Comments on: FDL Book Salon Welcomes Kim Fellner: Wrestling With Starbucks

By: Kim Fellner

Kim Fellner — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:12:07 +0000

Yes, I do think the shift in the economic landscape will have some impact here — both on SBUX and on unions. I thought the most egregious SBUX behavior took place at the Kent roasting plant, where the folks who joined the union were systematically drummed out of their jobs; that’s a more conventional industrial setting, and SBUX behaved pretty much the way union-busting companies behave. But I also thought that the SBUX model offered some lessons for the labor movement and for building a union culture more suited to our current moment.

Cheers, Kim (kim@kimfellner.com)

By: cvcobb01

cvcobb01 — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:04:21 +0000

I was a brand director at Starbucks for a number of years. Coming into it deeply suspicious of big corps myself, I was and still am pretty pleased with the company when all was said and done. And I appreciate the even-handed approach you’ve taken Kim, because I recognize in what you observed a pretty similar experience of my own. I also can’t tell you how much I had to explain that, yes some mom and pops went out of business, but more actually sprang up because the market expanded.

The other thing I experienced was how hard it is to run a socially-responsible company because of 1) the pressure of quarterly profits and shareholders, and 2) the difficulty of running a coffee company. It is hard to be profitable in any food service business, and that Starbucks is because of a pretty disciplined focus on it. I never felt like the company was anti-union, though I’m sure some were. But I did feel that some thought unions were obsolete and extraneous, and in the buzz of employee ownership in the dotcom days, they had the wind at their backs.

Now, not so much.

By: Kim Fellner

Kim Fellner — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:03:11 +0000

I know the book salon is officially over, but yes, this does ring true. There does seem to be some move to sugar cane, and I went to at least one collective that had both coffee and sugar cane production. However, sugar cane is more of a plantation crop than gourmet coffee, so smallholders aren’t likely to make that switch. Also, the organic cert is the one with the most problems, lots of suspect stuff going on with some of the certifiers. Ironically, SBUX probably has some of the most stringent regs, their growers can’t go back to toxics and still be SBUX suppliers. The whole certification process was quite an education for me.

By: dakine01

dakine01 — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:58:57 +0000

Kim and Jeff thank you for an informative Book Salon!

By: hackworth

hackworth — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:58:36 +0000

Costa Rica has experienced a serious decline in coffee production. Many growers have switched to the profitable sugar cane crop which is horrible for the environment. This was due to the decline in whosesale coffee prices.

In Costa Rica, I was told that it is difficult to get organic certification, but once a grower gets it, it is easy (and typical) to resume the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers. This is because follow-up inspections are not done. Does this ring true?

By: Jeff Vogt

Jeff Vogt — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:58:29 +0000

thank you

By: Kim Fellner

Kim Fellner — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:57:33 +0000

And thanks back at you. Thanks Jeff. It was a blast.

By: BevW

BevW — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:56:44 +0000

As we come to the end of this Book Salon,

Kim, Thank you for stopping by the Lake and spending the afternoon with us discussing your new book.

Jeff, Thank you very much for Hosting this interesting Book Salon.

Everyone, if you haven’t bought Kim’s book yet, there is a link above.

Thanks all.

By: Kim Fellner

Kim Fellner — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:56:42 +0000

Well, I work at Working America, which organizes workers with a progressive economic message in their communities rather than at their workplaces… part of what Joel Rogers would call open source unionism. I think that’s one avenue. However, where we seem to be missing something is with younger workers, where unions have little traction. I think bring back a sense of the collective rather than merely the individual entrepreneurial is somehow central to that. When we see the McCain response to Obama’s comment about benefiting lots more people by spreading the wealth around, we know we have a ways to go. And it provides an in to have the discussion with younger colleagues. I was surprised, in a way, by how predominant the individual entrepreneurial avenue to success dominated the thinking of young workers. We could maybe try some new collective kinds of enterprises. After all, we’ve got Facebook?!

By: Jeff Vogt

Jeff Vogt — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:50:52 +0000

what do you imagine those new formations to look like?