Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to WOKF Daily with me
Speaker 1: your girl Danielle Moody recording from the Home Bunker, Folks,
Speaker 1: So it is official. Senator Tim Scott has decided to
Speaker 1: throw his hat into the ring and announce his run
Speaker 1: for the presidency. And what does he say, as the
Speaker 1: lone black Republican senator That racism doesn't exist. And anyone
Speaker 1: who tells you that America is a racist country is
Speaker 1: lying to you or just maybe has eyes and ears.
Speaker 1: We have watched and seen as hate crimes in this
Speaker 1: country have skyrocketed. We have seen how racial incidents have
Speaker 1: been on the rise. We have witnessed reports from our
Speaker 1: very own intelligence officers who tell us that white domestic
Speaker 1: terrorism is the threat to our democracy and not foreign interference.
Speaker 1: And so given all of that information, not to mention
Speaker 1: the erasure of black history that we are seeing in
Speaker 1: states like Florida, the gun violence and mass shootings and
Speaker 1: police killings that we see, the lynching that just occurred
Speaker 1: in New York City by a white man against a
Speaker 1: black unhoused man. I mean, give me a fucking break,
Speaker 1: like I get it, Tim Scott, you should be proud
Speaker 1: of how high you've been able to rise in your
Speaker 1: own career given all of the realities that black people
Speaker 1: in this country live with, and to point those things
Speaker 1: out is not to live in a state of grievance.
Speaker 1: It's to live in the state of reality, right, and
Speaker 1: not this fallacy that oh you too. If you just
Speaker 1: pretend that racism doesn't exist, and that your party is
Speaker 1: not the perpetuator of said racism and racist violence in
Speaker 1: this country, then all will be well, well, we can't
Speaker 1: all afford to live in the fantasy that Tam Scott
Speaker 1: announced in his speech this past week, but you know,
Speaker 1: bravo to him for trying. You know, folks, later this
Speaker 1: week we are also supposed to hear Ron death Santis'
Speaker 1: announcement unless he decides to continue to push that off
Speaker 1: as well. And the man is as charismatic as I
Speaker 1: would assume a wet noodle. But Alisa, wet noodle can
Speaker 1: give you some type of stickiness in grit ron DeSantis
Speaker 1: gives you nothing. He fades on the national stage, and
Speaker 1: while he continues to legislate hate in Florida to all
Speaker 1: of the applause of his Republican sickophants, what he is
Speaker 1: selling in Florida is not going to be purchased by
Speaker 1: the American people nationwide. Speaking of which Gavin Newsom, governor
Speaker 1: of California, has come out and has begun to point
Speaker 1: the finger and ask for the records from publishers in
Speaker 1: this country who publish the textbooks because they are contorting
Speaker 1: themselves to follow Ron DeSantis' lead. And the reality here, folks,
Speaker 1: is that publishers only publish one book. So if you think,
Speaker 1: just because you don't live in Florida or in Texas,
Speaker 1: that your kids are going to be receiving the quality
Speaker 1: education that they need, think again. And I would hope
Speaker 1: that what Gavin Newsom is doing that maybe our own
Speaker 1: governor here in New York, Governor Hokeel, would maybe want
Speaker 1: to step in, being as how she presides over the
Speaker 1: largest public school system in the entire fucking country with
Speaker 1: over a million kids. So if capitalism really does rule
Speaker 1: the day, then maybe the two most populous states with
Speaker 1: the largest public school systems should start to bring these
Speaker 1: publishers to fucking tasks on what it is that they
Speaker 1: are choosing to print and not to print, and let
Speaker 1: Florida flip the bill on their own version of American
Speaker 1: history and let that money come out of their state's pocket. Right.
Speaker 1: Speaking of things coming out of folks pockets, Coming up next,
Speaker 1: my conversation with Starbucks worker and member of the Starbucks
Speaker 1: Union Michelle Eisen. We have a really great and frank
Speaker 1: conversation about what has happened to Starbucks. This company used
Speaker 1: to be revered as the new way to treat workers,
Speaker 1: referring to their workers as partners, giving them, you know,
Speaker 1: college credits and you know benefits and all of these things.
Speaker 1: But as Starbucks began to take over the country, they
Speaker 1: started to focus less on employee satisfaction and employee pay
Speaker 1: in compensation and started to focus more on their shareholders
Speaker 1: and CEOs. And so we sit down with Michelle Eisen,
Speaker 1: who brings our attention to the ongoing legal battles and
Speaker 1: unionization that is happening at Starbucks stores across the country.
Speaker 1: That conversation is coming up next, folks. I am very
Speaker 1: happy to welcome to WOKF Daily for the very first time.
Speaker 1: Michelle Eisen, who is an organizer for Starbucks Workers United,
Speaker 1: a barista in Buffalo, New York, and has been an
Speaker 1: advocate on the way in which Starbucks workers have united
Speaker 1: across the country to unionize, and you know it was funny.
Speaker 1: I went to your Twitter, Michelle, and I saw one
Speaker 1: of your pinned tweets from twenty twenty two from last
Speaker 1: year that said that Starbucks like happy anniversary to the
Speaker 1: fact that you went from zero unions to now. I
Speaker 1: just saw in a recent article three hundred stores across
Speaker 1: the country are now unionized. So I just wanted to
Speaker 1: give you an opper tunity to open up and speak
Speaker 1: about how much things have shifted and how quickly they
Speaker 1: have shifted because of Starbucks workers united.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I think actually as of today, we're at three
Speaker 2: hundred and twelve, which is a pretty cool number.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so.
Speaker 2: A year and a half ago, a little over a
Speaker 2: year and a half ago, there were zero unionized Starbucks
Speaker 2: in the US, and then you know, as of today
Speaker 2: what I just said, three hundred and twelve, and that
Speaker 2: is a result of workers, in this case, Starbucks workers
Speaker 2: acknowledging their worth, acknowledging what their labor is worth to
Speaker 2: this multi billion dollar multinational corporation, and standing up and
Speaker 2: demanding better, you know, demanding better from a company that
Speaker 2: not only states that they are a better company, but
Speaker 2: has the resources. If any company in the world has
Speaker 2: the resources to pay their workers fairly and improve working conditions,
Speaker 2: it's a company like Starbucks. And what you're seeing on
Speaker 2: the CUSPO this you know, global pandemic, where Starbucks workers were,
Speaker 2: you know, on the front lines. We were Starbucks stayed open,
Speaker 2: we were working customer facing positions for the entirety of
Speaker 2: the pandemic in you know, pretty deplorable conditions in some cases,
Speaker 2: for a company that could have afforded to take care
Speaker 2: of us better and just simply did not. And the
Speaker 2: result is what you're seeing. You're seeing workers saying, hey,
Speaker 2: something's not adding up. You know, this is a company
Speaker 2: that is boasting record breaking profits in the midst of
Speaker 2: a global pandemic. Not just profits, but record breaking profits.
Speaker 2: And you've got a workforce that can't afford to pay
Speaker 2: their rent and put groceries in their fridge with the
Speaker 2: same paycheck. That's not adding up. And so what you're
Speaker 2: seeing right now is workers acknowledging that and realizing that
Speaker 2: their labor is incredibly valuable it is the company, and
Speaker 2: demanding that Starbucks show up and do better by us.
Speaker 1: You know, It's so interesting and I think for a
Speaker 1: lot of people that have been following the story as
Speaker 1: it has been developing over the last year and a half,
Speaker 1: is that you know Howard Schultz, the former CEO, had
Speaker 1: been hailed, you know for many many years as you know,
Speaker 1: the conscientious CEO as the one that referred to the
Speaker 1: employees of Starbucks as quote unquote partners, right, somebody that
Speaker 1: was saying, oh, well, we'll give you credits for college
Speaker 1: and we'll do these things. And so I want you
Speaker 1: to talk about how the public narrative of who Starbucks
Speaker 1: created its image to be and what the actuality was
Speaker 1: of those workers on the ground that many Americans, millly,
Speaker 1: tens and millions of Americans interfaced with on a daily basis.
Speaker 2: Sure, so when Starbucks came out with all of these
Speaker 2: great benefits, I think this was the early nineties. I'm
Speaker 2: sure somebody will fact check for me, but that sounds
Speaker 2: about right. It was groundbreaking. You know, it was one
Speaker 2: of the first companies to offer the benefits packages that
Speaker 2: Starbucks offered in the food service industry, which is where
Speaker 2: we you know, the category we fall into. And you know,
Speaker 2: they were one of the first to offer things like benefits,
Speaker 2: eligibility for part time workers, which is where I come in.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm a production stage manager by trade. You know,
Speaker 2: a job and the arts in this country rarely comes
Speaker 2: with health benefits, and so I needed something that I
Speaker 2: could work part time that would supplement my income and
Speaker 2: allow me to partake in health benefits. That's the whole
Speaker 2: reason I came to the company, you know, thirteen years
Speaker 2: ago almost And at that point, I think that they
Speaker 2: were the company that they professed to be, you know,
Speaker 2: or they worked really hard to be that company. They
Speaker 2: wanted to have a reputation for taking care of their workers.
Speaker 2: They wanted to have a reputation for caring about their
Speaker 2: communities and caring about the environment. But things started to slip.
Speaker 2: You know, Greed becomes a huge factor. Capitalism is what
Speaker 2: it is, and you know, all of a sudden, they're
Speaker 2: really answering more to their shareholders than they are to
Speaker 2: their workforce. And that's what I saw as a worker.
Speaker 2: As a worker for over a decade, I saw these
Speaker 2: things that brought me to the company start to be
Speaker 2: slowly pulled away from the workers. You know, I saw
Speaker 2: my benefits packages they decreased in coverage and my cost
Speaker 2: increased for me. The kicker was twenty eighteen, so we're
Speaker 2: pre pandemic right. Twenty eighteen, I broke my ankle. Now
Speaker 2: I've been working for the company for eight years at
Speaker 2: this point, I've been paying into my benefits the entire time.
Speaker 2: My benefits were so lackluster that I ended up paying
Speaker 2: for this entire angle break out of my pocket. You know,
Speaker 2: I had to pay out of my pocket with health
Speaker 2: insurance through this company. That's where I started questioning, kind
Speaker 2: of what a what am I still doing here? The
Speaker 2: only reason I came here is for these benefits, and
Speaker 2: b what is happening? What is happening to this company?
Speaker 2: Why are these changes shifting? So what you're seeing as
Speaker 2: a company that's been able to ride out this reputation
Speaker 2: when there's not really anything to back it up anymore.
Speaker 2: And I think that's what the public really needs to see.
Speaker 2: What you are hearing. What you hear about Starbucks, the
Speaker 2: public narrative, the narrative that they want you to all
Speaker 2: believe it Maybe was the company at one point, but
Speaker 2: lots of changes have happened. I just stopped into a
Speaker 2: store just this morning where I had contact with a
Speaker 2: worker from the very first store that I started at
Speaker 2: and she's been with the company now, you know, eleven years.
Speaker 3: And I said, hey, how are things going.
Speaker 2: This is also a unionized store, by the way, and
Speaker 2: it's been really rough for us at these unionized stores.
Speaker 2: It's been rough in general, but the union workers are
Speaker 2: really taking a smack from this company. And I said, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, how how are you How's it going? And
Speaker 2: she said, you know, it's it's ups and downs and
Speaker 2: I said, yeah, I know, and she goes, it's just
Speaker 2: not the company it used to be, and I said, no,
Speaker 2: it's not the company used to be. And what you're
Speaker 2: seeing our workers like me recognizing that and saying, hey,
Speaker 2: can we help you get it back? Can we help
Speaker 2: you get your mission back on track? Can we help
Speaker 2: you get back to the place you were when people
Speaker 2: were seeking Starbucks out because it was a better company.
Speaker 2: And that's what I think I'd like people to realize.
Speaker 2: We're not doing this because we hate Starbucks. We're doing
Speaker 2: this because we recognize what the company used to be
Speaker 2: and we want to get it back to that place.
Speaker 2: We want to get it back on track.
Speaker 1: You know, you mentioned greed, which is you know, the
Speaker 1: kind of undertone of the demise of most companies right
Speaker 1: when they divest from their employees as a way to
Speaker 1: invest in their shareholders and their CEOs. And we see
Speaker 1: this time and time again. It's nothing that is new.
Speaker 1: I think that for a while in this country, unions
Speaker 1: had been demonized.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: The unions came out of a place because people were
Speaker 1: dying in factories in the twentieth century, and they were
Speaker 1: and child children were being employed as laborers, which many
Speaker 1: in the South are trying to do again. And you
Speaker 1: were seeing all of the ways in which workers were
Speaker 1: being taken advantage of by these major companies and they
Speaker 1: had no recourse. So the birth of unions, what right,
Speaker 1: was to give workers the ability to collective bargain, to
Speaker 1: be able to fight for conditions that were safe, that
Speaker 1: were clean, and pay that allowed them to work with dignity.
Speaker 1: And so I want you to be able to talk
Speaker 1: to you know this kind of political divide with regard
Speaker 1: to the purpose and the place of unions, because you know,
Speaker 1: when I listened recently as Howard Schultz was was testifying,
Speaker 1: you would think that he was like a staunch Republican,
Speaker 1: and I was like blown away by the way that
Speaker 1: he was demonizing and saying that unions and unionizing is
Speaker 1: the problem with business in America. So I want to
Speaker 1: get your response to that.
Speaker 2: It's really quite fascinating because you would think that this
Speaker 2: is something that would actually cross party lines. You know,
Speaker 2: this is something that a lot of times when you're
Speaker 2: looking at you know, unions, you know, let's say based
Speaker 2: in the South or you know, somewhere in the Midwest
Speaker 2: or Middle America, a lot of their workforce, I would say,
Speaker 2: would fall to the side, you know, of the Republicans.
Speaker 2: They would be you know, they kind of they're you know,
Speaker 2: working class, and you know, you know, you got the
Speaker 2: American flag on their tailgate and next to their union strong.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's it really should.
Speaker 2: Cross party lines when you're dealing with worker rights and
Speaker 2: you know, the overall workforce.
Speaker 3: So it was interesting.
Speaker 2: I was in the room during that testimony, and you
Speaker 2: really would see, you know, you had the Democrats on
Speaker 2: the committee asking some really tough questions. You know, why
Speaker 2: are you treating your workers like this? Why are you
Speaker 2: firing union supporters, Why are you not coming to the
Speaker 2: bargaining table and negotiating a fair contract? And you know,
Speaker 2: they could have been a little tougher but there were
Speaker 2: some good questions ask and then you had the Republicans
Speaker 2: on the committee kind of praising him for you know,
Speaker 2: and patting him on the back, and I'm and I'm like,
Speaker 2: this can't possibly be what this man actually wants his
Speaker 2: legacy to be. This can't you know, like Okay, the
Speaker 2: general confusion of sitting in that room and seeing how
Speaker 2: richolds who. You know, this is a man that right
Speaker 2: after the twenty sixteen election addressed all of his workers
Speaker 2: basically saying, listen, what happened yesterday is not what any
Speaker 2: of us wanted. This is not the person we wanted
Speaker 2: elected to run our country. And I want you to
Speaker 2: know that. You know, as a company, we're going to
Speaker 2: protect you. We're going to take care of you know,
Speaker 2: our LGBTQ partners, we're going to take care of our
Speaker 2: you know, we're going to make sure that, no matter
Speaker 2: who's running the country, that this company takes care of you.
Speaker 2: And I remember thinking, Wow, this is this is a
Speaker 2: good company to work for. This is a man who
Speaker 2: who is saying, doesn't matter what where the direction this
Speaker 2: country is going, and we're going to make sure as
Speaker 2: long as you work for this company that you're taking
Speaker 2: care of that is not the man I saw presenting
Speaker 2: himself at this hearing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, just a few months ago, it.
Speaker 2: Was just complete night and day. It is kind of
Speaker 2: fascinating to see that there's any argument when it comes
Speaker 2: to workers saying, hey, don't you think I should you know,
Speaker 2: not have to fear for my life when I go
Speaker 2: into to work every day. Don't you think I should
Speaker 2: be able to work forty hours a week for any company,
Speaker 2: but certainly for a company like Starbucks and be able
Speaker 2: to pay my bills on that salary and have a
Speaker 2: family on that salary, and you know, and the fact
Speaker 2: that anyone can stand up and say no, you don't
Speaker 2: deserve that.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Part of it is, I think this crazy mentality that
Speaker 2: just exists in general in the service industry, but is
Speaker 2: very very very pervasive in this country, which is that
Speaker 2: these are jobs that don't deserve these things. You know,
Speaker 2: if you find yourself working at McDonald's or working at
Speaker 2: a Starbucks, you don't deserve respect, and you definitely don't
Speaker 2: deserve fair wages, and you don't deserve safe working conditions
Speaker 2: because you must have done something in your life that
Speaker 2: landed you in this job. You know, and maybe you
Speaker 2: should have done better, or maybe you should go out
Speaker 2: and find something better. And what we're saying is why
Speaker 2: why does any job come does Every job should come
Speaker 2: with respect. Every worker should go into their place of employment,
Speaker 2: no matter what it is, and feel like they are
Speaker 2: worth something. And to hear people say you don't deserve
Speaker 2: that because you know, you get up and put on
Speaker 2: a green apron every day and make lattes, it's kind
Speaker 2: of mind boggling to me because these are not starter jobs.
Speaker 2: There are millions of workers in the service industry and
Speaker 2: that's literally their income. That's how they make their living,
Speaker 2: and that's how they take care of themselves and their families.
Speaker 2: And it's insane to me that people just think those
Speaker 2: workers are replaceable, you know, like a group of fifteen
Speaker 2: year olds can't run any business, and nor should they
Speaker 2: be expected to their children. There have to be seasoned
Speaker 2: workers in there that are, you know, running that place
Speaker 2: and taking people under their wing and training people. And
Speaker 2: it's just it's really infuriating to you know, we're just
Speaker 2: told to accept that this is what it is if
Speaker 2: you happen to work in the service industry.
Speaker 1: You know, what I think is really interesting too, because
Speaker 1: I don't know if it is a sense of like
Speaker 1: deep ignorance combined with the nostalgia, but I feel like
Speaker 1: the pushback and particularly around raising the minimum wage, comes
Speaker 1: from this belief that service jobs in particular, or low
Speaker 1: or lower wage jobs are ones that are held by kids,
Speaker 1: and so, oh, you're being supported by your parents and
Speaker 1: this is just your side gig to go and buy
Speaker 1: an xbox or go and like, you know, hang out
Speaker 1: with your friends and so in it. And I feel
Speaker 1: like I want to ask you, like, where did that
Speaker 1: fantasy or that ignorance come from? Because even I will say,
Speaker 1: in my own family, I've had to shift some of
Speaker 1: my family member's views on raising the minimum wage because
Speaker 1: in our community, it was, you know, the summer job
Speaker 1: was to go work at the grocery store. The summer
Speaker 1: job was to go and work in retail for a
Speaker 1: couple of months and then you head to college or
Speaker 1: you go back to high school or what have you.
Speaker 1: And so they saw these young you know, these young
Speaker 1: kids at one time or another in these positions, and
Speaker 1: they're saying, well, why do they need fifteen dollars an hour?
Speaker 1: They're living at home, they don't have any bills, right,
Speaker 1: so can you can you burst that bubble for us
Speaker 1: or tell us where, where and why it originated to
Speaker 1: begin with.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know for certain, but my suspicion
Speaker 2: is that you know, these are places grocery stores and
Speaker 2: food service places that there are some of the few
Speaker 2: places probably that will hire people who are just starting out,
Speaker 2: you know, who have never had a first job before,
Speaker 2: because there are aspects to those jobs, though those are
Speaker 2: getting fewer and fewer and you know, more far right
Speaker 2: right where you know, you can bring someone in who's
Speaker 2: never you know, worked to cash register or something, and
Speaker 2: you can train them to do that, you know, relatively
Speaker 2: quickly and they can hold that position. But to assume
Speaker 2: that these places are only made up of those people,
Speaker 2: it just doesn't frankly, doesn't make any sense. I mean,
Speaker 2: somebody has to be there to train these people. Somebody
Speaker 2: has to have been there long enough to you know, know,
Speaker 2: where things are, be able to do inventory, be able
Speaker 2: to place orders, be able you know. So it's just
Speaker 2: I think it's because there are places that allow people
Speaker 2: to start you know, their working life there. But that
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that that place is solely made up of
Speaker 2: fifteen and sixteen year olds. So that's the only thing
Speaker 2: that I can think is that maybe that's where it
Speaker 2: come from. Yeah, those are you know, dairy queen or
Speaker 2: you know, those kind of starter jobs that people because
Speaker 2: there's a way to get in there on the ground floor,
Speaker 2: and they'll they're willing to put in the training and
Speaker 2: sometimes it's minimal, especially if it's something where they know
Speaker 2: they're only going to have you for a few months.
Speaker 2: But in a case like Starbucks, I mean the skill level,
Speaker 2: you could not just pull someone off the street and
Speaker 2: stick them in a green apron behind that counter and
Speaker 2: expect things to run smoothly. It would be a massive disaster.
Speaker 2: You know, you're you're aside from a safety issue, I mean,
Speaker 2: you're dealing with very hot liquid, you're dealing with all
Speaker 2: sorts of machinery and all sorts of things that are
Speaker 2: constantly breaking down and have to be repaired.
Speaker 3: So it's this whole sort.
Speaker 2: Of you know, unskilled labor, which is just an oxymoron.
Speaker 2: There's no if there's no unskilled labor. You know, you
Speaker 2: have to have some level of skill to do every
Speaker 2: sort of job right.
Speaker 3: It has to be something out right.
Speaker 2: So it's just it's very it's frustrating. And the other
Speaker 2: flip side of that is, let's just say that, you know,
Speaker 2: some place is able to function with the workforce between
Speaker 2: the ages of fifteen and eighteen.
Speaker 3: Let's just say that that exists.
Speaker 2: Do those workers not deserve fair wages and not deserve
Speaker 2: safe working conditions because they fall within a certain age bracket?
Speaker 2: I mean, you want your children going into work for
Speaker 2: a place that doesn't care about their safety and doesn't
Speaker 2: value their labor. So I mean, there's really there's no
Speaker 2: good argument for any of that, you know, it does.
Speaker 2: I mean, there were high school kids at the Elmwood location,
Speaker 2: you know, the first location to unionize. There was a
Speaker 2: couple of high school kids who were there. Now, I
Speaker 2: should note that's a very clear shift in Starbucks hiring
Speaker 2: as well. You don't have to really go into that,
Speaker 2: but if you want to look at how the business
Speaker 2: model of Starbucks as a whole has shifted. When I
Speaker 2: started with the company, we didn't hire anybody under the
Speaker 2: age of eighteen for a multitude of reasons.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, I'm assuming safety being one of them, probably
Speaker 3: restrictions on working hours being another one. And then you know,
Speaker 3: lo and behold.
Speaker 2: You see, here's the pandemic, and you know, people are struggling,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, they're like, sure, you're sixteen
Speaker 2: and you want to come this, you know. And I'm
Speaker 2: not saying that's a bad thing, but I'm just saying
Speaker 2: the company has shifted. The business model of the company
Speaker 2: has changed. Howard himself was quoted an article last year,
Speaker 2: you know, saying, Hey, once upon a time, I wanted this,
Speaker 2: this coffeehouse experience. That's why I opened Starbucks. I wanted
Speaker 2: people to come in and have this be their third place.
Speaker 2: You know, you've got your home, you've got your work,
Speaker 2: and this is your Starbucks, your third place where you
Speaker 2: can come and hang out and do work and read
Speaker 2: a book. But guess what, I'm actually moving away from
Speaker 2: that model now. Now I'm going to you know, grab
Speaker 2: and go where I don't really care if you have
Speaker 2: an experience, come in and you know, spend your money
Speaker 2: and leave. Clearly, that's not what he said in those words,
Speaker 2: but that's the gist of it. It's he himself is
Speaker 2: moving away from this sort of you know, what the
Speaker 2: company would call customer connection, which I think is is
Speaker 2: huge and it should tell you exactly where what kind
Speaker 2: of what side of the line they're falling on. It's
Speaker 2: come in and give your you know, make your purchase,
Speaker 2: give them money, and then if your experience is subpart, well,
Speaker 2: you know, we already have your money. So it's just
Speaker 2: it's sad. And it's not the company that I started
Speaker 2: working for. And it's actually not the company that he founded,
Speaker 2: you know, it's not the company that he runs around
Speaker 2: saying is you know, the be all and end all
Speaker 2: of the service of the service industry and of the
Speaker 2: coffee industry. And so if we can somehow collectively as
Speaker 2: the workers come together and you know, by demanding better
Speaker 2: for ourselves, inevitably make the company better, it's a win
Speaker 2: win situation. And I think that's what is still so
Speaker 2: shocking to me, is that it's being fought so hard,
Speaker 2: but for what reason. No one's been able to give
Speaker 2: us a concrete reason as to why this shouldn't be.
Speaker 2: You know, Starbucks could do an about face tomorrow and
Speaker 2: you know, really come to the table and really bargain
Speaker 2: a fair contract with these workers, and the world would
Speaker 2: applaud them. You know, they would be would they say there,
Speaker 2: you know, they'd set the standard for the service industry,
Speaker 2: which they've done time and time again. Most people would
Speaker 2: forget all of the egregious labor law violations, which are
Speaker 2: in the thousands at this point, you know, most of us.
Speaker 2: Not me, and certainly not the two hundred plus fired
Speaker 2: workers who have been fired for trying to organize their Starbucks,
Speaker 2: but most of the world would be like, look at Starbucks.
Speaker 2: Look at how amazing they are respecting their worker's right
Speaker 2: to organize and negotiating a fair contract. The public loves
Speaker 2: to see. I mean, we're at a point where the
Speaker 2: public likes to see employers take care of their workers.
Speaker 2: You know, they like to support businesses who are doing
Speaker 2: the right thing. We just saw Ben and Jerry's. We
Speaker 2: just saw that, you know, Ben and Jerry's shop in Vermont,
Speaker 2: file and the company came out and said, hey, not
Speaker 2: only are we going to respect us labor law, but
Speaker 2: we're going to sign a non interference agreement, essentially saying
Speaker 2: we're going to stand back and allow this union election
Speaker 2: to go through without trying to come in and you know,
Speaker 2: illegally change things and sort of push things in our favor.
Speaker 2: And if the union wins, we're going to bargain a
Speaker 2: fair you know, we're going to sit down and bargain
Speaker 2: a fair contract. And everyone was like, this is amazing.
Speaker 2: You know, go Ben and Jerry's.
Speaker 3: Ben. You know, Starbucks is like the Ben and Jerry's
Speaker 3: of coffee.
Speaker 2: So the fact that they are not taking that route
Speaker 2: is you know, it sounds so naive, but part of
Speaker 2: me is still shocked. You know, I've seen this company
Speaker 2: make some serious mistakes in thirteen years. I've seen them
Speaker 2: make some missteps. I've seen them acknowledge those mistakes, and
Speaker 2: I've seen them do whatever they can to write those mistakes.
Speaker 2: So that's really what I thought was going to happen here.
Speaker 2: I thought a little bit of resistance at the beginning,
Speaker 2: but they're going to realize this is the right who
Speaker 2: wants to be on the wrong side of history. You
Speaker 2: can't look at what's going on here and say Starbucks
Speaker 2: is on the right side of this fight.
Speaker 3: They're just simply not.
Speaker 2: So the fact that they're still fighting so hard, that
Speaker 2: we're all still fighting so hard is kind of mind boggling.
Speaker 1: Michelle, last question for you is, you know, people listening
Speaker 1: to this go to Starbucks, right they go to Starbucks.
Speaker 1: They spend their money and they felt like they were
Speaker 1: doing good. And I'm just curious, what do you say
Speaker 1: to people to the consumer who believes in what it
Speaker 1: is that you were doing at Starbucks workers United and
Speaker 1: wants to support your efforts and doesn't know how.
Speaker 2: So there's a couple of things that can be done.
Speaker 2: If you are in an area that has a store
Speaker 2: that is either unionized or is trying to unionize, and
Speaker 2: you can patronize that store, I would say, please do that.
Speaker 2: Let those workers know that you believe in what they're
Speaker 2: doing and that you're standing with them. One of the
Speaker 2: things that Howard did when he stepped back into power
Speaker 2: to try to stop this campaign was he took all
Speaker 2: of these asks that the union had made and some
Speaker 2: early bargaining bargaining sessions. I use air quotes for those
Speaker 2: of you who can't see me, because there wasn't really
Speaker 2: any actual bargaining going on. But he took things that
Speaker 2: the union was asking for, and he went and granted
Speaker 2: those benefits, things like credit card tipping, which the company
Speaker 2: had never had before. The union asked for it, but
Speaker 2: he said, I'm going to give you all these benefits,
Speaker 2: but I'm not going to give them to the unionized workers.
Speaker 2: I'm going to give these benefits to the non union workers.
Speaker 3: That happened, I mean that took place.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, So there are non union stores who are
Speaker 2: making some of these workers are making, you know, up
Speaker 2: to four dollars more an hour than a union store
Speaker 2: down the street because that store is allowing credit card
Speaker 2: tipping and the union store is not being allowed, you know,
Speaker 2: not being granted credit card tipping. So, you know, we're
Speaker 2: being retaliated against and punished, literally punished for wanting, you know,
Speaker 2: for executing our right as a US citizen to organize
Speaker 2: our workplace. So if you are around a unionized store
Speaker 2: or a store that you've heard is unionizing, and you
Speaker 2: can come in and you know, patronize that store and
Speaker 2: you know, tell the workers that are doing a good job,
Speaker 2: throw an extra five in the tip jar or something
Speaker 2: along those lines, I would highly, highly recommend that the
Speaker 2: other thing is just getting the word out there that
Speaker 2: this is happening and that the company is not behaving
Speaker 2: in the way that the company, you know, a company
Speaker 2: like Starbucks should be behaving. You know, there are egregious
Speaker 2: acts of labor law violation that are in litigation some
Speaker 2: have already been they've been found guilty of and you know,
Speaker 2: now it's just the long court process of what are
Speaker 2: the remedies for that. It's been really hard to be,
Speaker 2: you know, a worker doing this. But what's hopeful is that,
Speaker 2: in spite of the way that the company has reacted,
Speaker 2: in spite of the way they're treating their workers who
Speaker 2: are trying to organize, there are stores filing union petitions
Speaker 2: every every week. We still have workers who are brave
Speaker 2: enough to join this fight and say, you know what,
Speaker 2: we know what's going to come at us because we've
Speaker 2: watched it happen. I don't know if I would have
Speaker 2: been brave enough to do this if I wasn't at
Speaker 2: the first store, if I had been at Store one
Speaker 2: hundred and I'd seen what the company had done to
Speaker 2: the workers who were for unionizing, what I've been brave
Speaker 2: enough to stand up and say I'm still going to
Speaker 2: join this fight. There are hundreds of Starbucks workers still
Speaker 2: choosing to join this fight, you know, every month, in
Speaker 2: spite of the way the company is reacting. And I
Speaker 2: think if that isn't you know, the epitome of hopeful
Speaker 2: and hope for this new sort of frontier of of
Speaker 2: the labor movement.
Speaker 3: I don't know what is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Michelle, I thank you so much for making
Speaker 1: the time to join woke AF, but really for the
Speaker 1: work that you are doing to create a better environment
Speaker 1: for workers, one that has dignity, that has respect, that
Speaker 1: has safety, which should just be the norm. It shouldn't
Speaker 1: be something that you have to fight for. But I
Speaker 1: really appreciate you making the time to join woke A
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. That is it for me today.
Speaker 1: Dear friends on WOKAF as always power to the people
Speaker 1: and to all the people power, Get woke and stay
Speaker 1: woke as fuck.