Reference no: EM133185870

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was founded in 1905 for the purpose of representing unskilled workers who had low wages and who felt oppressed in their jobs. By the 1920s, the IWW had 100,000 members. The membership today is around 2,000.

Starbucks was founded in 1971 in Seattle, Washington. The company has more than 12,400 coffee shows throughout the US and 35 other countries. Most Starbucks locations are company owned, but a significant number are operated through licenses or franchises.

In 2007, the IWW targeted a Starbucks store in Rockville, Maryland, as a place to gain a union foothold. A number of coffee servers, or baristas, served the assistant manager with a declaration requesting union membership. They also provide the assistant manager a letter listing a number of grievances, including an allegation that the baristas did not earn a "living wage" and grievance related to their work schedules. They also complained that baristas who were possible involved in union-organizing efforts had been fired.

At the time, not of the 8,000 Starbucks locations in the US were unionized, even though the IWW had been trying to organize a union at Starbucks since 2004. According to Starbucks, the union-organizing effort had not been successful because most baristas were satisfied with the company. The company said it believes in the importance of having a good working relationship with its employees and addresses their concerns as they occur.

1. Describe the steps that employees at the Starbucks in Rockville should have taken for the IWW to be officially recognized as the bargaining unit for employees there.

2. If employees believe that they have been fired for trying to unionize, what recourse do they have?

3. What can Starbucks legally do to keep employees from unionizing?

4. What would you do if you were a Starbucks manager and a group of employees approached you with a list of grievances and indicated that they wanted to unionize?