E-Mail Action: Tell Starbucks to Sign Ethiopian Coffee Farmer Agreement and Respect Right to Organize
- take action at http://www.starbucksunion.org/node/1127
The meeting of Starbucks' CEO with Ethiopia's Prime Minister has not changed the company's mind on a licensing agreement which respects the cultural heritage of coffee farmers. Starbucks says the coffee farmers don't need the licensing agreement just like baristas don't need a union- because the company is already so magnanimous. Tell that to coffee farmers living in brutal poverty and baristas struggling to make ends meet often without health care. More information about the proposed agreement is available on Oxfam's website: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/campaigns/coffee/starbucks.
Please take a moment to register your distaste for this extreme corporate greed from Starbucks: http://starbucksunion.org/node/1127
We are calling on Starbucks to sign an agreement that acknowledges Ethiopia’s ownership of its coffee names. Securing the rights to names such as Sidamo, Harar and Yirgacheffe would enable Ethiopia’s coffee industry and farmers to earn an additional $88 million per year.
• Coffee makes up 40-50% of Ethiopia’s export income;
• 15 million Ethiopians are dependent on the coffee trade;
• One in four people live on less than $1 a day and 80% of its people live on less than $2 a day; and
• Ethiopia ranks in the bottom 10 of the UN human development index of income, health and education.
If Starbucks is genuine in its commitment to farmers it will sign the licensing agreement Ethiopia has offered.
Music
why the long face : http://www.community-tu.org/Templates/internal.asp?nodeid=90010
First Annual Celebration of Resistance at Starbucks Annual Meeting
Sisters and Brothers:
The IWW Starbucks Workers Union and Justice from Bean to Cup! campaign invite you to the Starbucks Annual Shareholder Meeting for a celebration of dissent and resistance. Around the world, cafe workers and coffee farmers are struggling against the exploitative labor practices of the world’s largest coffee chain. Baristas in New York, Chicago, and Rockville have made common cause with union baristas in New Zealand and Canada to create an independent voice on the job and win a living wage. At the same time in locations including Ethiopia and Kenya, coffee farmers are demanding that Starbucks respect their autonomy and right to survive.
As multinational corporations like Starbucks amplify their power across the globe, workers too are globalizing solidarity. From farmers in Korea, to garment workers in Bangladesh, and teachers in Oaxaca, working people are struggling for a liberatory alternative to neoliberalism. The struggle for the dignity of Starbucks workers is part of the same global justice movement.
Starbucks uses the Annual Meeting to showcase its false socially responsible image to investors and the world. This year, people of conscience will crash the party with a message of authentic dignity and autonomy for working people, not greenwashing. Contact IWW member and Starbucks barista Tomer Malchi at 646-753-1167 or tomer.iww@gmail.com to get involved. Join us and carry forward the global struggle for liberty at work and in society:
Celebration of Resistance at the Starbucks Annual Meeting
March 21, 2007 at 9 a.m.
Marion Oliver McCaw Hall at the Seattle Center
Seattle, Washington
Mercer Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues
Who I'd like to meet:
Workers who would like to make changes at work.
Workers who think we are worth more than $7-12 an hour.
Workers who are willing to fight for a better future where our labor is not maximized in the name of corporate profits.
Workers who are tired of being afraid by an atmosphere of surveillance.
Workers who would like a voice at work.
Workers who are willing to stand up to the executives at Starbucks
Workers who feel mistreated at work.
Workers who want the company to promote fair trade coffee.
Workers who are sick at the amount of trash we throw out every day.
Workers who are shocked by the amount of sugar we serve.
Solid Earth and What? The Folk present: beats, roots and leaves, an eight hour charity session of musical goodness at Manchester’s best pub in nearly the countryside: Jackson’s Boat in Sale Water Park. All proceeds to MSF in Darfur.
Utah Phillips is very, very ill. He can no longer perform and urgently needs financial help. He has given so much to the One Big Union and progressive people everywhere. Now is the time to show him what we learned from him and to put into practice the solidarity he taught us.
I.W.W. Musician, Singer, Poet, Writer, and, most of all Organizer - Utah Phillips has spent his life uplifting the spirits of all struggling against the bosses to build a better world. At all his concerts he had it stipulated that wobblies would be present to fundraise and organize.
He has been the voice for "...all those thousands of unnamed wobblies buried in unmarked graves throughout the west." Don’t let that voice go unanswered.
Cards, messages and money can be sent to: UTAH PHILLIPS BOX 1235 NEVADA CITY, CA 95959
hope things are well with you guys. keep on organizing!!!
improving the conditions of low paying service industry jobs and helping these workers organize is of crucial importance to advance the labour movement. solidarity!
The CIW has launched a petition campaign to demand that Burger King work with the CIW to improve wages & working conditions for farmworkers in its supply chain, and join in an industry-wide effort to eliminate modern-day slavery from Florida's fields.
We need your help to make this campaign a success! Click here to add your name to the petition and let Burger King's executives know that it's time that they take responsibility for the human rights crisis in their supply chain.
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