Welcome back to cheddar is news wrap one of our
top stories of the day is that all important quit
rates september officially breaking august's record for the most americans
to quit their job in a month. Nearly a
million workers quit in leisure and hospitality alone. Worker
unrest is more widespread than ever. And Buffalo new
york, for example, ballots have been sent to
workers at three different Starbucks locations to decide whether they
will unionize for the first time ever. This while
Kellogg's files a lawsuit against its striking serial workers,
the rise of the worker, it's upon us joining
us with more is Virginia Diamond who is helping with
Starbucks campaign and is the president of northern Virginia A
. F. L. C. I. O
. Virginia. Welcome to the show. Such a
pleasure to talk to you. So let's dive in
. What protections and rights are these employees organizing for
looking for? Well, the workers at Starbucks in
Buffalo are simply asking for the right to engage in
collective bargaining to have a voice on the job a
seat at the table as equals with management. Uh
, and so they have joined together and they have
petitioned an election to have a union. And unfortunately
, um, the, this billion dollar company has
swooped in and is doing everything it possibly can to
prevent these workers from from having a union, but
I believe that they will continue to hold strong and
uh, they will exercise their fundamental right. So
Starbucks has said from the very beginning, their employees
have rare benefits like stock in the company. What
else is the company's argument in opposition of this?
Well, uh the company, like many major corporations
want to have all the control, you know,
over recent decades, uh as union density has declined
, uh billionaires and corporate executives have uh attained all
of the wealth that has been created and the middle
class has been hollowed hollowed out. So working class
living standards have been declining. So their argument is
that they like it the way it is and they
want to stay in charge of make all the decisions
that affect the workers pay benefits and it's up to
them. And the workers are saying we believe that
the working class and workers should also have powers to
have a voice. And I believe that what they're
doing is really essential to preserve democracy, Virginia.
We spoke to a member of the Starbucks Workers Union
yesterday and here's what she had to say about the
efforts the company has taken to convince employees to vote
no, I'm going to play a part of that
and I'll talk to you on the other side about
it. It's an all consuming effort from them.
I mean, they've been they've been present in our
stores at the corporate levels since about two days after
we filed our petitions and that was back on August
29. So um for about 70 days, um
they have sort of infiltrated our entire area, specifically
the three stores that are that have filed the petitions
to vote Virginia, is this intimidation? Uh it's
absolutely intimidation and its interference. Uh and it's,
you know, a perfect example of why workers have
had such a hard time organizing. You know,
back in the day before the 19 eighties, we
had 34% of the workforce in unions and therefore we
had a middle class people had had jobs, they
had benefits, uh and they had a good living
standard as middle class people. But since then,
uh as workers have tried to organize, particularly in
the service sector, uh the employers have engaged in
union busting activity. Starbucks is a perfect example of
this uh terrible union busting, which is trying to
prevent the workers from simply having a voice. We've
seen a lot of employees band together lately for push
for unionization. What's driving this? Do you expect
this movement to get even bigger? Absolutely. This
is a turning point. It's a crossroads in american
history because if we do not increase the number of
workers that are able to bargain collectively, and if
we do not allow workers to regain their living standards
, benefits, health care pensions that they had in
previous generations, then we will not be able to
sustain a democracy. Our country is not sustainable with
all of the wealth being captured by those at the
top. The only way to turn that around and
to restore our middle class democracy is to uh is
to allow workers to organize and workers are standing up
for themselves After 40 years of being pushed down.
Another story we're following very closely at the network is
Kellogg's is actually suing striking employees towards unionizing. Is
this legal? What's the president they're setting here in
Virginia? Well, I think it's absolutely disgusting how
Kellogg's is attacking uh, their workforce. What the
workers are standing up for is a fair contract.
They're trying to end two tier wages, which basically
takes new employees and and reduces their pay and their
benefits, and um the company is making record profits
, and so they should not be attacking their own
workers. That's what Starbucks is doing as well.
In addition to the other corporations. And so workers
solidarity is what's going to turn this around, and
honestly, it's what's going to save this country because
we will descend not only into oligarchy, but into
division If we don't restore the right of workers to
have unions and to have a voice, you can't
have an entire population of people, 60% of the
population has, has less than 2% of the nation's
wealth. It's all being concentrated at the top.
That's not a sustainable model. So we all should
hope that these workers continue to band together, continue
to stand up to continue to be courageous and achieve
justice on the job Virginia Diamond, the president of
the northern Virginia, F. L. C.
I. O. Great insight. Thank you so
much Virginia. This is such an important story we
will continue to follow.