Comments on: Will Work for Beer, Coffee

By: beeractivist

beeractivist — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:25:08 +0000

Tim – I’m working on it.

Karen – My personal goal is to be gainfully unemployed some day.

Mel – I’m interested to hear more of your thoughts on this. I’m currently undecided on the “to estate or not to estate” fair trade debate.

By: Espresso Monkey Mel

Espresso Monkey Mel — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 17:46:28 +0000

The plantations/estates that Starbucks purchases their coffee also do not let their workers unionize. Last week I visited an estate in Nicaragua that exclusively sells to Starbucks. The workers that live on the estate permanently were not allowed to talk to us. The situation of these farmers reminded me of when I organized with migrant farm workers in the Willamette Valley area in Oregon. Similarly the workers were not able to leave the farms where they worked long hours for little pay. They were entirely dependent and indebted to the farm owners. Their is a lot of talk right now in the fair trade world about certifying coffee plantations that meet specific criteria as fair trade products, which already happens with tea and bananas. This is a highly controversial issue because at the roots of the fair trade movement is the “empowerment of small farmers and artisans organized in democratic cooperatives” –i.e. not working within the plantation system. Although from what I saw last week it is clear that these laborers need to be empowered and treated like valuable human beings just as much as small farmers that own their plots need access to markets and fair prices for their coffee. Starbuck’s baristas and plantations workers need to unite to give Howie a run for his money–literally!

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 07:04:53 +0000

Labor rights are getting less and less attention but we all have to watch this issue. For a lot of us are employees and will get hit with this at one time or another.

By: Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:44:55 +0000

I’m glad you’re getting more interested in labor rights. The more you research this project the more you will find slavery, indentured servitude, child trafficking, forced labor and sweatshops of all kinds. People think sweatshops were abolished long ago but as the USA becomes deeper and deeper in debt to China the more we see how dependent American consumers are on goods being produced in sweatshops and by slave labor.

If you can find a witty way to present this issue like you did with beer then you could draw some desperately needed attention to this critical issue.

In solidarity as us union folks like to say…