Invitation to the Starbucks Annual Meeting of Shareholders

Starbucks Coffee Company will host its 2007 Annual Meeting of Shareholders on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 in Seattle, Washington at the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall at the Seattle Center.

Organizers of the “Workers Unite to Demand Justice from Starbucks” campaign invite the public to join them send a message to the shareholders. Following is their message:
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Baristas At Starbucks Demand Justice

The financial reality for Baristas at Starbucks contrasts sharply with the image portrayed by the company. Behind the smiles and green aprons, many Starbucks workers are living in poverty because Starbucks fails to pay a living wage fails to assign baristas regular work schedules.

Poverty wages: Baristas starting wages range from $6-$8.75 an hour. In contrast, at Costco, another retailer, workers start at well over $10 an hour.
No guaranteed hours: All workers are part-time with no option for full time status. At Costco, workers who want full-time work can get it.
Starbucks health care is a myth: Starbucks insures a lower percentage of its workforce than Wal-Mart, only 42% of all workers are insured!

For almost 3 years Starbucks workers have been organizing for living wages, regular schedules, and adequate health care. Starbucks responded by waging war against the unionizing workers. In the past year and a half six workers from five different stores have been unlawfully fired for demanding better working conditions, and their cases are pending at the NLRB.

Starbucks workers are fighting back: winning back worker's jobs and thousands of dollars in lost pay. As a result, in NYC, workers enjoy a 25% wage increase, stable schedules and a voice at work. The Starbucks Workers Union demands a living wage for all baristas, guaranteed hours, and respect for our right to organize.

Coffee Farmers Demand Starbucks Sign The Trademark License with Ethiopia, And Pay Fair Prices

Starbucks pays lip service to farmer equity as well as to its Baristas. Starbucks pays poorly for its coffee beans and has refused to sign Ethiopia's trademark licensing agreement, which would help Ethiopian coffee farmers increase their earnings.

Starbucks introduced its "Shirkana Sidamo" Black Apron Exclusive coffee as a testimonial to its "partnership" with Sidamo's coffee farmers (in Amharic, shirkina means partnership). Judge for yourself whether Starbucks treated them as partners. In 2005 & 2006, Starbucks bought 2,400 bags of sun-dried Sidamo for retail sale at $26 per pound, or $8,236,800. The Sidamo Union got paid an average of $1.38 per pound, or $436,000. The farmers who sold their coffee to the Fero Cooperative, which belongs to the Sidamo Union, got paid roughly $.57 per pound, or around $181,000. In the end, these farmers received a mere 2.2% of the amount Starbucks planned to make selling their coffee at retail.

The farmers at the Fero Cooperative cannot feed their families, clothe their children or send them to school at 2.2% of expected retail sales. Starbucks' disingenuous promise to double an already unfair price deceptively doubles this "farmer inequity." The Fero farmers demand a fair price for their coffee.

Starbucks Annual Meeting
Wednesday, March 21 @ 9 A.M.
Marion Oliver Mccaw Hall At The Seattle Center
Mercer Street, Between Third And Fourth Avenues
Seattle, Washington

Events leading up to March 21
Friday March 16th @ 6pm
Screening Of Black Gold And Sign Making
Cascade People's Center - 309 Pontius Avenue North, Seattle

Sunday March 18th @ noon
Leafleting @ Anti-War March
Westlake Plaza, 4th and pine - meet outside Starbucks' front door

Monday March 19th @ 3pm
Leafleting @ Anti-War March
Gather at Stewart st. and 6th ave - meet outside Starbucks' front door

Tuesday March 20th @ 11AM
Press Conference @ the Labor Temple Hall 6
Labor Temple - 1st ave and Broad st.

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For more info contact Organizer Tomer Malchi at 646-753-1167

Visit: www.Starbucksunion.org

Watch: CALL to action @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0q5Y903t2M