I am a barista for a certain national coffeehouse chain that’s engaging in blatant union busting and uses prison labor to make it’s products. I am also a union organizer for my store. I really just wanted to get this off my chest because it pissed me off so much.
Around a week ago, two of my coworkers had engaged in an initially civil conversation about unions that was interrupted by a certain supervisor who seemingly became anti-union overnight (I don’t know what happened to this person, but in my conversations with them they seem blissfully ignorant of the fact that our company is exploiting their labor for huge margins). From what I gather from what happened, the conversation turned from a civil and informative conversation on perspectives to this supervisor talking at my coworker, not allowing them to speak. My coworker then brought up later with me about what they talked about and other than the usual braindead, McCarthyist, conservative propaganda talking points, was that our painstaking labor that we put in is “unskilled” and not worth good benefits, PTO, and good healthcare. This supervisor also said to “come back to me with an opinion when you’ve worked for this company for 10 years”.
Is this mindset that your labor is worth nothing because it’s supposedly “unskilled” by some arbitrary standard normal? Is me working 4 stations at once because we’re short staffed “unskilled” labor? Is slinging out at least 3, 4, 5, drinks per minute “unskilled” labor? Is training people completely new to espresso machines and coffee into adepts of the craft “unskilled” labor? Is creating beautiful flowers and eye-popping art into the foam of a drink “unskilled” labor?
I don’t want to sound pompous and self-absorbed but I’m one of the best baristas at my store despite being with the company for less than a year. I’m the hibachi chef of the espresso machine and this person has the audacity to call my labor unskilled? What is wrong with these people? Why don’t they value the time and effort that they put in for what is basically a career for them at this point? Why don’t they think they deserve anything? Why don’t they fight for the pay and benefits they desire? I’m so fucking sick of these people and this generational internalization of abuse committed by the bourgeoisie. I’m so sick and tired of seeing coworkers who have the privilege of having a “breadwinning” white collar spouse, a house, and the ability to afford children in a country that steals and harvests material from the livelihood of it’s youth say that we don’t need to stand up for ourselves because our labor is “unskilled”. Meanwhile our other coworkers are struggling to make rent, have to drive 30 mins to and from to get to our store with $5, $6/gal gas prices, work multiple jobs, while also being supervisors.
It’s so ludicrous and deluded that it’s makes me genuinely nauseous.
TL:DR- Dimwit anti-union 10+ supervisor at Starbucks calls a 5 century old profession “unskilled” labor because they are a product of a disenfranchised, delusional societal mindset.