Re: “Starbucks union campaign pushes on, with at least 16 stores organized” [April 9, Business]:
Starbucks has been a profound story of success for the company and its stockholders. This success, although orchestrated by company planners and strategists, was the direct result of the baristas and servers who prepared the coffee and related products for the enthusiastic customers willing to pay higher prices.
But the company’s success did not correspondingly translate to equal success for its employees. This is an old unchanging story. Yes, unionization is the answer for employees. Under employees’ ever-watchful eyes, union representatives can and do negotiate substantially more equitable outcomes, leveling the playing field for employees.
No service-oriented company can succeed like Starbucks without its dedicated front-line workers. That’s who unions can collectively represent with enormous success. Workers should expect strong resistance from the company to unionization because unions mitigate a company’s coercive powers. These battle lines were drawn at the dawn of the industrial revolution against the robber barons of the Gilded Age. Well, we are in a revitalized Gilded Age with just as lethal and corrupt corporate barons as yesteryear.
Member-supervised unions are the answer to employee fairness. Join today and stay strong.
Roger Wagner, Port Angeles