Teamsters Call on Starbucks: 'Ask WMI to Negotiate Fairly!'

Teamster sanitation workers, in contract negotiations with Waste Management Inc. (WMI) distributed leaflets at several Starbucks locations nationwide over the weekend. Teamsters called on Starbucks, a major client of Houston-based WMI, to urge its refuse collector, to return to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith with Teamster members in New York City and Washington, DC.

WMI, which has rebuffed calls from federal mediators and elected officials to come back to the bargaining table, is threatening to impose deep wage, retirement, and health care cuts on sanitation truck drivers and helpers at Local 639 in Washington, D.C. and Local 813 in New York City.

"Starbucks claims to be pro-community and pro-environment," said Thomas Ratliff, president of Local 639 in Washington, D.C. "But actions speak louder than words and Starbucks is tacitly condoning WMI's refusal to bargain in good faith. We're calling on them to tell WMI to do the right thing."

The Starbucks protest comes on the heels of a wave of Teamster actions at WMI locations across the country, including informational picketing and leafleting in California, Seattle, Illinois, Colorado, and Maryland. Teamsters represent 31,000 private sector sanitation workers, including 8500 at Waste Management.

In early February, Local 813 in New York City, currently in negotiations with WMI, also held a protest at WMI's New York City headquarters that drew hundreds of Teamster members, who spoke of their dangerous working conditions and the importance of maintaining their health benefits.