Starbucks to Require Employee Availability Around the Clock and Cut Workforce in Major National Initiative

The Starbucks Coffee Co. is in the process of an extreme revamping of its workforce policies according to company documents obtained by the Starbucks Workers Union of the Industrial Workers of the World. The initiative, dubbed "Optimal Scheduling", will require employees to make themselves available to work essentially around the clock to obtain so-called full-time status. Even for workers able to make the extraordinary sacrifice to obtain "full-time" status, no work hours are guaranteed- identical to Starbucks' current system of part-time status for all retail hourly workers. In addition, Starbucks will lay off workers who cannot meet minimum availability requirements. As baristas learn of the new program, discontent is rising.

"I've had to make myself available each week from Tuesday to Sunday starting at 4:45am until 11pm in the hopes of possibly getting 32 hours of work but not being guaranteed a single hour," said Liberte Locke, a Starbucks barista in New York and member of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union. "It's impossible for me to get a second job now even though I need one and impossible to have a life outside of work."

Under the new system, baristas who opt for pseudo full-time status have to make themselves available to work 70% of the total hours their store is open during the week. In an example given in the company documents, a store open 115 hours per week requires a barista to be available to work 80.5 hours each week - over double the standard work week. Week-to-week Starbucks can then schedule workers anywhere within that availability. In addition, workers who cannot make themselves available for at least three shifts a week will be fired, absent a "compelling reason" which Starbucks has not defined. Weekend workers must be available for at least 16 hours to avoid termination.

I-Witness Video From DNC/RNC Protests
Emily Forman

Emily Forman here, writing from Chicago, finally having escaped from the police-state vortex of the Denver and St Paul presidential conventions. I traveled to Denver and St Paul to work as a member of the amazing I-Witness video collective:
http://www.iwitnessvideo.info/news/index.html

In both cities I-Witness was met with intense surveillance and police intimidation. Our work was almost completely derailed in St. Paul by a series of raids and false arrests. We were forced to leave our homes and office multiple times due to these police intimidation tactics. Below follows video footage and a short account of some the context of the St Paul RNC convention, a Patriot Act-enabled environment of preemptive arrests of activists, journalists, medics, and legal observers. People were not only kept from exercising their first amendment rights here, but they were additionally charged with various kinds of thought crimes such as felony 'conspiracy to riot'. A federal hand has guided operations in both cities, with homeland security, national guard, and police details having been shipped in from states as far away as Arizona.

I will update you all after I catch my breath for a moment. Please be in touch, as these stories need to be getting out!

Violence and cruel treatment directed at protesters by police;
Journalists targeted for arrest, harassment, intimidation and surveillance

Police Violence in the Streets

The members of I-Witness Video have been appalled to see a high level of
violence directed against peaceful demonstrators, medics, legal observers
and journalists at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul,
Minnesota.

Concussion grenades, smoke bombs, CS gas (tear gas), rubber bullets and
pepper spray were used to attack and herd demonstrators.

ANTIWAR ACTIVISTS WIN $2 MILLION SETTLEMENT FROM NEW YORK CITY

A group of 52 local activists today announced a $2 million settlement in their lawsuit against the City of New York. The activists were illegally arrested on April 7, 2003 while protesting against the Iraq war in front of a military contractor's offices in midtown. The settlement in Kunstler et al v. New York City follows the dismissal in 2003 of all criminal charges brought against these individuals and four costly years of delays by the City in negotiating an end to the civil lawsuit.

“The New York Police Department violated core constitutional rights when it arrested a group of peaceful demonstrators who were lawfully protesting against the commencement of the Iraq war and those who stood to profit from it,” notes Sarah Netburn, attorney with Emery Celli Brinkerhoff Abady LLP, which handled the civil rights case along with the Center for Constitutional Rights. “We are gratified by the City’s decision to compensate these individuals whose targeted arrests were without probable cause and intended to quell future protest in New York City. This lawsuit, and this settlement, vindicates our clients’ rights to assemble and speak their mind free from the fear that they will be punished for their views.”

Attorneys and plaintiffs noted, however, that the City's decision to drag the case out is part of a long and disturbing pattern by which it attempts to “wear down” plaintiffs to avoid political damage, even at huge expense of tax dollars and City resources. “My question is, why did the NYPD send over 100 police in riot gear, along with vehicles to block the street and disrupt the flow of morning rush hour traffic, all to stop a legal, peaceful protest, when there are far more important matters they could be pursuing? And, why did they fight us in court so doggedly when they knew the evidence proved that we were arrested without any police orders to leave?” asked Ahmad Shirazi, a film editor and grandfather and one of the plaintiffs in the case.

Kittichai Restaurant Stops Serving Wild Edibles Seafood Over Workers' Rights Concerns

New York, NY- Kittichai, the popular Thai restaurant in Soho, has stopped serving seafood from wholesaler and retailer, Wild Edibles, Inc. over concern for employee rights. Wild Edibles workers and their allies have been campaigning for almost a year to reclaim stolen overtime pay; to compel compliance with workplace laws including the right to support a labor union; and to win a more livable wage as well as a health care and retirement plan.

Letter from Steve Kurtz to His Supporters
July 12, 2008

From the CAE Defense

Dear Supporters,

After four long, difficult years I have been released from my legal ordeal. I want to thank everyone who supported me through this—the greatest challenge I’ve ever had to face. I feel vindicated today because I am innocent, but today I am also humbled by a legal and political victory that is not mine alone. Everyone who contributed their support to this case can lay claim to a victory against the forces aiming to abridge our fundamental rights. I am mindful that my case was just one of many examples where fear and irrationality gained the upper hand after 9/11. I am aware that my vindication is an exception. I continue to have anxiety about the outcome of many pending cases still awaiting justice.

Although it seems that my case has come to a conclusion, it is only now that I can fully comprehend the immensity of what happened. The tragic death of Hope was a profound loss. The unfortunate events following Hope’s death occurred at a moment of intense pain and sadness for all of us. Neither my life nor the work of Critical Art Ensemble has been the same without her. If she were here today, I know she would be proud of everything that has been done by all the people involved. Collectively, we stood without flinching, and defeated a monster of social injustice. Hope always said that we should “never surrender” to authoritarian power, and we didn’t.

Rape threats, beatings and racist chants: 15 Italians jailed for abuse of G8 Genoa protesters
John Hooper
The Guardian

Fifteen Italian police officers and doctors were last night sentenced to jail terms of up to five years after being found guilty of abusing protesters detained during riots at the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa.

Thirty other defendants were cleared of charges ranging from assault to the denial of basic human rights. The judges issued their verdicts after 11 hours of closed-doors deliberations.

Homeless People Shut Out of Sapporo Bus Terminal in Run-up to G8 Summit

Article found at Mainichi Daily News:

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20080613p2a00m0na008000c.html

Japanese Police Raid Anti-G8 Kyoto Union Office

http://www.gipfelsoli.org/Home/Hokkaido_2008/5181.html

10th of June before 9 in the morning, 19 police men from Kyoto Prefecture Police Security 3rd department (so called public safety dep.) raided and searched the union office which is used by Rakunan Union, Rakunan Workers Network, Asia Joint Action (Asia Kyodokodo) , (and ) also an house of ‘A’ who is a member of Rakunan Union for the suspect of “fraud related incident” (with an arrest warrant), which is an apparent excuse to crush the movement against the summit.

A Yippie Veteran Is in Jail Far From the East Village
Colin Moynihan, New York Times

It has been more than 40 years since Dana Beal came to prominence as a theoretician for the Youth International Party, known as the Yippies, and embarked on a long career in the world of countercultural politics.

Since 1973, Mr. Beal and other Yippies have used a brick tenement on Bleecker Street, just west of the East Village, as a base for planning large-scale events, including demonstrations at national political conventions and worldwide marches calling for the legalization of medical marijuana, among other causes.

But Mr. Beal, 61, was far from the national stage last week when he found himself arrested on charges of money laundering in Mattoon, Ill., about 170 miles south of Chicago. He is being held in a county jail in nearby Charleston, awaiting an appearance before a judge on Thursday.

Ronald Tulin, a Charleston lawyer representing Mr. Beal, said that the police found his client with a large sum of cash, which was sniffed by police dogs.

“They’re saying the money smelled like marijuana,” Mr. Tulin said.

Critical Art Ensemble's Steve Kurtz Cleared of All Charges

Department of Justice Fails to Appeal Dismissal
Kurtz Speaks about Four-Year Ordeal

Buffalo, NY—Dr. Steven Kurtz, a Professor of Visual Studies at SUNY at Buffalo and cofounder of the award-winning art and theater group Critical Art Ensemble, has been cleared of all charges of mail and wire fraud. On April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara dismissed the government’s entire indictment against Dr. Kurtz as “insufficient on its face.” This means that even if the actions alleged in the indictment (which the judge must accept as “fact”) were true, they would not constitute a crime. The US Department of Justice had thirty days from the date of the ruling to appeal. No action has been taken in this time period, thus stopping any appeal of the dismissal. According to Margaret McFarland, a spokeswoman for US Attorney Terrance P. Flynn, the DoJ will not appeal Arcara’s ruling and will not seek any new charges against Kurtz.