Those of us that produced the paper “Barista’s Voice” began that work because, like all other Starbucks workers, we are overworked, understaffed, and underpaid. We chose to attempt to organize ourselves independently from SBWU because we upheld the anti-State Union position of the New Labor Organizing Committee, meaning that the existing unions are incorporated into the capitalist state structure through the NLRB and are therefore completely reliant on the capitalist system. In the course of our work we came across many issues that we have been working to resolve. This article will be a self-critical presentation of those issues, so that we can advance as a whole, and so that others may learn from our past mistakes.
A major issue within the labor movement in this country is that organizers, activists, and workers are not honest with each other. It’s normal to have errors and problems within the movements of the exploited and oppressed. This is why the principles of criticism and self-criticism are so important, because we are never going to win anything unless we openly acknowledge ongoing issues and correct them.
The primary error of Baristas Voice was disorganization and a lack of collective discipline. We didn’t come up with a plan for our work, we didn’t distribute the paper, and we didn’t report back on our work to the NLOC. We also didn’t develop a political line, a clear path forward, which could have been done through regular research and using this research in articles to be given out to our coworkers every month. This led to a failure of Barista’s Voice, as an independent organization under the NLOC, to organize a real alternative to the state unionism of SBWU and SEIU.
Another major issue with Baristas Voice was that its leaders were stretched far too thin between multiple different organizations. In the future, a better job has to be done delegating tasks and making sure organizers can focus on labor so that people are not so stretched thin. Being able to train up new leaders capable of taking on more work, and bringing up new members/supporters by delegating tasks to them is an absolute necessity that was neglected. Lastly, we must always take a proactive approach to mounting problems that does not wait until things reach a breaking point, we must solve problems while they remain small whenever possible. For example, lets say that within a union, a few members openly espouse reactionary, bigoted beliefs. It would be a mistake to not address such a thing, as in the future those ideas may spread to others, and these reactionaries could gain more influence and even get elected to leadership positions. Those who do not uphold these bigoted beliefs should put an end to their presence either through expelling these members or by criticism and rectification, while the issue is still small, isolated, and easier to deal with.
Baristas Voice unites with the criticism received from the NLOC on the following two points
-Baristas Voice had a passive attitude towards a Baristas Voice organizer being harassed and subsequently quitting their job; not only was no organized action taken against Starbucks management, but no exposure was done in Baristas Voice nor was the incident reported to the NLOC leadership until it was too late to receive support of any kind from the nearby New Labor Committee or the Organization of Class-Conscious Service Workers. This in spite of the fact that harassment was (correctly) singled out as a major issue in the first edition of BV.
Baristas Voice has now merged with the Organization of Class Conscious Service Workers (OCCSW). The struggle for a class-conscious, independent Starbucks union movement will be represented by the OCCSW’s workers’ newsletter, the Service Worker. We will continue organizing independent Starbucks workers’ organizations as the OCCSW.
Initially Baristas Voice and OCSW were kept separate based on the precedent established by the NLOC organizers at USPS, UPS, and Amazon. However, USPS, UPS, and Amazon all have very different organizational situations, while both Starbucks and the rest of the service industry are for the most part totally unorganized. This was a mistake on the NLOC leaderships’ part, as they should have applied the example of Strike the Stage (entertainment industry) to the service industry instead of the vastly different (in terms of labor organization) logistics industry. This redundancy placed an unnecessary burden on the Baristas Voice leadership when they should have been assisted by the OCSW.
It is clear to see the direction that this country is going, federal agents and national guard are invading and attacking cities all over the country and kidnapping and killing with impunity. The state is denying us the right to freedom of speech and expression more and more by the day, and they stand ready to roll back the rights that workers in this country have fought and died for. The US government, which has always been an instrument of the capitalists, is becoming a fascist state. This is why it’s critical that Starbucks Workers take the control of the union struggle away from AFL-CIO and SEIU. We cannot trust the increasingly fascist state organs and their union control mechanisms like the NLRB; they remain tools of the capitalist class who more and more discard their “democratic” mask and show their true, brutal faces. The workers alone should have control of our union movements, not the countless salaried union staffers and lawyers who live off the SEIU’s investment portfolio. As stated in the first edition of Baristas Voice, “Some of the clearest evidence of the nature of SEIU can be found by simply looking at its finances from the past decade. From 2014- 2023 a mere $1.4 million went towards strike benefits, while $172,012,901 went to paying union bureaucrats, $488,951,530 went to lobbying, and $387,542,047 went to investments and fixed assets.” Working people must organize themselves and build up a powerful trade union movement to fight for what is rightfully ours.