Starbucks Picket

An interesting Starbucks picket was planned yesterday as it was also the last day of one of the last legendary local cafes in Warsaw which was forced out by an incredibly high rent increase. A march was planned down the block from the cafe to Starbucks with a coffin to symbolize the death of the cafe. Unfortunately, a storm broke out.

ZSP has prepared information for the workers of AmRest restaurants (Pizza Hut, KFC, Starbucks and a couple of others) about basic workers rights, safety in fast food restaurants and unions. It has also translated some small films about the situation at Starbucks in the US which were on the Stop Starbucks site. Read more!

Starbucks Picket

Today there were two pickets at Starbucks Coffee in Poland - one in Warsaw and one in Wroclaw, the two cities where Starbucks opened their first cafes in Poland last month. May 17 is the 5th anniversary of the founding of the Starbucks workers union, which we spoke about at the pickets.

The pickets were organized by ZSP as solidarity campaigns but also to raise awareness about working conditions in the cafe/restaurant industry and to encourage workers to organize.

Some photos of the picket in Wroclaw can be found here: http://www.wsa.org.pl/module.php?op=g...mp;cmd=366

(Sorry, no photos from Warsaw this time. A little technical fuck-up.)

Today's picket also included information about what is going on along "Nowy Swiat" (New World) Street in Warsaw where Starbucks is located. Almost all of the well-known cafes along the street have closed down due to astronomical rents, leaving room only for corporate chains, ultra-exclusive places and money laundering fronts. We just found out that the last of the famous cafes on the street. Cafe Bajka which has been there for 53 years and was the last place on the street where you could get a cheap drink and a meal, is being forced to close since their rent was raised to an astronomical 20,000 zloties a month. (It's a small place, so it's really amazingly high rent.) We could see on the street that other cafes and small shops have closed up and in their place we will have Subway and Haagen Daaz. The price of coffee in Starbucks is similar to in the US, despite the fact that average wages are many times higher. This makes brands like these clearly brands for yuppies (and tourists) who are in the elite. Seeing what is going on with the
rapid influx of corporate chain stores along New World St., we renamed it "Brave New World" St.

We have also noticed that Starbucks in Poland has started an extensive greenwashing campaign, which an average consumer might misunderstand and believe the prices are high because they are buying fair trade coffee. Only about 5% of Starbucks coffee is fair trade but they are presenting themselves as the most "ethical" coffee in town. Read more!

Picket at Starbucks

On May 2, we had a picket in front of the newly-opened Starbucks in Warsaw, "welcoming" them to the Polish market. First people went inside to talk to the workers and give them leaflets explaining what our protest is about. Since the streets were quite busy, hundreds of leaflets disappeared in seconds. We spoke about the situation of the Starbucks union and the struggle of workers to earn decent wages, have good work schedules, the right to full-time employment, to benefits and to organize in unions.

At the same time as the picket, by coincidence there was a street fair right next to us which was promoting ecological, locally-produced food and there were people handing out information against GMOs. Since this topic was present right next to us, we also spoke about globalization, about the coffee trade and other issues which also seemed to attract passerbys attention and support.

Since May 17th marks the 5th anniversary of the first Starbucks workers union, we decided it would be a good day to go back and visit them. Read more!

Starbucks Action in Wroclaw

Members of ZSP from Wroclaw held a picket at the country headquarters of AmRest corporation. AmRest runs restaurants like Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King in Poland and it will be opening Starbucks cafes here in the fall. The picket July 1 was a part of an international action against union busting at Starbucks. Our comrades demanded the
reinstatement of Cole from the Grand Rapids IWW and Monica from CNT in Sevilla, Spain who were fired for trying to organize unions in Starbucks.

Members of ZSP promised to investigate the workers' rights situation in the
restaurants owned by AmRest and will also encourage the workers of Starbucks to
organize. Some workers from one chainhave already contacted ZSP. Read more!