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News & Events
Philadelphia Jobs With Justice Sends Sweatshop Warning to Starbucks!
ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004
ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004
ALL OF THIS NEWS IS FROM 2004
By Fabricio M. Rodriguez
July 17, Philadelphia- On July 10 activists from the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, Bread and Roses Community Fund, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers Local 3, Graduate Employees Together at University of Pennsylvania, Coalition of Labor Union Women, Jewish Labor Committee, Jobs With Justice, Philadelphia Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, UNITE and AFSCME D.C. 47 and AFSCME Local 1723 surrounded seven Philadelphia Starbucks stores in the first ever ?All-City Starbucks Action.?
The diverse coalition has targeted the coffee company because of its business dealings with Cintas Corporation, a Cincinnati based industrial laundry service. Starbucks, the activists point out, sells its coffee with its public image as a socially conscious company, while at the same time signing lucrative contracts with the nation's largest laundry company. Cintas has a reputation of being ideologically anti-union (Cintas is still largely owned by the Farmer family, the second largest private donors to the Republican Party), and has been found guilty of polluting the environment and discriminating against ethnic minorities in its production plants.
Philadelphia activists took this message to the rainy streets July 10 for a soggy but upbeat event. Fabricio Rodriguez, an organizer for Philadelphia Jobs With Justice who helped organize the event remarked, ?The rain didn?t keep the activists away and the public was largely supportive.?
?People care about these issues. They even stopped to talk to us in the rain,? remarked Rosalind Spigel of the Jewish Labor Committee.
The same could not be said of Starbucks stores managers. Freda Egnal, an activist who coordinated the action at one of the Center City stores was forced to stand in the rain by the store manager, who warned that activists were not welcome under the Starbucks storefront shelter. ?I was just surprised when the manager told me that Starbucks didn?t use Cintas. She forgot to mention that the exclusive Cintas contract is scheduled to go in effect later this year.?
Other Starbucks managers proved just as dismayed by the activist presence. When one activist, Larry Swan of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project presented a Market Street store manager with a letter from Jobs With Justice and a copy of a Philadelphia City Hall Resolution supporting the workers and asking Starbucks and Cintas to comply with their requests for a union, the store manager dismissively said, ?I know what this is.?
Despite the cold shoulder given to the activists from the coffee company, the action signaled a significant escalation in the campaign and gives an indication of what Starbucks will face for the rest of the summer. Mike Scimone, an organizer for the UNITE says, ?The next action will be much bigger.?
Activists plan to expand the action to include stores in Temple University, Montgomery County and Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.
The next big action is tentatively scheduled for August 13.
July 10, ALL CITY Starbucks Action Spreads to Montgomery County!
Philadelphia- As the word gets out the July 10 ALL-CITY Starbucks action spreads like the sweat stains on the uniforms of Cintas workers who toil for bad wages and in poor conditions of the many Cintas Corp production plants.
Swarms of human rights activists will surround Starbucks Coffee/Sweat shops on July 10 to tell Starbucks to come clean and dump their law-breaking business partner, Cintas.
The handbilling actions, which have been slowly gaining steam after the June 12th passing of a Jobs With Justice supported City Hall Resolution, are expected to intensify through out the summer. The July 10, ALL CITY Starbucks action, is the first of its kind and seeks to strongly communicate to the Starbucks Company that the public will not be bamboozled with the companies claims of being a "good company" if it turns a blind-eye to the behavior of its closest associates.
Activists warn "This sweatshop contract between Starbucks and Cintas has soured the brew!"
Confirmed sites of protest include
34th and Walnut,
Callowhill (behind the main Free Library),
16th and Market,
16th and Walnut,
15th and Locust,
18th and Market
Chestnut Hill.
More sites will soon be added.
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Stop Corporate Greed, Join Jobs With Justice Sweatshop Ring Around Starbucks Corporate Collar EXPOSED!
Philadelphia- Starbucks sells its coffee with its reputation as a company that is
concerned about worker rights and the environement. Yet at the same
time, Starbucks signs exclusive laundry service contracts with Cintas
Corporation, a company that is running virtual sweatshops within our own
borders. The Starbucks ties to this insideous, union-busting, polluter
will not go unnoticed!
Philly Jobs With Justice is calling an ALL-CITY Starbucks Action July
10, 12-1, and activists will be surrounding coffee shops all over
Philadelphia, educating the public and generally harassing Starbucks
with our message- Starbucks should do the right thing and break their
contract with Cintas, or tell Cintas to let the workers have their union!
Points of Convergence- (please show up at one of these locations, 12-1, July 10)
34th and Walnut
16th St and Market
16th St. and Walnut
15th St and Locust
4th and South St
Chestnut Hill Starbucks
More to be announced!!!
Please write Fabricio to receive a copy of the July 10 flyer for distribution.
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Take the Jobs With Justice Pledge and become a member!
Human Rights Activists for Peace Wins Grant for Anti-war Work!
June 30, Philadelphia- Human Rights Activists For Peace, a sub-committee of Philadelphia Jobs With Justice, has recently won two grants to bring anti-war and labor activists together. This innovative project is breaking new ground tieing "right to organize" and anti-war struggles. Philly JWJ Airs Starbucks Dirty Laundry
June 26, Philadelphia- Starbucks employees looked a little surprised when a handful of activists surrounded their store on 34th St and Walnut during the busy lunch hour last Thursday (June 24, 2003). Unfortunately for Starbucks, the activists say, this is a sign of things to come.
The handbilling action, which was orchestrated by Philadelphia Area Jobs With Justice, is part of a larger national campaign to pressure Starbucks Coffee Corporation into questioning its ties with Cintas Corporation.
Cintas Corporation, a notoriously anti-union business, is the largest industrial launderer in the country, washing uniforms, mats, towels and aprons for 30% of American businesses that sub-contract the service. Due to the behind the scenes nature of the service Cintas Corp. provides, say activists, they have had to go after Starbucks.
?Part of the Starbucks marketing strategy is that they portray themselves as a forward-thinking and responsible corporate citizen. We have to point out the inconsistency. Starbucks cannot hire someone else, like Cintas who ignores minimum labor rights and environmental standards, to do their dirty work and wash their hands of it, so to speak,? says one activist.
The activists took their message to the streets and even to the comfortable customers hiding from the 95 degree weather in the 34th Street and Walnut Starbucks store.
In the end, a delegation made up of several activists made their way to the counter with a special message for the Starbucks management.
The young cashier told his the manager, ?Someone wants to speak with you, it?s Jobs With Justice!?
The delegation handed over the envelop containing a letter from the City of Philadelphia to Starbucks CEO, Howard Shultz, Cintas Corporation and the city hall resolution on which both were based. Jobs With Justice helped pass the pro-worker resolution through city hall in mid-June. The resolution was sponsored by Councilman Angel Ortiz.
Cintas resolution passes unanimously!
June 17, Philadelphia- A resolution that has been in the works for weeks surprised many when it passed without reservation during last Thursdays City Hall seession. The resolution warns the Cintas Corporation to stop its union busting ways and admonishes Starbucks Coffee for ignoring the plight of the workers at its laudry contractors plants.
The idea of a resolution first can out of a Jobs With Justice/Philadelphia Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice meeting and took shape more quickly than anyone anticipated.
Fabricio Rodriguez, Director of Jobs With Justice, states, "Most of the credit goes to Shoshanna Brickland. She drafted the bulk of the resolution along with the legal department at UNITE. I just rallied support."
Philadelphians can expect to hear a lot more about this campaign in the near future. President of the AFL-CIO has called the Cintas campaign the campaign that will determine of organized labor will continue to have "relevance," and a recent New York Times profile of the campaign has shown it to be of national importance.
The next Jobs With Justice Starbucks Action will take place at the Starbucks on 35th St. and Walnut on June 26, at noon. |
