I.W.W. grinds out Starbucks victory

The I.W.W. Starbucks Workers Union has won a labor victory against the biggest coffee chain in the world, due in part to consumer boycotts that took place in the Village area. In a settlement brokered by the National Labor Relations Board on March 7, Starbucks agreed to rehire employees who had been fired for union-organizing activities, to invalidate national policies that prohibited the sharing of written union information and joining the union on company property and to invalidate the national no-union-pin policy, which had led to workers being sent home without pay for refusing to take their “Wobblies” union pins off. Starbucks will also be required to pay $2,000 to the employees who lost wages due to union-busting disciplinary measures. The efforts were largely grassroots, with boycotts in New Zealand and Scotland as well as several Starbucks locations in the U.S. Manhattan locations targeted by consumer boycotts included E. Ninth St. and Second Ave., E. 17th St. and First Ave. and E. 15th St. and Union Square East.