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!
