Picket line defends Starbucks workers
Published Jun 18, 2005 9:54 PM

Over 70 people from various organizations of workers and pro-union groups picketed the Starbucks coffee shop at First Avenue and 17th Street in New York’s borough of Manhattan June 4 in defense of Starbucks worker Sara Bender, fired for her organizing efforts. Workers at the coffee shop are attempting to get union recognition and have appealed to the International Workers of the World, or IWW, a group that identifies with the original anarcho-syndicalist IWW of the period before the 1920s. Among the usual chants like “No union, no peace,” one could also hear some Starbucks-specific cries of “No union, no latté” and tongue-in-cheek demands for a “50-cent cup of coffee.” Among those supporting the Starbucks workers was a contingent from the local Million Worker March organization.