Baristas unite: The coffee economy and the future of jobs

Maclean's ^ | August 11, 2013 | Tamsin McMahon

[rickmichaels]

Just Us Coffee Roasters Co-op in Nova Scotia isn’t the kind of business that seems ripe for an employee revolt. The worker-owned co-operative serves up fair-trade organic coffee, pays above minimum wage and offers employees perks such as health benefits, profit-sharing and money to buy shoes.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS:

[edpc]

They also serve counterfeit Civet coffee which tastes like s**t.....but how would you know the difference?

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"they want more control over scheduling"

This is one issue for which I am on the side of the workers.

I support all those who are willing to work two (or even more) jobs in order to support themselves.

Unfortunately businesses keen on squeezing every cent they can out of their business models are using computer software to predict exactly how many workers they need on each shift. This sounds great at first, but what is happening is that employees that work at a company with such software are expected to be waiting by the phone to come in at a minute's notice if called in, and to leave when they are no longer needed.

This is bad for the part time employee that has kids and other obligations, but it is nearly impossible for the person screwed over by Obamacare who needs to take two jobs and somehow work for both companies without missing any required shifts. Shifts which are forever shifting from day to day and hour to hour.

I hope managers are smart enough to realize they won't be able to hire and keep the best workers if they keep jacking around their schedules, but it seems that our country is stuck on stupid from the lowest forms of pond scum that can't even manage to graduate from high school up through the highest levels of corporate America where stupidity has been raised to a science.