Last week the blog of the Twin Cities Starbucks Workers Union discussed the "Starbucks Problem." The problem came to light during the now somewhat infamous secret conference call hosted by Bank of America executives to discuss the Employee Free Choice Act. The act, if passed, will allow for card check recognition. That means that a company will have to enter in negotiations with any union that can get 50%+1 of its employees to sign union cards. The participants on the phone call were terrified that if the act passed employees would simply start forming their own unions without waiting for the existing labor unions to initiate organizing drives. This possibility is what the executives have termed the Starbucks Problem. As someone who knows the founders of the Starbucks Workers Union and has done a little organizing for them from time-to-time I have to say I’m proud that a small group of workers can scare such powerful business executives.

The Starbucks Workers Union was founded in New York City by a handful of workers and slowly spread across the country. Their membership is only around 300 but they have won a variety of small and large gains for workers in the last few years. And now powerful executives from Bank of America and Home Depot and right-wing activists from the Center for Union Facts are nervous that other workers may follow their example. The whole thing reminds me of Margaret Mead’s dictum: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." I hope that others will indeed follow the example of the SWU. In doing so the world might yet be changed.