed on this side of the Atlantic.

PARIS, FRANCE
On June 30, 2007 the CNT-F organized leafletting protests in five different Starbucks locations in Paris, in which comrades leafletted with informational fliers for customers and workers and while chanting "Non non non, a la repression, a Starbucks." At each shop we approached, store managers were waiting at the door for us to show and immediately tried to force us out, tearing up some of the flyers. It was apparent that regional management had warned the store managers that we would be protesting, as there were managers and even some baristas and one or two precarious people in business attire telling us to leave. Other baristas were very supportive but could not openly show this, although they did show interest in our campaign.

At one store, a manager who may have been tipped off that we would be protesting as soon as we marched in, immediately launched at our video camera with physical force; she attempted to take the camera and pushed us against the display of coffee mugs and beans. When the CNT-F comrades came to our defense, the manager tried punching them as well. What followed was more arguing, and ultimately the fight scene did not do well with Starbucks' PR, as many customers and potential customers looked disgusted and left. This incident was astonishing as in front of all the customers the manager was pushing us and screaming, while her brother who does not even work there was demanding we leave. All the CNT-F comrades and us remained calm in front of the customers and it was Starbucks that made a bad image for their customers.

That evening the CNT-F hosted a film night with many interested comrades attending.

FRANKFURT, GERMANY
On July 8, we held a very successful film night with the Frankfurt IWW group with many interested locals arriving and had a long discussion about the Starbucks campaign and the IWW. While there are only a few Starbucks locations in the city, wobblies leafletted in some stores before the event and are hoping to build contacts with baristas in the coming months.

COLOGNE, GERMANY
In the days leading up to our July 10 Starbucks event, wobblies had been flyering many stores in Cologne and have already made contacts with baristas. These baristas have reported that their store managers are already aware of the IWW visit and have warned them against forming unions and attending the event. Both of these actions are against German law as any group of workers can declare a union and receive immediate legal rights and protections, even in just one store, without needing a formal NLRB type process.

Prior to the event, a Cologne IWW organizer was handing out flyers when store managers told him to leave the stores and tried to collect all the flyers, as they were already tipped off about the IWW events.This follows on from Paris where the company is now aware that SWU has linked up with BIROC and CNT-F and they know about the GLAMROC also.

BERLIN, GERMANY
The FAU in Berlin organized an event on the evening of July 12 in coordination with the IWW. Prior to this event, an organizer explained that management at two of the Starbucks stores he leafletted at confiscated the flyers, explaining that he would distribute these leaflets to the workers at a later time. While the event was successful too, with a reporter from the Junge Welt newspaper, it is apparent that German regional management is very aware of the growing Starbucks unionizing and support in berlin as well.

The good news is that there is already a lot of interest in Cologne with baristas wanting to organize and we expect these workers will not be intimidated by managers . This also means that the company has woken up in Europe and are extending their union busting tactics to Paris and Germany. This will surely now follow in the UK as well. They are very worried. So they should be. International radical unions are taking concrete steps to organize in north America and Europe.

Together we win!!


 http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/1843