Hey, remember those Wobblies who set out a call on the internet to call or text a Starbucks manager for what they perceived to be an injustice against a worker?
The manager is suing them with help from Starbucks:
The IWW Starbucks Workers Union (SWU) and our dear friends in the global movement for worker justice have been campaigning against Starbucks for punitively denying two weeks of work to an SWU member who went home ill from a shift one day. In these terrible economic times, barista Anna Hurst absolutely must receive the compensation she is owed to pay rent and put food on the table for her two children.
Instead of paying the money owed, a lawyer for Starbucks store manager Gwendolyn Krueger has now threatened a frivolous lawsuit and even a criminal complaint against the Industrial Workers of the World. To call the truthful expression of our collective voice harassment and libel is both offensive and wrong as a matter of law.
Here is the beginning of the Cease and Desist order:
This CEASE AND DESIST ORDER is to inform you that your intimidating actions against Gwendolyn Krueger have become intolerable. Posting of Ms. Krueger’s personal phone number on your website and encouraging your members to phone and text her constitutes harassment. Referring to her as a liar on your website is libelous and actionable.
This letter is to demand that your harassment and intimidation CEASE AND DESIST immediately. Should you continue to pursue these activities in violation of this CEASE AND DESIST ORDER, I will not hesitate to pursue further legal action against you including, but not limited to, civil action and/or criminal complaints. This CEASE AND DESIST ORDER also demands that you immediately discontinue and do not at any point in the future under any circumstances do any of the following to Gwendolyn Krueger: speak to, contact, pursue, harass, telephone (via cellular or landline), instant message, page, fax, email, follow, stalk, shadow, disturb her peace, keep her under surveillance, gather information about her and/or block her movements at home, work, social gatherings, religious functions and/or any other reasonable day-to-day activities.
I am keeping an eye on this story. It involves Starbucks, workers’ rights, and internet harassment. That’s like one of my favorite things smacking into one of my least favorite things, plus or minus another thing I feel strongly about.
How is this a frivolous lawsuit, exactly? Harassment and Libel are perfectly legitimate legal claims. Why didn’t she address her work grievances in a similar manner? Starbucks may be in the wrong for what they did, but harassing them was sure to get her nowhere.
If it ain’t signed by a judge, commissioner, or magistrate, it ain’t a cease and desist order.
The details of what happened seem fuzzy, and it’s really impairing my ability to be a complete asshole about this. Best I can piece together, a Starbucks employee went home sick one day, and the manager took her off the schedule for two weeks. Is that what happened? Would that scenario have been impossible at a unionized Starbucks? Has a chain coffee store manager finally elevated herself to proverbial “the Man” status?
I really can’t side with Starbucks on, well, anything, but for a company that gives full benefits to part time employees, why do they get so much attention from the Wobblies? Are the Wobblies even an actual organization, or just a loose collection of people?
Unless the girl had an employment contract with Starbucks, she was an ‘at-will’ employee and could be fired/taken off the schedule for any reason other than discrimination prohibited by law.
@3 starbucks insures a smaller percent of its employee’s then Walmart, and does such by keeping them under in hours. this girl got sick and needs the work time to get health insurance so she doesnt keep getting sick.
These boneheads do not represent the interests of “Industrial Workers of the World”. And they should stop harassing Gwendolyn Krueger.
#5 – They offer healthcare coverage to employees working 20 hours or more. I don’t know how that compares to Walmart.
I’m not defending a situation I don’t know the details of, but the actions that got these people the cease and desist order weren’t appropriate, and it sheds some insight onto the maturity and ethics of that employee. If she wasn’t fired for posting her managers telephone number online, she should have been.
So internet harassment is actionable now? Hot damn.
Also, why is it that anything written by lawyers reads like a supreme piece of textual assholery?
@2 for the win.
Look, any lawyer can threaten you.
Only suckers listen to them.
hey, that’s a lot like the letter dan got from KOMO’s lawyers! it worked against dan…
Hah, most retail places in Arizona schedule their workers 38 hours, but make them work 40+. That way they can have full-time employees and treat them like part-timers.
Am I missing something here, what does this have to do with STALKER?
I’m sorry some lazy worker goes home “sick” and suddenly she is some symbol of injustice?
Starbucks offers it workers health care, stock options, and other great benefits. There is a reason that no legitimate union has ever even bothered to try and organize them. The Wobblies are a total joke and anyone who has even a passing knowledge of the labor movement knows this. When the Wobblies take their stupid actions it makes it even harder for us to organize people who really need help.