Union Matters

More Starbucks workers file to form union

By STEPHON JOHNSON

Special to the AmNews

Starbucks workers in Brooklyn and Manhattan (including the roastery near Chelsea Market) are looking to form a union.

Workers United, a union affiliated with the SEIU, announced last week that workers at five locations in the area have filed union petitions, following in the footsteps of their brethren in Western New York. Workers at 72 Starbucks locations in the country, spanning 21 states, have filed petitions to unionize.

Other Starbucks workers and leaders of other unions linked up in support by pointing out how much Starbucks’ President and CEO Kevin Johnson makes annually.

“The CEO of Starbucks makes $20.4 million a year, and he—not workers—is responsible for raising prices,” said AFSCME President Lee Saunders. ”Starbucks customers see through this charade, too. Starbucks workers deserve their fair share of the record profits their hard work generates for the company, and they deserve a seat at the table to negotiate for fair wages, safe working conditions and other benefits that will improve their lives and their families’ lives.”

New York City workers want to vote on March 3.

The Starbucks Workers United Buffalo Organizing Committee, the area that started it all, said in an emailed statement that Johnson should say less and give more.

“In the past year, Kevin Johnson received an almost 40% raise, while partners across the country still struggle to pay rent and buy groceries in the same week,” read their statement. “It is worth noting that Starbucks has made record profits this past year, during a global pandemic. Starbucks has also launched an aggressive anti-union campaign where the president of Starbucks North America, Rossann Williams, leads a group of over 100 managers to live in Buffalo now for over five months to disrupt stores, and intimidate and threaten us.

“We are confident that their antiunion efforts have not been cheap,” continued the statement. “Starbucks should respect our right to organize so we can create a true partnership with corporate and have a say in the disruption of profits that we are largely responsible for making.”

The company has tried to ward off the threat of organized workers. Last October, the Starbucks officials announced a $15-per-hour wage rate with the hopes of hitting $17-per-hour by this year.

When adjusted for inflation and productivity gains, the minimum wage in the United States should be $24.

They’ve also tried letters. Obtained first by Insider, SBUnited obtained and posted a letter written by support district manager Michaela Murphy left at a Starbucks in the Elmwood area of Buffalo (where employees voted to unionize).

“I am saddened that in the end so many of you decided it was best for Workers United to represent you to myself, your district manager, and your store managers,” read the letter, which was also posted on SBUnited’s Twitter page. “Everything we love most about Starbucks is the direct relationship we have to each of you and our ability to work together to create a better tomorrow. This is my greatest hope for you and all of us.”

Murphy ended the letter by drawing a heart over her name.

In Memphis, seven Starbucks workers were fired when they tried to unionize.

In an email, a Starbucks spokesperson said they’re all ears when it comes to their workers.

“We are listening and learning from the partners in these stores as we always do across the country,” said the spokesperson. “Starbucks success— past, present, and future—is built on how we partner together, always with Our Mission and Values at our core.

“Our belief is that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed,” the letter continued. “Rossann Williams, evp and president, North America, has also shared with our partners that we respect their right to organize and will bargain in good faith.”

This isn’t the first time Starbucks has collided with its workers in New York. Recently, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli filed shareholder proposals with portfolio companies Starbucks Corp., video game company Activision Blizzard Inc., and Tesla Inc. requesting reports on their efforts to prevent harassment and discrimination against employees and the steps taken to improve the situation.

Starbucks has just resolved allegations made by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding racial bias in employee promotions and that they didn’t protect employees from harassment.

“No one should be subjected to sexual harassment, racial discrimination or bias in the workplace,” DiNapoli said. “When companies turn a blind eye to abuse by their executives, managers, employees and customers, they perpetuate the harm and put in-

vestors at risk. These three companies have all had sexual harassment or racial discrimination controversies and we are seeking a full accounting of what they are doing to stop these abhorrent behaviors and what it’s costing the companies.”

Starbucks workers in NYC and around the country have filed petitions to form unions (Courtesy of: Starbucks.com)

Labor throws support behind Letitia James

By STEPHON JOHNSON

Special to the AmNews

This month, New York State Attorney General Letitia James has shored up endorsements from several unions.

Last week, 199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East and 32BJ SEIU endorsed the AG in her re-election bid. Citing her support for the working class and the average New Yorker, 1199SEIU President George Gresham praised James: “Whether it be supporting home health aides or protecting nursing workers during the pandemic, she has always used her platform to fight for better wages and improved working conditions for New Yorkers,” stated Gresham. “Like she has stood with us in every fight, we are proud to stand with her as she continues the important work she champions on behalf of working families each and every day.” 32BJ President Kyle Bragg said that James advocates for the downtrodden and voiceless.

“From Day 1, Tish has been unwavering in her support for our members,” said Bragg. “She has marched with us, advocated for us, and has taken on fights in the interests of all working New Yorkers. We remain grateful to her for dedication to protecting New Yorkers, and we look forward to getting out the vote to support her re-election.”

For her measure James, who was once rumored to run for governor, returned the praise in-kind.

“1199SEIU and 32BJ represent some of the hardest working New Yorkers I’ve ever known, and I am proud to have their support,” James stated. “We have stood together to advocate for the fair pay and safe working environments these essential workers need and deserve, especially in the midst of this pandemic. I look forward to continuing the fight to safeguard the rights of working people across this state.”

James has gotten endorsements from other unions such as the New York State AFL-CIO, the Transportation Workers Union (TWU), New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), the Hotel Trade Council, and the New York State Nurses Association and the Retail, Wholesale and Development Store Union (RWDSU).

“As our attorney general, Letitia James has fearlessly taken on some of the most powerful interests to protect workers and ensure they are treated with the fairness and respect they deserve,” stated RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum. “She has fought for better pay, safe work standards, and even recouped millions for workers who were cheated out of their hard-earned pay. I know she will only continue to proudly serve us as the People’s Lawyer…”

“Elected officials have a responsibility to serve the people, and I am honored to earn the support of the Building Trades, RWDSU, and NYSNA, unions that fight so hard for working people every day,” James stated. “The pandemic has underscored the importance of our workers and the imperative to make sure they have the protections they need and deserve.”

Attorney General Letitia James (Bill Moore photo)

Why Joe Biden should consider Michelle Obama for SCOTUS

By ROGER HOUSE

During his campaign, President Biden promised to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. Now he has a chance to fulfill that promise with the announced retirement of liberal Justice Stephen Breyer. Biden should look beyond career judges to someone who can represent the interests of the people—former First Lady Michelle Obama.

Michelle can be a voice of hope on the Court in these times of unprecedented social divisions and institutional erosion. The public perception of the federal judiciary has suffered from the court packing imperatives of the Trump administration years. The Supreme Court has been at the center of public concerns.

Judicial scholars have observed it veer to the right with unusual speed under the Trump era confirmations. It has resorted to little used procedures to fast track cases that seek to undo settled protections for racial minorities and women, for instance, and to hinder the role of the federal government in this regard.

Most notably, the Court declined to temporarily block a Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks—although it skirts the established 1973 Roe v. Wade benchmarks. It opted to review affirmative action cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina—even before the UNC case was heard by the appeals court.

The conservative activism caused Justice Sonia Sotomayor to recently bemoan, “Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the constitution and its reading are just political acts?” The most talked about candidates are wellcredentialed as career jurists, including Ketanji Brown Jackson, Leondra Kruger, and J. Michelle Childs. However, they are in the model of nominees for the Supreme Court of a bygone era. Moreover, the trend in recent decades to nominate career judges with no writings that provide evidence of their thinking has been controversial—would the Court benefit from nominees with broader professional and personal experiences? For example, in “The Norm of Prior Judicial Experience and Its Consequences for Career Diversity on the U.S. Supreme Court,” writers Lee Epstein, Jack Knight and Andrew D. Martin noted in 2004, “We argue that all norms that cut against diversity are problematic because they reduce the ability of the decision-making group (the Supreme Court not excepted) to perform its tasks.” President Biden must consider this concern when seeking a replacement for Breyer. While a nominee will not change the Court balance, she will have a chance to uphold constitutional precedents—and play a role of advocate for the underdog and monitor of court procedures.

Therefore, Biden must look for a nominee with a combination of legal acumen, public trust, and star power. Michelle Obama could serve that role exceedingly well.

She understands the authentic experience of the common folk. As First Lady, she organized an inclusive White House culture and advocated on behalf of women, military families, and public health. The former lawyer brings insight as a Black woman with life experiences that are missing on the Court today.

Her story is well-known due to the popular 2018 memoir, “Becoming.” She grew up on the South Side of Chicago in a close-knit family, graduated from public schools, and studied sociology and African American studies at Princeton University.

After completing Harvard Law School in 1988, she joined the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where she later met Barack Obama. Their courtship was depicted in the 2016 biopic produced by John Legend, “Southside With You,” which portrayed the budding relationship on their first date.

Michelle was a working parent in municipal government and education including assistant commissioner of planning and development in Chicago City Hall, associate dean of student services at the University of Chicago, and vice president of community and external affairs for the UC Medical Center. Her values are those of the moderate and proud Black middle class of Chicago.

Today, the Supreme Court arguably has an imbalance of career judges to the exclusion of other perspectives. Recent nominees have carefully crafted judicial careers with the Supreme Court in mind—it is reasonable to ask whether they are out of touch with the lives of ordinary people? The nomination of Michelle Obama would break the pattern of “judicial monoculture.” She would be an outstanding choice for the Supreme Court.

Roger House is an associate professor of American studies at Emerson College in Boston.

D.A. Alvin Bragg—we have your back AMNEWS READERS WRITE

We support District Attorney Bragg’s initiatives

We, the undersigned, voice our support for the initiatives being taken by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. D.A. Bragg has clearly set out the principles under which his office will be working in “Achieving Fairness and Safety:”

Invest more in diversion and alternatives to incarceration

Reduce pre-trial incarceration

Focus on accountability, not sentence length

Limit youth in Adult Court

Actively support those reentering the community.

This is a bold attempt to reset a racist criminal system which from its inception has led to the disproportionate and (too often) unjust arrest, conviction, and incarceration of Black, Brown and poor people. It is an approach recognizing that the criminal system can only be just when it takes into account the realities of the society we live in.

The political and media attacks on D.A. Bragg are nothing new. They are reminiscent of those launched in the past against Black people who have used their positions of authority to expose and mitigate the structural racism in this society.

Racism and the murder of Ahmaud Arbery It comes as no surprise in the murder case of Ahmaud EDITORIAL Arbery that Travis and Greg McMichael and William Bryan often used demeaning, racist comments in text messages with friends and colleagues. Their unprovoked attack and killing of Arbery is consistent with the offensive language their attorneys have admitted their clients used. Those derogatory comments are key in the hate crime charges brought against the three in the death of Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man gunned down while running through a coastal white Georgia neighborhood in 2020.

The defense attorneys offered their remarks at the beginning of the trial perhaps to defuse and minimize the prosecution’s case. Moreover, they claimed that killing Arbery had nothing to do with his race and was merely an erroneous mistake believing he had committed a crime.

Oddly, the prosecution made no reference to earlier reports that Bryan had heard Travis McMichael utter a racial slur after shooting Arbery.

Our historic annals are replete with violent incidents by white men who take the law into their own hands when it comes to a so-called citizen’s arrest. We know that if a white man was seen jogging through a white neighborhood he would be merely out These forces have now begun calling the D.A. “Soft exercising and not perceived as a perp. on Crime” Bragg.

Once he was aware of the lethal circumstances he faced, We will not be bystanders to this baseless assault Arbery was running for his life with no opportunity to explain by those who want to maintain the racist status why he was there and what he was doing. To the McMichaels quo in the criminal justice system. District Attorand Bryan, based on their preconceived feelings about Black ney Alvin Bragg is not standing alone. We have his men, Arbery was guilty and had to be apprehended—and ul- back. timately killed.

This is not an altogether unfamiliar scenario and we reserve List in Formation: our judgment on the matter and see how it plays out in the Malik Callender, Esq., December 12th Movecourtroom, perhaps with the same verdict reached earlier. ment

There is speculation the federal trial will last between Lurie Daniels Favors, executive director, Center seven and twelve days. for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, CUNY Lennox Hinds, Esq., professor emeritus, Rutgers University Pamela Meanes, Esq., past president of the National Bar Association Esmeralda Simmonds, Esq. racial justice attorney, ret. founding executive director, Center for Law and Social Justice at Medgar Evers College, CUNY Roger Wareham, Esq., international secretary general, International Association Against Torture For more information, contact December 12th Movement at 718-398-1766 or via email: D12M@AOL.COM.

Russia is on the verge of war. Here’s what you need to know.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the New York Amsterdam News. We continue to publish a variety of viewpoints so that we may know the opinions of others that may differ from our own.

ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS

A map is the most effective tool for visualizing and explaining the Ukraine/ Russian crisis, since its visual nature allows for viewers to understand the conflict through the same eyes of the parties involved. Ukraine has always been one of Russia’s most vital strategic and tactical neighbors; during the winter months, Russia requires unfettered access to the Black Sea from a variety of locations, and Ukraine is in the ideal position to provide such access. Through non-frozen waterways, it serves as a year-round entryway to the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean for Russia. In this regard, it is clear that eastern Ukraine and Crimea are important military (navy) access points throughout the year.

Lithuania and Russia do not share a geographical boundary. Instead, any direct geographical contact is cut off by the land boundary between Latvia and Belarus. The United States has been setting up forces within Lithuania to combat any aggression by Russia, however, this line that the United States has drawn in the sand seems to be the furthest our military is willing to go, making it clear that we are completely unwilling to face Russia within Ukraine or engage in any sort of action that has the propensity to escalate the already-dire situation. Currently, in Lithuania, NATO infrastructure is expanding and the Germans are sending troops and planes to the area to aid them if they come to be in need. At the moment there are reportedly approximately 3,000 American troops in Lithuania, either on the ground or on their way there.

With the world on its toes, anxiously awaiting news of whether or not a

conflict will erupt, world leaders are doing everything the can to stave off a bloody conflict that would result in a massive amount of needless bloodshed, bloodshed that experts estimate will result in the deaths of 50,000 innocent civilians. A devastating conflict might also lead to widespread suffering as an indirect result of the conflict; with many people abandoning their country, a new refugee crisis may emerge in Europe. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the national security advisor to President Biden, can happen “any day now…or it could be a couple weeks from now, or Russia could choose to take the diplomatic path instead.” As part of an ongoing effort to the diffuse this ticking time-bomb, President Emmanuel Macron of France recently visited Moscow to find a diplomatic “With the solution that President Vladimir Putin will supworld on its port. Unfortunately, it is impossible to predict if any proposed solutoes, anxiously tion would be agreeable to President Putin, and awaiting news that is assuming he is even amenable to a solution that involves of whether or Russia not getting all that it wants. not a conflict Presently, there is no indication that the United States has any will erupt, world accurate intelligence on what course of action leaders are Putin and his military plan on taking, nor does it seem that the United States has a clue on when they plan on doing everything they can to engaging in any course of action, or even how they plan to do it. stave off a One would think our intelligence agencies bloody conflict.” would be able to describe Russian plans and objectives at this point since this “willthey, won’t-they” conflict has been building since March of 2021—nearly an entire year ago. That being said, it likely wouldn’t shock a single person if, the morning after the Beijing Olympics’ closing ceremony, Russia marched into Ukraine at the invitation of the new nation of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea. Armstrong Williams (@ARightSide) is the owner and manager of Howard Stirk Holdings I & II Broadcast Television Stations and the 2016 Multicultural Media Broadcast Owner of the Year. He is the author of “Reawakening Virtues.”

CHRISTINA GREER PH.D.

Black History Month will soon be coming to a close, but it is not too late to celebrate, donate, and/or commemorate Black excellence, Black history, and Black solidarity. Each year I try to learn about someone in Black history who may not be well known and discussed in the larger public discourse. I also try to learn more about someone beyond just the headlines and their largest accomplishments.

For example, many people only think of Rosa Parks as a mild tempered woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus which helped spark the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycotts. However, many people do not know that Rosa Parks was a fearless rape investigator who traveled across the south in order to bring justice to Black women. In her capacity as a member of the NAACP, Parks also worked specifically on criminal justice issues in Alabama communities and part of her efforts involved protecting Black men from false accusations and lynchings. That is just one sliver of her bio that isn’t discussed widely in our discussions of this brave woman.

This Black History Month I am also taking time to learn more about living legends who are walking among us. I often think of Quincy Jones and his career that has spanned several decades. He worked with musicians from Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson. He arranged jazz and classical music and even created new genres of music. As I watch some of my favorite 1970s sitcoms, I realize Jones was responsible for the musical soundtrack of my youth as a composer for so many important and groundbreaking Black television shows. I can’t watch an episode of “Sanford and Son” without thinking of Quincy Jones and his musical genius.

Last year for Black History Month I opened an account at a Blackowned bank, I downloaded several apps to my phone that were created by Black entrepreneurs, I shopped Black-owned businesses, and I tried to actively learn about past and present Black leaders in various sectors. The internet makes it easy to find Black-owned businesses to support. It may take a few extra minutes to do your research to find Black businesses, but the small amount of time is well worth it to further support Blackowned endeavors.

So, what will you do to celebrate Black History Month? Will you learn an old family recipe? Will you interview an elderly friend or family member and chronicle their story? Will you donate supplies to a Black teacher? Will you help someone register to vote? Or will you purchase and read a book by a Black author?

There are so many things we can do to celebrate this February. Hopefully whatever you choose, you will find yourself filled with a sense of pride and purpose this month.

Christina Greer, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Fordham University, the author of “Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream,” and the co-host of the podcast FAQ-NYC.