Starbucks, the overpriced coffee shop killing local businesses, has promised its workers a raise this summer. Unfortunately, CEO Howard D. Schultz (I think the D. stands for dickhead, but I didn’t check), a man worth $3.8 BILLION says that he won’t be doling out this $15 minimum wage out to those working at unionized stores.
Little Howie’s excuse is that “Federal law prohibits us from promising new wages and benefits at stores involved in union organizing,” he continued on in an investor call that “… by law, we cannot implement unilateral changes at stores that have a union.” However, many legal experts disagree with the man who lobbied against “card check”.
Some have argued that it is essentially tantamount to promising monetary benefit in exchange for getting rid of the union, and honestly it’s kinda difficult to see how that isn’t exactly what Howard is doing
Thankfully these wild attempts at union busting likely mean that Schultz is scared. Almost 50 stores have already voted to unionize in the US, and nearly 200 are currently in the process of doing the same. While the threats of, possibly illegally, withholding wages to stifle organizing may scare some Starbucks workers, it shouldn’t because the benefits of bargaining power that are gained through a union and orders of magnitude stronger.
A report by the Economic Policy Institute found that unionized workers make, on average, 11.2 percent more than their peers that are not unionized. For those concerned about racial equity, as we should all be, unionized Hispanic and Black workers made 20.1 and 13.7 percent more respectively than their nonunionized counter parts.
Since the assault on unions has gained steam, it is working class Americans of all stripes that have seen bread seized from their tables by fat cats like Howard (no offense to chunky felines out there). When looking at the numbers it is easy to see this in action.
It is clear that as union membership has declined under “right to work for less” laws and propaganda printed with money stripped from workers, income for workers plummets.
Of course, where is that money to go but back to the people that funded the propaganda in the first place?
This is not to mention the fact that if wages had kept up with productivity they would be around $24 per hour currently, not the merger state allotted bread ration of $7.25 the American Politburo (read: wealthy owner class) has implemented.
However, with America already deep into the neoliberal hell hole, this means less money for overprice college, some of the highest medical bills in the world, much needed vacations, and on and on we go.
Corrupt elites like Howie want you to think that unions are here to nickel and dime you, when it was the bosses exploiting your labor this entire time, laughing all the way to the bank.