[lbo-talk] Liza Featherstone on SBUX

Dwayne Monroe dwayne.monroe at gmail.com
Thu Oct 30 10:18:07 PDT 2008


Doug posted:

<http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/saga/2008/10/29/starbucks-blues?page=0,0>

Starbucks Blues Lean times and labor pains are tarnishing the coffee giant's image.

By Liza Featherstone

<snip>

There's always been some media bias in favor of Starbucks, which is perhaps why the company's worst practices have drawn so little attention. Unlike frumpy, red-state Wal-Mart, Starbucks, with its jazz compilations and recycled napkins, is our kind of company. Yet when it comes to mistreatment of employees, says labor activist and former Starbucks barista Daniel Gross (no relation to the Slate writer of the same name), who was fired from the company for union organizing, "Every retailer-McDonald's, Wal-Mart-does the same things. The difference is that Starbucks has really succeeded in convincing people that it's better."

[...]

....

Awesome article.

And, an excellent example of something I've grown increasingly interested in: the way self-styled neo-businesses mask timeworn forms of labor exploitation with a veil of pleasant phrases and egalitarian imagery.

It brings to mind something Leo Panitch said during your 10/4/08 interview with him and Sam Gindon (paraphrasing): 'one of the paradoxes of the mainstream left is its insistence that capitalism can be made to work for the poor. '

See -- <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#081004>

A related paradox might be people's belief that the urge to maximize profit via exploitation can be permanently mitigated by a company having a 'social conscience'.

.d.

-- " Hong Wen- Ting. You must be out of your mind to try to fight me. With your childish Tiger- Crane skill. You've got no chance, but to join your friend Ah-Piao in Hell for more lessons."

White Lotus Chief .............................. http://monroelab.net/blog/



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