Starbucks and "Ethical Coffee"

It appears that Starbucks is trying to remedy its image by giving some of those that grow their coffee a better deal. According to Corp Watch: Starbucks is creating a deal with the Ethiopian government to create a "a licensing, distribution and marketing" agreement for three of their specialty coffees.

For over a year the Ethiopian government has pushed Starbucks to recognize their legal ownership of the names of its coffees. In the place where coffee was born, 11 million Ethiopians (about 1/5 of the population) depends on this crop for their livelihood and makes up 2/3 of the country's export earnings. Through ownership rights over its coffee, Ethiopia has the potential to increase income in their coffee industry by $88 million.
As of now, Ethiopian farmers as well as other coffee growers across the world make on average 3 cents for every cup of coffee sold. Its bean is considered one of the finest in the world where people pay 26$/lb but those in Ethiopia that grow the crop only get 6 percent of that profit resulting in horrible poverty.

Check out Oxfam's report for more information

Even with this possible "agreement" to help benefit Ethiopian coffee farmers, Starbucks is far from a socially responsible corporation they claim to be. Despite being listed on Fortune's 100 best companies to work for in 2007, they have a record of union-busting both in their shops (against the IWW Starbucks Worker Union) as well as in their US roasting plants.
Strikes against Starbucks in their coffee shops:
- scheduling manipulation ensures that every barista is a part-time worker and isn't guaranteed any work hours per week. For example, a Starbucks employee can get 35 hours of work one week, 22 hours the week after, and 10 hours the following week. As a result Starbucks workers in the United States earn as little $6, $7, or $8 per hour depending on the location, far from a living wage.

- Though Starbucks touts a health care plan for its employees, it covers only 42% of its workforce which is less than Walmart (47%)- a company notorious for its inadequate health care plan among other things

The barriers to health care for employees are two-fold. First, employees must work 240 hours per quarter to qualify to purchases health care through the company. With no full-time workers and no guaranteed work hours, qualifying to purchase health care is far from assured. Second, workers must pay significant premiums, co-pays, and deductibles to participate in the health care plan. With inadequate wages

- inadequate staffing during shifts as well as ergonomic issues put Starbucks employee's safety and health at risk.

If management scheduled an appropriate numbers of workers on the shop floor, workers would not have to work at such an unsafe speed with very hot beverages. The combination of the unduly brisk pace and the ergonomic inadequacies result in repetitive strain injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome for many Starbucks workers.