There's One on Every Corner, & There's One Born Every Minute

Besides screwing people stupid enough to pay their ridiculous prices for ground beans & water w/ some flavoring added, Starbucks™ has been (no surprise here) screwing its wage-slaves. A judge in San Diego ruled yesterday that the practice of letting "shift supervisors" help themselves to the tip jars was wrong, wrong, wrong. (Remember, "supervisor" is Latin for overseer. As in plantation labor. We don't know what the fuck-tuck-tucking hell a "barista" is.)

Saying baristas were entitled to $86 million in back tips plus interest, San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett also issued an injunction preventing Starbucks’ shift supervisors from sharing in future tips. Cowett said the practice was a violation of a state law prohibiting managers and supervisors from sharing in employee tips. Starbucks Corp. spokeswoman Valerie O’Neil said the company planned an immediate appeal, calling the ruling “fundamentally unfair and beyond all common sense and reason.”

Pardon us Val, it's, how do you say it, "against the law?" And if you don't like the law, you can always bribe some legislators to change it, fascista. Valerie went on to say:

“This case was filed by a single former barista and, despite Starbucks request, the interests of the shift supervisors were not represented in litigation.”

Then who exactly was Starbucks'™ team of legal eagles representing, assuming there was representation? Won't you even stand up for your managers?

Terry Chapko, an attorney for the baristas, said the ruling was a victory, but the case was far from over. “Starbucks should be paying their shift supervisors a supervisory wage, not compensating them through tips that legally belong to baristas,” he said.

Oh, now we get it. Starbucks™ is interested in paying its overseers & plantation managers the least possible amount it can, just as w/ its "baristas." Don't believe Valerie for a minute. Their hearts do not bleed for their management wage-slaves either. It shouldn't be hard for the urbane sophisticates who read this to locate one of their ubiquitous stores; we suggest you heave a heavy object through a Starbucks™ window tonight. A heavy object like a Starbucks™ shareholder, or an executive vice-president.