| IWW Starbucks Union Condemns Starbucks Doubling Health Insurance Costs
By Starbucks Workers Union 
July 30, 2009
Health Coverage Cuts Come Amidst Soaring Profits
Starbucks, amid massive profits, announced on Monday that it will slash at employee health care benefits. The company announced that premiums for its most economical employee health care package will nearly double, along with across the board increases in out-of-pocket expenses. This slap in the face to workers comes just one week after the announcement of $256 million in profits for the quarter, far exceeding internal and Wall Street expectations.
These cuts are an insult to Starbucks workers, and the thousands of workers who have been laid off in the last year. The increased costs of health benefits will be a barrier to many workers thinking of enrolling, forcing them to make the hard decision between health care coverage and feeding their families.
We expect more from Starbucks as a leading Fortune 500 company that builds its brand image on its treatment of its "partners", what it calls employees. Starbucks has a responsibility to provide affordable, quality healthcare to its workers, who are responsible for its enormous profits. Instead, Starbucks continues to use health care benefits as a marketing tool, while actually covering a lower percentage of its workforce than the notoriously unethical Wal-Mart.
Starbucks has repeatedly shown that it cannot be trusted to compensate us fairly. We believe as workers we must organize together to hold Starbucks accountable, and give us the respect and dignity we deserve.
About the IWW Starbucks Workers Union:
The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is an organization of over 300 current and former employees at the world's largest coffee chain united for secure work hours, a living wage, and respect on the job. The union has members throughout the United States and Canada, fighting for positive change at the company and defending baristas treated unfairly by management.
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Starbucks Workers Union- Twin Cities
Industrial Workers of the World
tel: 612-245-4871
web: http://starbucksunion.org
blog: http://tcsbuxunion.com
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Two NYC supermarkets finally to pay workers
By EmpireStateNews.net 
Wobblies protest outside the Associated supermarket in Bushwick
July 26, 2009
Two NYC supermarkets agree to provide restitution for workers cheated out of wages
From EmpireStateNews.net
NEW YORK - Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Wednesday announced a million-dollar settlement with the owners and former owners of two Brooklyn-based supermarkets for underpayment of their workers and other violations of New York State labor laws.
The supermarkets are Associated Supermarket at 229 Knickerbocker Avenue, and Pioneer Supermarket at 1115 Pennsylvania Avenue (formerly a C-Town supermarket) both in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. The supermarket owners will pay restitution to over 50 of their employees totaling $1.125 million.
In a separate criminal action brought by the attorney general, two owners of Associated Supermarket, Bienvenido Nunez and Martin Duran, have pled guilty to Failure to Pay Wages and Failure to Maintain Payroll Records, both misdemeanors under state law.
The AG’s office filed a lawsuit against the Associated supermarket last October, after their investigation found that employees at the store were not paid proper wages. A further investigation into the Pioneer/C-Town supermarket revealed the same kind of illegal activity. At both Associated and Pioneer, baggers had been paid no wages at all and had to rely solely on tips for income. In addition, delivery workers at the supermarkets often worked 70-hour weeks but were not paid minimum wage nor were they compensated for overtime. Many other supermarket employees also had worked in excess of 40 hours per week, but were not paid overtime wages.
Under the terms of the settlement, the owners and former owners of the supermarkets will pay restitution to over 50 employees for unpaid wages and owed overtime, as well as penalties to the State of New York.
The current owners of Associated and Pioneer have also agreed to comprehensive monitoring by the Attorney General’s Office, including submitting payroll and time records to the Attorney General’s Office on the first of each month for five years to ensure compliance.
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IWW Sears/Kmart Internet Action: Support a Fellow Worker!
By Wobbly City 
IWW member flyers at the Astor Place Kmart.
July 02, 2009
Joseph Sanchez is a former employee of MPG (Media Planning Group) and a member of the Industrial Workers of the World.
MPG is an international media service group. On April 1, 2009, MPG laid off 11% of its US workforce, one of whom was Joseph. Meanwhile, its parent company Havas increased its profits 25% last year and MPG gained two new clients this year.
The severance package offered to the workers includes provisions that allow MPG to sue the workers but prohibit workers from suing MPG and that requires the workers not to “denigrate” the company. In exchange, workers were only offered four weeks of pay. When Joseph asked to negotiate the severance package, MPG refused.
The IWW has initiated a campaign to push MPG into negotiating by asking their biggest client, Sears/Kmart, to stop advertising with MPG until they negotiate a fair severance package.
Please help this campaign:
Post messages on Sears' and Kmart's social networking sites:
Stop advertising with MPG until they negotiate a fair severance package!
EVERYONE:
Sign up and post new ideas on http://www.mysears.com/ideas/new and http://www.mykmart.com/kmartideas/new
SOCIAL NETWORKING USERS:
Facebook users:
Become fans of and write on their walls - http://www.facebook.com/sears and http://www.facebook.com/kmart
Mypsace users:
Comment at http://www.myspace.com/kmart
Youtube users:
Send messages to http://www.youtube.com/sears and http://www.youtube.com/kmart
More Photos: Wobbly City Photos of Kmart Action
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