Starbucks Workers’ Rights Board
📢New Event Announcement!📢 Join LIJWJ and Starbucks Workers United on Thursday February 22 at 6PM for a Workers’ Rights Board hearing to witness the testimonies of organizing baristas as they fight to get their employer to the negotiating table!
Starbucks Coffee is a corporate giant that brings in tens of billions of dollars in business each year. The company markets itself as a progressive company that offers its employees “transparency, dignity and respect.” This contradicts the realities of Starbucks’ culture behind the cafe counter, where workers instead experience an environment of harassment, abuse, and retaliation.
When workers seek accountability through internal channels, toxic managers are protected in exchange for their blind loyalty to the company. Despite the risks involved, baristas have spent years fighting through a gauntlet of toxicity and union busting to seek justice.
LIJWJ’s Workers’ Rights Board will bring these organizing workers and community together to give a clear accounting of how Starbucks treats their employees. In addition to hearing directly from workers, community members are also invited to speak and have their testimony entered into the record. Testimonies and board recommendations to Starbucks will be issued in a report LIJWJ will publish following the hearing.
The testimonies will be overseen and recorded by a board of commissioners including Nassau County Legislator Siela Bynoe; Suffolk County Legislator Sam Gonzalez; Rashida Tyler, Dep. Dir. NYS Council of Churches; Mary Anne Trasciatti, Director Hofstra Labor Studies; and Juana Torres, Esq.
To register follow this link!
NYSNA Strike Vote Announcement
NYSNA nurses have been in negotiations with Northwell LIJ-Valley Stream Hospital and Peconic Bay Medical Center since October. The nurses spent months negotiating for safe staffing and fighting to get patients prioritized over profit, only to have their contracts expire at end of December. There is currently an impasse and the nurses have announced a strike authorization vote for these two facilities.
From NYSNA:
“Nurses and healthcare professionals at Northwell Long Island Jewish Valley Stream (LIJ Valley Stream) and Peconic Bay Medical Center (Peconic) are voting to authorize a strike. Voting concludes at 3 p.m. on Feb. 1 and the results will be announced directly after the vote at 3:30 p.m. in front of both LIJ Valley Stream and Peconic facilities.
Nurses and healthcare professionals at both Northwell facilities will speak out about current conditions and why they voted to authorize a strike. Workers will be available to speak to the media.”
As this situation develops please stay tuned for any calls for community support from the nurses!
Unemployment Bridge Program Phonebanking
Did you know that the legislators who have the power to pass the Unemployment Bridge Campaign have phones? They do! And it so happens that phones are a great way to let these folks know you support this legislation. It’s especially important to call since it seems many of them are unaware how vital money is for excluded workers to buy food, shelter, and medical care when they’re out of work through no fault of their own!
Help educate these legislators by filling them in on how some of our most vulnerable community members can benefit from this easily implementable program by joining a phonebank!
This event will be hosted on Zoom on Friday March 8 at 10AM. The beginning of the phonebank will be a ‘huddle’ where participants will be provided with talking points to use during calls, get oriented, and go over any questions to make sure everyone feels informed when they call. We’ll then all go off mic, make our calls, and reconvene to debrief our experiences calling. Not only is making calls like this more effective in a group, but also deepens our organizing community as we work together!
Head to this form to register!
Lastly, please consider making a DONATION to our Solidarity Fund. Every day workers struggle in poor conditions or lose work so that bosses and shareholders can stack their piles of money even higher. Wealth buys power and influence, meaning that workers are at a huge disadvantage in trying to reach the public’s ears. The Solidarity Fund is meant to enable workers to have their voices heard, and without support they will continue to be omitted from the dialogue.
Long Island Jobs with Justice 