Sunday, January 29, 2006

I like Starbucks Coffee

But not anymore! Can someone get me a cup of coffee that doesn't taste like worker's blood or is that actually what gives it it's flavour?

From the NYC Indymedia website:

"The Starbucks socially responsible image is all smoke and mirrors. Customers always ask, 'you get company health care, right?'" said Pete Montalbano, an IWW barista. "Starbucks employees, many of whom are uninsured or on Medicaid, knew the answer to that all along. Only now, so does everyone else."

After multiple public challenges from the IWW Starbucks Workers Union for this very statistic, the company admitted to the Wall Street Journal that only 42% of its employees are covered by company health care. Wal-Mart covers 47% of employees according to the Journal report. Starbucks' 42% figure includes management officials whose participation in the health care plan is greater because premiums, co-pays, and deductibles are more affordable with their higher earnings. Therefore, the percentage of non-managerial workers covered by company health care at Starbucks is undoubtedly even lower. The union had argued- correctly it turns out - that health care coverage would be significantly lower than one would expect from a company that claims an extraordinary commitment to employee health benefits.

"I'm a mother of four and my Starbucks wage puts me well below the poverty line," said Suley Ayala, an IWW member at the Union Square Starbucks in New York City. "My kids and I are on Medicaid- there's no way I could afford Starbucks health care without a raise and a guaranteed 30 hours of work per week. Starbucks would never budge in the past but as a union member my voice cannot be ignored."

The Journal article draws another unfavorable comparison between Starbucks and Wal-Mart. While 70% of Wal-Mart's employees are full-time (at least in Wal-Mart's atrophied version of full-time), only 20% of Starbucks employees are full-time. Once again, the 20% includes management officials. In fact, every single retail hourly worker at Starbucks in the United States is a part-time employee with no guarantee of any number of work hours per week.

Details of Starbucks' woes at the National Labor Relations Board are also cited in the report. The company is set to stand trial on a wide range of charges including the termination of IWW member and former Starbucks barista Sarah Bender for exercising her right to join a union. Indeed, Starbucks' union-busting approach- high-priced anti-union consultants, propaganda, threats, and retaliation- is very similar to Wal-Mart's.

"The fact that some light has been shed on Starbucks' employment practices is a testament to the power of all the grassroots activists around the world that make up the Starbucks Workers Union community," said Daniel Gross, a barista and IWW organizer. "Never before has such a fundamentally anti-worker company done so well in creating a socially responsible image. With all the facts pointing to Starbucks as a poverty wage employer teeming with uninsured workers, the importance of a strong organization of baristas could not be more clear."

The IWW Starbucks Workers Union is a group of baristas, bussers, and shift supervisors organizing for a guaranteed 30 hours of work per week and an end to the unlawful anti-union campaign. Eschewing the deeply flawed NLRB certification process, the union has won wage increases, better working hours, and safety improvements through direct pressure on the company.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Isn't Democracy Wonderful?

George Bush said He was going to introduce democracy to the Middle-East and it seems like for once in his life he has played a doozy! The elections in Palestine were considered generally free and fair and a great example of how democracy works! The party that won are known for their social programs and community outreach centers, oh, and who could forget... their suicide bombers! Don't they look so cute in those lovely puffy vests! Oh yes they do!!!

Good job George! Once again democracy triumphs! Just like in Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia, all countries that elected left-wing governments in the last 5 years! Even Che Guevara couldn't spread socialism this fast George!

And let's not forget our friendly fundamentalists in the Middle East! Things are going spiffingly well in Iraq, so well in fact that America has decided that there is no longer any need to commit any funds to rebuilding the place!!!

Afghanistan is getting better too! Business at The Hard Rock Cafe in Kandahar is booming, or should that be exploding? The border areas around Pakistan are lovely at this time of year with displaced earthquake victims and the soothing drones of Predator aircraft overhead! Whatever you do, don't have a dinner party because Mr Hellfire may just come-a-callin!

So congratulations again George! A job well-done!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

I Can't Believe it's Not George W Bush!

It seems that I can't even escape to Canada any more now they elected this guy leader! C'mon Canucks, what were you thinking?? If you want Bush-lite then at least pick one with some fashion sense! This man is clearly auditioning for a part in Brokeback Mountain!



I know the world's in bad shape when even the Canadians lose their minds!

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Save us!

I'm sitting listening to the album "Struggle" by Woody Guthrie, it is a collection of political and union organizing songs. The album is on cassette and it is probably one of the oldest tapes I still own (It's not that old really, it's just that I chucked most of my tapes when CD's came in).

There is a song about dying miners that goes like this:

The Dying Miner

(By Woody Guthrie)

It happened an hour ago
Way down in this tunnel of coal;

This gas caught a fire from somebody's lamp,
And the miners are choking in smoke.

Goodbye to you, little Dicky;
Goodbye to my wife that I love,
Most of these miners won't be coming home,

Tonight when the work whistle blows.

(It) looks like the end for me
And for all of my buddies I see;
We're all writing letters on state rock walls,
Please carry my word to my wife.

I found a little place in the air,
I crawled and I drug myself here,
But the smoke's getting bad and the fumes coming in,
This coal gas is burning my eyes.


I found myself taking the tape out and looking at it. I had forgotten about this song and it immediately made me think about the Sago mine disaster of a few weeks ago when 12 miners died from carbon monoxide poisoning. They left notes for their families too.

It seems so strange that Woody Guthrie wrote that song in 1947 and here we are still dealing with the same pointless deaths. I guess the miners will only stop dying once the fossil fuels and fossil jewels have all run out…

On a connected but slightly different thread, I then thought about other mining disaster songs; "The Blantyre Explosion" and “The Springhill Mine Disaster”, both written by Ewan McColl. I know them as being performed by Christy Moore and The Dubliners and they were staples of my “Folk’n World” mix tapes that I used to give people.

Mix tapes were a thing of beauty and I think I probably spent an unhealthy portion of my teenage years making them. I taped bits of dialog off the TV and spliced songs together, I cut songs off at a particular beat to try to make them join seemlessly onto the next one (God, this was so hard back then! It's so easy now! Has the computer spoiled the enjoyment of achievement for everything?).

I basically managed to drown out all the years of my Mum watching Last of the Summer Wine and Dad's Army repeats by fading Prince songs into Jimi Hendrix guitar solos. A great tape was when you couldn't tell where one song ended and the next began!

Now, there are plenty of websites on the art of mixtaping so I'm not going to waffle about this. I want to look at the tapes themselves.

When was the last time you picked one of these things up?


It’s such a small miracle of design that lasts surprisingly well as long as you don’t step on them! They were also, potentially, a disaster waiting to happen!

Remember all those times your favorite tape got eaten by the machine? You could spend an hour untangling the web of ferric spaghetti desperately trying not to stretch it! You could then spend another 45 minutes using a biro pen winding the tape back into the case praying that you wouldn’t end up with a twist in it and have to start all over again!

I don’t know why but this image inspires some fuzzy warm comfy nostalgia trip! A vision of a time when life was a bit slower and you were forced to stop and deal with things.

There are apparently people out there who collect different brands of blank cassettes, check out this guy! There is no point to his website aprt from storing images of all the blank tapes he owns - most of them still in their orginal wrappers!! I even found myself looking for a specific type of tape that my Brother used. Remember these Brother J?


The orange and black BASF tape was a staple in our house for years! It's a strange world eh?

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Freeway Freedom


See more at Freeway Blogger

Bad Karma down the pub.....

Went to the pub for the first time in 2 months on Thursday and to be honest I wish I hadn't. Ash, my current favorite bartender, introduced me to this guy Rob who was one of the most revolting specimens of humanity I have encountered yet.

He was a right-wing talk show host in training and wouldn't shut up about how great America was and how wrong the liberal-left were "treating the whole world like it was a chess game, when only force can solve the world's problems" (his words). He was about as intelligent as a dust bunny. Everything he said was unbelievable and he really put me off my beer.

I tried arguing with him but he just talked right over the top of me - another rightwing specialty, be the loudest voice in the room even when you are flat wrong! The conversation ranged from why Vietnam was actually a good idea (his opinion, not mine), to gay marriage and abortion.

It was starting to get ugly when I said he was best excuse for abortion I'd ever seen, thankfully one of the other bartenders Scotty came in, he grabbed me and took me down the far end of the bar to say hello.

Now, I am not normally drawn into situations like this and usually walk away before it gets tense, but this was Perdition, my home bar, and it is owned by a bunch of people that I know to be very open-minded. Scotty told me "I don't think much of your new friend" to which I replied sticking my finger in my mouth and making the international puke sign.

Was this a lesson in karma since I should have been at home stripping paint off the banister and trying to get the house in order for the baby? The ankle-biter is now officially said to be pooping out around about July 9th and so far everything has been fine. July 9th sounds like a long way away but I'm sure it will be here in no time! I really have my work cut out with this place and any foriegn visitor who knows how to wield a paintbrush is welcome to drop by anytime!

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Get da fuck oota ma hoose!

One of the less appealing sides of being a homeowner is dealing with contractors. I had my first "Get the fuck out of my house!" moment today as a plumber I had called for a quote gave me a quote that was $500 more than the others I had already gathered for the same job.

On top of this, and I am still politely saying "Thanks, I'll let you know" at this stage, he tries to hit me up for $65 for giving me the bullshit quote in the first place!

If my eyes could pop out of my head they would have! I said "Do you want to come upstairs and see your website? It says Free Estimates all over the place on it!!"

"So you don't want to pay?".

"No I don't! Bye!".

He left without a serious argument ensuing, probably because I was standing in the kitchen right by a large array of chef's knives!

This is the most unpleasent encounter so far but I have talked to so many assholes on the phone who think that you should give them money for answering the phone alone! One guy sounded as entusiastic as your average heroin addict and after I'd explained to him 3 times what I wanted I hung up on him!

Honestly! The balls of some people!

Monday, January 09, 2006

Are you Jewish?

I guess it's my own fault. I tend not to shave during the winter as the bushy beard is a good protector against the freezing temperatures. Unfortunately thanks to my DNA, my beard tends to be patchy and looks like I am being forced to grow it because I am a member of a beard-friendly religious cult.

So why was I surprised when I left work the other day at 1230 in the morning and a hasidic Jewish guy comes up to me and asks "Are you Jewish?".

"No" I obviously replied, wondering why I am being approached by a man dressed in a black jacket and black fedora with a big but patchy beard like mine and ponytails. Normally, this alone is a disturbing image for me but after midnight it is unthinkable. I was never a ZZ Top fan.

"Are you sure?" he said.

Now I was stumped. Am I sure I am not jewish? My name is David, I have a patchy, forced looking beard and I have been circumcised. Maybe I am Jewish!

"No, I'm sure".

"Okay, have a nice weekend!".

What? If I was Jewish would it get me entry to the Hasidic guide dog association or something? No need for us chosen people to be stumbling around blindly in the dark. I mention this because being blind is the usual reason people approach me, not my religious persuasion! What other goodies does being Jewish entitle Me to? All I know is that being raised Catholic entitled you to free lesson in guilt and if you are exceptionally lucky, a free trip to Lourdes, or Knock, or wherever the Blessed Virgin is appearing in concert this year!

Speaking of religion and virgins by the way, does anyone other than Me think that it is strange that fundamentalist Muslims believe you are entitled to 72 virgins if you die a martyr? I'm kind of thinking that would be a helluva lot of work, deflowering all those people. Also, is it mentioned anyhwre if they are male or female virgins? What happens, if your average mad bastard fundamentalist blows himself to smithereens and wakes up in heaven and the scene is called "Adam and Steve's Virgin Megastore". I'm not sure homosexual virgins sit comfortably within this religious zealotry.

Doncha religious people just love me???????

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Working to Mogwai

I've been listening to a lot of the Glasgow band Mogwai lately; it's all instrumental music and it is great for working or writing to. It soothes me like classical music might but it also occasionally makes me wanna head bang, like someone crossbred Mozart with Pink Floyd and dropped the depressing lyrics!

It also has the unfortunate effect of making me think that everything is happening in slow motion as the band often sound like they are playing in slowmo. It's wintery music, cold and spacey, it makes me think of a cold, wet Glasgow streets.

Anyway... the reason I am writing about this band is that I just saw one of their videos online the other day. The video is a fairly simplistic cgi animation piece but for some reason I found it to be one of the saddest and disturbing things I've seen in a while.

If you have broadband and feel like depressing yourself you can watch it here. Make sure you watch it all the way through so you find out what's really happening in it!

On the home front I finally got stuck into the cardboard boxes the other day and one more full day of cleaning should do it. After that the real work begins - sadly though I have begun taping a bunch of DIY and home improvement shows off the telly and I fear the the drywalling, painting, papering and sanding might not be nearly as much fun as the TV shows imply!

It won't be the same without the obligatory gay designer, the hunky man-beast carpenter and the sexy but useless female host (I'm not implying all women are useless here by the way, just the ones the network deliberately throw into these shows to provide a bit of totty!).

Okay I'll shut up now before I get myself in more trouble!!!!!!

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Happy New Year

It's the first day of a new year and for once I am not spending it in bed with a hangover. Last year I had two friends in town from England and much merriment ensued. This year Alma and I spent it at home by ourselves - in part because the weather turned nasty on us and the planned trip to the in-laws was snowed off - and because we've hardly had a day to ourselves since moving into the new house. It was nice just to veg in front of the TV this time.

I can hear the cat-calls from my friends in England bouncing off the ionosphere like a shortwave radio broadcast. "Ah you old Bastard! Get the pipe and slippers my Dear!". Well, don't write me off yet. I'm saving myself for St Patrick's Day this year when you bastards (you know who you are!) plant yer big feet on the rail of Swift's Bar at 10am for the pre-parade Guinness.

St Patrick's Day might be my last hurrah as a marathon drinker and I'll be trying to make the most of it. Why? Well, it seems that come mid-July sometime I am going to be a Dad for the first time. Betcha weren't expecting that!!

Yes, a life of screeching shit machines awaits. My drinking budget that was vastly shrunk by buying a house is now going to be all but erased by my very own ankle biter. Speaking of drinking budgets, my congrats goes out to New Yorker Dan Freeman who completed a marathon session by drinking in 1000 different bars in one year. You can read his blog at 1000 bars. He became a bit of a celebrity towards the end and all the local news shows covered his 1000th bar.

If I have one regret for last year, it's that we didn't manage to put Tony Blair and George W. Bush in jail for war crimes. If I have one wish for next year, it's that we manage to put Tony Blair and George W. Bush in jail for war crimes. Some things just have to happen.

Happy New Year.