Put down that grande non-fat caramel macchiato or whatever Starbucks concoction you're drinking. Turns out the coffee giant has a nasty history of being anti-barista, anti-union, and thus anti-Employee Free Choice Act as well.
The National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly found Starbucks guilty of illegally terminating, harassing, intimidating, and discriminating against employees attempting to unionize. Late last year, a judge ruled Starbucks had committed over a dozen violations of the National Labor Relations Act at a few New York stores. Starbucks has settled five such labor disputes in the last few years in New York, Minnesota, and Michigan, spending millions on legal fees to avoid exposing their anti-worker ways.
To make matters worse, Starbucks has led the charge on a so-called Employee Free Choice Act "compromise," joining Costco and Whole Foods to form the Committee for Level Playing Field. This Orwellian-sounding group has come up with a "third way" on Employee Free Choice, which would require 70 percent of workers to sign union authorization cards instead of the far more manageable 50 percent initially proposed by this legislation.
Crossposted from Daily Kos These times are like none I have experienced in my 72+ years! I think that we have a unique oportunity to take stock of ourselves and our relationships to each other that may never come again. Old definitions can be trashed and new ones born. It is time for the people of this and every other nation to redefine what we as people want to be our guiding values from this pont on. There are many reasons foy saying this, not the least of which is the disintegration of the language we once held dear in our declaration of independence. A partial list might include "freedom", "liberty", "rights", "government", "people" ... You get the picture. These words had meaning then in a very specific context, yet they have been thoiught to transcend that context. Just how far can that transcendence be carried? Look beneath the fold and explore this notion with me. Maybe we can help ourselves understand what "change" really means.
In 2000, only 60 percent of the voting age population actually came out to vote on Election Day. Alarmed at the level of civic passivity; nonprofit, political and religious organizations of all stripes began a massive campaign to stimulate more participation in the voting process. Organizations such as USAction, La Raza, the National Rifle Association and religious organizations began registering millions of new voters across this country. Four years later, an additional 13 million voters were added to the rolls and 64 percent of voters turned out for the 2004 elections.
The massive voter engagement campaigns were an unqualified success and you would think public officials would be dancing in the streets, right? Wrong. Instead, this year, the right-wing assault machine has launched a blistering campaign of attacks against liberal and non-partisan groups for getting millions more American citizens registered to vote and active in the electoral process. Why? Simply because they have been so effective at it. Some people would call that sour grapes, others would call it being a sore loser; I call it a pathetic display of unAmericanism.
From the very first presidential election over two centuries ago, you have always had winners and losers. Federalists, Anti-federalists, Whigs, Democrats, Republicans and Independents have always understood the rules of the game: The winner wins and the loser lives to fight another day.
Now partisan operatives don't want to play the game by the rules anymore. They have leashed their latest disinformation campaign and against ACORN, the progressive advocacy group that has successfully registered 1.3 million largely young, poor, and ethnic minorities to vote this year.
In the business world, you learn by your competitors' example and adopt some of their strategies to remain competitive. In dirty politics, you try to get laws passed to invalidate your opponents, you buy friendly judges to disqualify or overturn results, or you persuade law enforcement officials to raid their offices and prevent them from operating in the first place.
Fox News recently stated - and I quote:
"The ongoing investigations into a controversial advocacy group that specializes in registering low-income voters are becoming a rallying cry for Right-wings just weeks before Election Day."
December 7, 2007 Democratic Party Winning on Issues
Democrats preferred to handle 6 of 10 issues; Republicans lead on 2
by Lydia Saad
PRINCETON, NJ -- Less than a year before Americans go to the polls to choose the next president and the 111th Congress, Gallup finds the Democrats holding a considerable advantage over the Republicans in public perceptions of which party can handle a variety of national issues.
Overall, the Democratic Party is perceived as better able to handle 6 of 10 issues that are likely to be heavily debated in the 2008 campaigns, and they roughly tie with the Republican Party on another 2. The Republicans lead on illegal immigration and terrorism, but their previously substantial advantage on terrorism has been cut by two-thirds since 2004.
According to the new USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 2007, the Democrats' strongest issue areas include healthcare, the housing market, protecting Americans' rights and freedoms, corruption in government, the economy, and Iraq. The two parties are roughly tied on moral values and taxes. The Republican Party leads in public perceptions of which party can better handle terrorism and illegal immigration, but not by as much as the Democrats lead on their best signature issues.
Most significantly, for shifts in opinion since January 2004, Iraq (26 point shift) and terrorism (20 point shift) lead the way, even though Democrats still trail on the latter:
Thanksgiving is the most American of holidays. It is rooted in our founding myths, in the struggle of European immigrants to understand and survive in a new land. In the triumph of perseverance and neighborly virtue over the harshness of the world we find ourselves in. We gather together with family and friends and eat new world foods to celebrate the survival of our founding settlers and the most beautiful time of the year for much of our country.
This is my third Thanksgiving in America since spending the prior five Thanksgivings in England. Living there gave me a much greater appreciation of what it means to be an American, to have rights, and to fight for those rights. I am immensely thankful that I am an American and that we have rights for me to defend.
