Whilst Starbucks’ provides jobs to approximately 172,000 people worldwide (New York Times, 2008) it fails to respect the rights of its employees. Starbucks baristas are faced with inferior working conditions and prevented from taking union action against their employer. Starbucks fails to pay a liveable wage and a secure work schedule, with ‘baristas earning a starting wage as little as $6.25 per hour and work hours fluctuating from week to week based on weekly store sales ’ to prevent workers from joining the International Workers of the World Union, Starbucks employed a union-busting firm, Akin Gump, to repress the union through surveillance, intelligence gathering and firing union activists. In 2006, New York barista Daniel Gross was fired illegally for union activity and spoke out against Starbucks’ inferior working conditions. “Every single barista works part-time. No one has a guaranteed number of working hours; one week you might have 35 hours, the next you might have 14. The times you work also shift, making it difficult to budget for necessities, look after families or have second jobs ”.