Gather by the fire, kids, and I'll tell you the tale of how that inveterate friend of the working stiff, the International Workers of the World (known to friends as "Wobblies"), scored a key victory at Christmas over the evil spawns of Satan, Starbucks. And they did it with the help of the Bush administration, revealing at last its hidden sympathy for anarchist union organizing.Yes, Bush's National Labor Relations Board, which issued only a handful of pro-union rulings in eight years, decided Dec. 23 that Starbucks had denied organizing rights to Daniel Gross and other Wobblies attempting to unionize baristas in Manhattan. Starbucks intends to appeal, though its chances of gaining a more sympathetic ear in the Obama administration seem unlikely. NLRB Judge Mindy Landow seemed particularly perturbed that Starbucks had continued illegal union-busting after reaching an agreement with the feds in 2006 to stop similar behavior in Minnesota and Michigan.
Did Bush's appointees elect to prop the Wobblies because they identified Starbucks with those liberal yuppie types who voted for Obama? Or did they realize that Starbucks in the pre-recession period had gotten so big, so predatory, so arrogant that someone needed to bitch-slap the company into submission? Is there a lesson for Whole Foods here in its fight to acquire Wild Oats?
Who cares? We all get an unexpected Christmas present of watching those snobby, heartless purveyors of double-decaf lattes get their noses ground in the dirt. Merry Christmas, and buy local!
8 comments:
I've never been in a Starbucks even though it is one of the few chains who has a store in our little backwater.
LOVE the top photo! :)
i dread walking in to shopping malls Loring. The most popular ones are at walking distance from my house and one huge one coming up even closer. You won't believe that you have to wait for your turn to enter a gold jewelry show room. Tokens are issued to enter. Some showrooms have waiting rooms outside. A friend of mine took me there once. the security guys were giving me special attention not the salesmen. Stick to me said my friend don't walk around. She looked like a buyer, i looked like a burglar.
Merry Christmas Loring, enjoy the holidays
i dread walking in to shopping malls Loring. The most popular ones are at walking distance from my house and one huge one coming up even closer. You won't believe that you have to wait for your turn to enter a gold jewelry show room. Tokens are issued to enter. Some showrooms have waiting rooms outside. A friend of mine took me there once. the security guys were giving me special attention not the salesmen. Stick to me said my friend don't walk around. She looked like a buyer, i looked like a burglar.
Merry Christmas Loring, enjoy the holidays
Sharon, gasp, never been in a Starbucks? How do you receive your dose of pop culture?
Rauf, thanks for your description and holiday wishes. Rampant consumerism is universal!
Here in Canada we reserve our affection for Tim Hortons, although Starbucks is making headway. I can even walk to one now.
Oh, I've heard about you Canucks and your Tim Horton obsession. So far, I haven't seen references of Tim's being as rapacious and greed-crazy as Starbucks. They're in a category of their own.
East Lansing is close to being nothing but chain stores. It used to be a haven of locally owned goodness - Bagel Fragel, Jocundry's, even Jacobson's was a gift because it was a Michigan company with excellent amenities. At least we still have Campbell's Smoke Shop, with its aged wood and tobacco loveliness, and its old wooden Indian. Oh and Lou and Harry's is wonderful for gyros. Remember the old Post Office where The Evergreen Grill set up a nice restaurant? It's now the most horrid pretendo-Irish pub I refuse to set foot in it. What a waste of a gorgeous old building with high ceilings and windows.
The only college town I've seen that has gone more overboard than East Lansing is Tempe, Ariz. The downtown was such fun, with a clustered shop area with an independent book store and Chuy's Choo-Choo jazz club, and all kinds of indie shops, and now it's all multi-story chains. Ugh.
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