Starbucks

Starbucks has repeatedly violated labor laws in its Twin Cities stores, the National Labor Relations Board has determined. The federal agency’s Minneapolis office recently ruled that 16 charges, filed by a Starbucks employee at the Mall of America, have merit.

Joe Tessone became something of a barista icon after confronting Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz about the company’s treatment of workers. Now he’s out of a job.
The activist has been laid off, purportedly for violating the company’s rules regarding work availability. In the last year Starbucks has cut more than 18,000 jobs and closed 975 stores [...]

About a dozen former and current Starbucks workers gathered outside the coffee chain’s outlet at the intersection of Nicollet and Franklin Avenues on Thursday morning. They carried placards that read “Justice for Baristas” and “Starbucks Workers Union,” circling the sidewalk in the single-digit temperatures. “Starbucks Union here to stay,” they chanted. “These lates are union made.” The event coincided with the filing of 11 labor violation charges against the company with the National Labor Relations Board.

A Knoxville, Tenn., TV station’s Web site credits Minnesota’s answer to Gov. Sarah Palin with this zinger on federal bailouts in the financial sector: “What’s next, Starbucks too big to fail?”

One problem: After all her national media face time — from the famously extended State-of-the-Nation smooch she inflicted on President Bush to yet another appearance on “Larry King Live” last night — WBIR-TV still managed to mis-ID her as “Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of New Mexico.”

Video, and more, below the jump.