This time his cause celebre is closer to home. "I know I could probably do better financially than this job, because unlike most baristas, I was blessed with a great education," he says. "But the way I was raised and what I believe is that if something is not right, you don't just walk away from it and leave it for the next person to fix." Besides, Grandpa was a truck-driving Teamster; it's in the genes.
Gross's group of baristas is affiliated with IU/660, a division of the International Workers of the World; the union, which represents retail workers, appeals to his anti-authoritarian side. "It blends the social movement aspect with unionism, but it lets us make our own decisions. We didn't want to go from having corporate bosses to having corporate and union bosses. This way we sort of feel in control."
Tough to get a cup of coffee, though, when one hangs out with Gross, a sylph of a labor agitator who stands 1.72m and figures he tips the scales (doesn't own one, can't afford it) at 63kg. Though he doesn't mind posing outside his workplace on a sweltering afternoon, he is loath to pop inside for a drink. He still has a job, but the work environment tends, he says, to be hostile since "the union thing." When he handed out informative fliers to customers two weeks ago outlining the baristas' gripes, a store manager called in the police, he says. "They're probably itching to fire me," he speculates.
So Gross leads the way to another, cheaper coffee shop, only to discover it shuttered. More walking leads to, what else, another Starbucks. The store at Fifth Avenue is jammed, and Gross, carrying a briefcase and out of uniform, decides he can risk an incognito appearance as a paying customer. He buses a table and gets in line for iced passion tea lemonade. At the cashier, he uses his employee discount, 30 percent. Such a perk! Has he no misgivings about badmouthing Starbucks while sitting inside one sipping its wares at a tidy discount?
"Come on," he says with a grin. "You've got to take what meager crumbs they throw out at you." He leaves a nice tip for his non-union brethren. He's convinced they'll see the light.
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