Morning Joke and Starbucks ... Two Peas In A Non-Union Pod

Well, since we left them off last week (Hey Morning Joke, Cheetos Are Made By A Successful Union Company!), after Morning Joke, and his harlequin-sidekick Mika, had some yuks over dissing Unions, the news broke that the Morning Joke Show had entered into a sponsorship with one of the biggest union-deniers across the land, the caffeinated, price-gouging Starbucks.



Like, try the day after;

Why Starbucks Is Sponsoring MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' ... CMO Terry Davenport Says Coffee Chain Sees Opportunity to Promote Ethical Commitments

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- This week Starbucks announced a title sponsorship of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," the first such cable-news deal in decades. But the coffee retailer's chief marketer, Terry Davenport, said the news and a morning cup of coffee just go together.

[snip]

The partnership itself appears to be the result of some schmoozing. After ongoing discussions with both General Electric and NBC, Mr. Davenport said "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough casually dropped in to a recent meeting Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz was having with network executives.

"He introduced himself to Howard and said he was a big fan," Mr. Davenport said. "It kind of grew from there." Incidentally, "Morning Joe" anchors have been drinking Starbucks on air for several years. Mr. Scarborough has said viewers have been asking if Starbucks was paying for that placement for quite some time.

[snip]

Starbucks is, after all, the darling of many a liberal elite. While MSNBC is generally seen as a moderate, if not liberal, network, Mr. Scarborough is a former congressman with a conservative record. Such an alliance could cut at Starbucks' core. But for some, the partnership did not seem conservative enough. A number of commenters on StarbucksGossip.com asked why Starbucks hadn't considered such a partnership with Fox News.

During an interview on the morning show, Mr. Schultz said, "You want to do business with people with like-minded values." He added that Starbucks' model of "balancing profitability with a social conscience" may have been an added inducement for MSNBC.

Like "like-minded values"?

It would seem, then, perhaps, the Morning Joke Show union-bashing was just a coincidental welcoming gift for their new sponsor.

Spilling the Beans About Starbucks' Union-Busting Tactics

The National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly found Starbucks guilty of illegally terminating, harassing, intimidating, and discriminating against employees attempting to unionize. Late last year, a judge ruled Starbucks had committed over a dozen violations of the National Labor Relations Act at a few New York stores. Starbucks has settled five such labor disputes in the last few years in New York, Minnesota, and Michigan, spending millions on legal fees to avoid exposing their anti-worker ways.

To make matters worse, Starbucks has led the charge on a so-called Employee Free Choice Act "compromise," joining Costco and Whole Foods to form the Committee for Level Playing Field. This Orwellian-sounding group has come up with a "third way" on Employee Free Choice, which would require 70 percent of workers to sign union authorization cards instead of the far more manageable 50 percent initially proposed by this legislation.

[snip]

Like Wal-Mart, Starbucks offers its workers low wages averaging $7.75 an hour, and Starbucks also refuses to guarantee workers set hours. Instead, the company adheres to an Optimal Scheduling policy that requires baristas to make themselves available 70 percent of open store hours just to work full time in any given week. This means low-wage earning baristas often don't have time to take a second job. Moreover, it precludes tens of thousands of Starbucks employees from working the 240 hours per quarter needed to qualify for the company's health insurance.

Brave New Films has a new campaign - Stop Starbucks - and a video to go with it;

What do Starbucks and Wal-Mart have in common?



BNF also posted the hysterical take by Jon Stewart, on the Daily Show, of the Morning Joke-Starbucks lip-lock;

Daily Show: Stewart Slams Starbucks and Morning Joe Synergy

And guess what?

Morning Joke and harlequin-sidekick Mika don't like Jon Stewart, and the Daily Show, making fun of them.

Joe Scarborough On Jon Stewart: A "Very, Very Angry Guy" With A "Napoleonic Complex"



Hmmmm ...

Maybe Morning Joke can get Newsweek to give them some special coverage, get their backs, so to speak ...Again!


Bonus Morning Joke

Cory Doctorow: Starbucks Twitter campaign hijacked by documentary about Starbucks' union-busting

Wayne Barrett - Barrett: Why Don't MSNBCers Question "Morning Joe" About Abortion Doc Killings?

Media Matters: Scarborough declares "if planes go into buildings...blame Dana Priest" for exposing use of waterboarding

Morning Joke Teaches Thousands of Kids To Swear! ... Or: Blame It On The Cheetos, Joe ...

Get A Shovel! ... Olbermann Disses Scarborough, On-Air