Starbucks, that epitome of a socially-conscious corporation, is now the target of an escalating campaign to blacken its name. One can understand why radical activists would go after discount retailing behemoth Wal-Mart. But who would have thought they’d also have classy Starbucks in their sights?

Last month, Brave New Films, an independent documentary production company based in Culver City, California, launched its “Stop Starbucks” campaign. The website (www.stopstarbucks.com) features a four-minute video posting on YouTube alleging mistreatment by the company toward employees, plus a petition demanding Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz “quit following Wal-Mart’s anti-union example.” Within a week, nearly 12,000 viewers had signed it. The campaign also featured a Twitter sabotage of a Starbucks photo promotion, replete with clever messages like “I want my union with my latte” and “Schultz makes millions, workers make beans.”

On closer inspection, this makes sense. The head of Brave New Films is Robert Greenwald, producer of the 2005 anti-corporate agitprop feature, “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.” As much as the Right, the Left has taken to New Media. Greenwald, for one, is a believer. “What happens with these things is that people watch it, send the link to friends, and you can see it build,” he notes. “It’s a tool that doesn’t cost billions of dollars.”

This corporate campaign didn’t happen in a vacuum. Brave New Films is tight with organized labor. And right now unions are engaged in an eleventh-hour blitz to get Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), legislation having nothing to do with expanding worker choice and everything to do with expanding union clout. EFCA would require an employer to recognize as binding any union organizing campaign that obtains a simple majority of signatures from affected workers who indicate a desire to join. In addition to this “card check” provision, which effectively would end secret-ballot elections, it would mandate an arbitration process whose rapid-fire timetable would work to a union’s advantage and whose decisions would not be subject to appeal.

EFCA, as many are aware, has stalled. In 2007, the House passed the measure, but Senate Republicans successfully blocked it. The bill, not unpredictably, has been re-introduced in the new Congress; President Obama has vowed to sign it. Yet even with wide Democratic majorities in the House and Senate this time, the measure remains highly vulnerable to filibuster. A number of Senate Democrats such as Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), and party convert Arlen Specter (Pa.) believe the Employee Free Choice Act is ill-suited to deal with the current recession, if not necessarily wrong in principle. Union leaders such as Service Employees President Andrew Stern have expressed pessimism over the prospects for passage.

Here’s where the Seattle-based Starbucks fits into the picture. This March, Starbucks’ Howard Schultz, Whole Foods’ John Mackey and Costco’s James Sinegal announced the formation of an ad hoc group, the Committee for a Level Playing Field for Union Elections. The purpose is to create a Third Way that would protect union organizing rights while retaining the secret ballot. The project would guarantee a fixed time period in which to hold a secret-ballot election and increase penalties upon employers and unions who violate the law.

Many activists on the Left are enraged at this seeming sellout, which in fact is more tilted toward union interests than it looks. It’s another phase in a continuing battle against Starbucks. Nearly a decade ago, several Seattle anti-World Trade Organization rioters, their cup brimming over with enthusiasm, smashed a number of Starbucks storefronts – right on company home turf! The new Stop Starbucks campaign hasn’t resulted in any vandalism, but it’s traveling through the anarcho-socialist blogosphere faster than Starbucks can open new stores. Many sites have linked to the Greenwald video.

Anti-Starbucks activists point to other black marks. For one thing, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) – our old friends, the Wobblies – for some five years has been targeting Starbucks in an organizing drive in Illinois, Minnesota, New York and other states, plus foreign countries such as Chile. “While Starbucks used the economic crisis as a pretext for an all-out assault on our already meager standard of living,” note organizers (www.starbucksunion.org), “our struggle gained momentum this year amidst a stark decline of the company’s brand and widespread store closures.” Union activists contend Starbucks employees are exploited, receiving $7.50 to $10 an hour in wages and inadequate health benefits, while being subject to a grueling schedule.

Also sticking in the activists’ craw is a recent California appeals court ruling requiring Starbucks baristas to share tips with supervisors. The decision overturns a lower court ruling in San Diego County forcing Starbucks to reimburse class-action plaintiffs (i.e., baristas) by around $86 million plus interest. Since each Starbucks customer is served by a team rather than an individual employee, the appeals court reasoned, money in the tip jar must be distributed among all workers on a given shift. Starbucks thus hadn’t violated a state law barring supervisors from receiving tips.

Now as someone who has worked in his share of restaurants, I can sympathize with the employees and the union up to a point. But attacking the Starbucks brand name is a stretch. These are, for the most part, entry-level workers. Those who seek long-term employment have plenty of opportunities for advancement, as the company tends to promote from within. And prospective employees respond to job openings. As one Web posting from North Scottsdale, Arizona put it: “It’s amazing how many teenaged girls want to work at Starbucks. I swear they put an ad in the paper and they’ll get a hundred applications the first day.” Continued...