In Katine, a Coke is easy to buy. Medicine isn't
As the idiots of america disrupt the healthcare debate keep this in perspective. There is also a food crisis there so enjoy your $3 starbucks and your big mac. Not that anyone who reads Bello Velo would go to these places:)
In Uganda and across Africa people are dying of diseases such as malaria and TB because they can't get the drugs to treat them.
Emanuel Opengam has the listless look in his large eyes of the habitually ill. The three-year-old sits passively on his mother's lap, and sometimes his seven-year-old sister's, in a corner of a drug shop in north-eastern Uganda. It's just a small room in a hut, dominated by a table covered with a dirty gingham cloth on which are stacked plastic tubs of pills that are sold loose, in twos and threes or as many as the patient can afford. read more here
11 comments:
I go to Starbucks. They're doing a lot better on having ethical practices than 5 years ago. We complained and they listened and acted. Cheryl doesn't do that at Olde Towne.
I assume you are talking about this?
Starbucks has been ordered to pay $105 million in tips to California baristas, after losing a class-action lawsuit. The court ruled that shift-supervisors illegally took a portion of employees tips, since there is a state law prohibiting managers and supervisors from sharing such tips. Starbucks company policy states all tips are to be divided among all workers, regardless of position. The ruling further states Starbucks must immediately change their tip policy to conform with California law.
Starbucks is appealing both rulings, claiming shift supervisors have the same duties as baristas and should be rewarded for superior customer service. While the appeal is pending Starbucks has stated that they will not be refunding any tips to baristas and will not be changing their tip policy. Similar lawsuits have been filed in Massachusetts and Minnesota.
I've been to Starbucks and have seen what work the shift supervisors do, and I agree with their policy. I don't think the government should be telling them what to do about that.
So you agree that the managers who are paid a higher salary should get the tips not the barista making it?
I don't support chains especially this one because of their unfair labor practices. maybe take a look here for a bit more info.
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/greenwald/140112/what_do_starbucks_and_wal-mart_have_in_common/
So when you say government are you referring to the judicial branch? Lawsuits have brought on a lot of necessary change especially workers rights and human rights.
I am sure the very mention of the word UNION will lose you here:)
Since Brave New Films launched Stop Starbucks last week, over 50,000 people watched the video, “What do Starbucks and Wal-Mart have in common?” and 15,000 signed the petition insisting CEO Howard Schultz support his workers’ unionization efforts. The latest video, “Starbucks’ Health Care Policy Is Sickening,” takes the Wal-Mart comparison even further, considering Starbucks insures less than 42 percent of its employees in the US — a rate lower than Wal-Mart. Watch as a former Starbucks worker explains how Starbucks routinely precludes employees from working the 20 hours a week (or 240 hours per quarter) necessary to qualify for the company’s health insurance.
The shocking truth about Starbucks’ health care policy and anti-labor practices belie the company’s “progressive” veneer. Give Schultz a call and tell him to quit his anti-union ways: (206) 318-1575.
You can also enter the Stop Starbucks contest, which caught fire last week when Boing Boing, Bloggasm, and others credited Stop Starbucks with undercutting the company’s recent multi-million dollar ad campaign.
And today, this campaign’s viral spiral caught the attention of the LA Times:
I'll read more on that. But I have been aware that not everyone gets to work the hours for their health care program, especially not starting out. The managers aren't taking the money that the baristas made. They're getting some of the money in the tip jar that they also earned. It's not like it's built into the wage structure and jobs like at a normal restaurant.
Sadly though we are having a discussion over a cup of over priced coffee and as the post states people are dying and suffering from treatable diseases like Malaria and TB.
So what did this have to do with starbucks other than the sarcastic reference made at the beginning of the post. Besides Starbucks coffee sucks. Any company that would have the nerve to promote "fair trade fridays" and then serve you coffee from farms with exploited workers the other six days a week is bullshit. Look at the McDonalds McCafe campaign, even Mickey Ds is saying the quality of Starbucks coffee is as low as there own. While I don't care for Old Towne or Angels, I did like Sterns but they are no longer in business so I feel my money is better spent buying coffee at the Klatch and making myself at home and on those days I would like to take a break from work and get and afternoon coffee I do without.
And pertaining to this article it is sad that these people can not get affordable medicine while corporate company's like CocaCola and manage to get there greedy little fucking hands in there. Next it will be Marlboro cigarettes and Walmart.
I don't know what Starbucks has to do with the topic. All their espresso is fair trade. You can get a french press of a fair trade blend, and it's better than most of their stuff or any of Olde Towne's. And they keep expanding their fair trade stuff. Olde Towne is exclusively fair trade and has been for a while, but there's plenty there that they need to improve. I think my money is usually better spent at the Klatsch too. Sometimes I want to go to a coffee shop or get a soy latte though, and I don't just do without it as much as you. I really liked Stearns and went there often. I hadn't ever been to Starbucks before they closed.
Clint
Just for the record while we are on the subject about tips and Starbucks. As person who works side-by-side with my employees often doing exactly the same job they do but, with additional responsibilities people often give us tips to split. In every case I give the entire tip to the employee or employees that I am working with. Given the difference in pay we make I believe those few dollars here or there serves them better than me and they have a greater need for the supplemental income provide by those tips than I do. I don't know how much a Starbucks manager makes but, It does not matter. I have seen a store managers of a Grocery stores bag groceries or run a register if needed, that is what being a manager is about. They do what ever job is needed when needed and any good manager/or Company would not reward managers with the same tips as the baseline workers. Managers especially at larger incorporated companies already receive better benefits in addition to their already higher pay.
That's a good point. I'm pretty sure that all the managers at Starbucks are getting the benefits that some of the employees don't work enough hours to qualify for. But still the employees are getting more benefits than at Olde Towne.
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