Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Everyone! Thank you for coming out today to honor Dr. King’s legacy by supporting workers struggling for change at their jobs. Today we are out in front of my store. I’ve worked at Starbucks for over 3 years and most of that time have worked alongside my coworkers, here and throughout the U.S. and Canada, in the IWW Starbucks Workers Union for better wages, more consistent scheduling, better working conditions, and especially more respect on the job. We have made serious strides, in the five years of existence, we have gotten 3 pay increases in New York City and have many individual grievances with management worked out in the favor of the workers. Though we still have a long battle ahead.

 

In Dr. King’s last days, in the midst of fighting injustice on many fronts, he went to Memphis, Tennessee. Many remember that but what most folks fail to remember is why exactly he was in Memphis to begin with. Dr. King went to Memphis to support 1,100 black sanitation workers that had gone on strike for job safety, better wages and benefits, and union recognition.

Angry Howard at a Stockholders’ Meeting

So when the CEO of one of the biggest union busting companies in the world, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, has the nerve to say that Dr. King would quote "be proud of what we are able to provide people all over the world, everyday" end quote, one has to laugh.

 

What are we providing, Howard? Overpriced coffee that has turned into a mass status symbol. That white and green cup alluring people into thousands of Starbucks everyday and robbing them of their hard-earned cash with deceptive promises of using their money for socially responsible means. Howard wants customers to believe that Dr. King would have loved Starbucks. Howard wants you to believe that even though the vast majority of coffee that Starbucks sells isn’t fairly traded, that the farmers are treated well regardless. They also want you to believe that baristas are given high wages, excellent benefits, and treated like royalty.

 

In the Starbucks Workers Union we found through a delegation to a coffee farm in Ethiopia that was growing Starbucks coffee, that farmers are not well compensated for their labor. Farmers were disgusted to learn that Starbucks was telling the world about how well they were paid when entire families were living in poverty. And as for baristas, the majority of Starbucks baristas in the U.S. are making minimum wage. And in Santiago, Chile – where another union for Starbucks Baristas began last year, baristas are making less in one hour than they are selling a small cappuccino for in their stores. While Howard Schultz gave himself a $1.3 Million dollar raise and raised drink prices drastically, the company made deeper cuts on labor hours as a "thank you" for our hard labor that is responsible for keeping this company afloat. People always say, ‘at least you have benefits’…well, Starbucks insures less of its workforce than often criticized Walmart. And in order to receive benefits we must pay large out of pocket fees and high deductibles and that’s if we are given enough hours to qualify and with the slashing of hours, many workers have lost their health insurance.

 

Also, why are workers the first to be told that they should live in silent gratitude for the scraps that are thrown our way? While CEOs and Executives live the high life on what I consider our stolen wages. Howard Schultz was already worth $1.9 Billion dollars before getting his million dollar raise while his workers struggle to survive. The only explanation for that is simply greed.

 

I do not wish to put words into Dr. King’s mouth but I’m fairly confident that Dr. King would not be proud of what you are doing Howard. King lost his life while in Memphis supporting workers that were organizing a union. King fought on the side of the poor and disenfranchised his entire life and I seriously doubt he would have been proud of a company that has spent millions in an effort to squash its employees’ right to organize. Workers at Starbucks have been fighting to unionize for many years and in many countries. And without fail, each and every time, workers have been met with mass firings, shop closings, illegal interrogation, spying on union supporters, violating various labor laws, and illegal retaliation. Starbucks would rather spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on union busting law firms like Akin Gump to fight in court over whether or not workers should be allowed their legal right to wearing union pins on the job, or post union-related fliers up at work, or engage in legally protected work stoppages in support of a picket – than to raise our wages, restore our eroding benefits, make health insurance more affordable, and treat workers with respect.

 

We are asking for time and a half pay for workers that must work on MLK Day at Starbucks. Something they already do for 5 other holidays. We are asking this because it’s the right thing to do. It would put a little more money in the pocket of broke baristas but also send the message that Dr. King and his legacy are not forgotten.

 

We, in the union, honor Dr. King’s legacy everyday by refusing to live in poverty because of corporate greed. We are one collective voice that cannot be silenced – no matter how loudly the corporate giant grumbles.

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