op ed: To Dunkin or Not to Dunkin
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 at 3:20PM 
Last week we got an email from Donna that asked us to boycott Dunkin Donuts because the company was being uncooperative in coming to a labor agreement. I forwarded it on to you all in the membership but didn’t think too much of it because I don’t go to Dunkin Donuts too much.
But this weekend, I was sitting on the steps of my deck, eating my breakfast cereal , getting ready to leave to visit a friend and it became a topic of concern. See I don’t drink coffee often as it bothers my system but I love it! When there’s a special occasion or event, I do decide to treat myself. This day I was going off to visit a friend which involved a 2 hour drive. As a treat, I had planned to take a cup of coffee on the drive. AND because I have it so rarely, when I do have a cup I want one I know I’m going to like. And that’s a Dunkin Donuts’ “medium decaf light with sugar please.” I always get it at Dunkin Donuts because I can count on a guaranteed good cup of coffee. I know I’ll like it and I’ll enjoy it.
So here I am, caught in the dilemma of whether I should get my coffee at Dunkin or not. The inner mind battle begins….
“I know I’ll like it if I get it at Dunkin and I don’t get them often.”
“Yes, but labor is trying to prove a point here, Aggie.”
“Maybe but if I get a coffee at one of the other stores, it’s a crap shoot as to what it will be like. Maybe have to get Mexican Sumatran decaf…yuk!”
“Suck it up and do the right thing!”
And so I went back and forth and back and forth. Until the grandmother of all doubts and questions flowed through my mind, “What difference is my one little cup of coffee going to make anyways?”
And just as quick as that thought went through my mind another came right out too, “The difference is that YOU will be different.” It was really quite startling to hear this and to realize the wisdom in it. How would I be different? As I sat there thinking about it, I realized a few things. One, being part of a Union or a Labor Movement has to do with loss. We forget that. We’ve been so fortunate as we still enjoy many of the benefits that were won for us by our parents, grandparents, immigrants, women and children of years gone by. We go to the bargaining table expecting the other side to see the rightness of what we’re asking for and just give us what we want without “me” having to do anything, certainly not to lose anything. And the result of that naïveté is the erosion of the labor movement and unions in general.
The forgoing of personal gain for something larger than ourselves is an exercise we rarely do anymore. Yet it is the fundamental expression of solidarity.
As I drove past the Dunkin Donuts and stopped at the Shelburne Falls Coffee Roaters on Route 2 and did indeed get a medium decaf (Mexican Sumatran) and added lots of half and half and sugar to make it tasty, I reminded myself that this was such a small loss but was important for me to make…for myself! It’s kind of like waking up realizing all those things I thought I needed, I don’t need. That there’s a strength in me that I can count on. I want to nourish that strength. I want to get to the same place our ancestors once stood. There were no guarantees that they were going to get what they wanted. No guarantees that they wouldn’t lose and lose big. I remember my father going out on strike at Uniroyal in Chicopee and being out of work for 9 months waiting for a contract to be settled in a way that was fair and gave them a better life. Our family went without pay and scrimped by but they fought for the principle, for the strength they knew they had as long as they stood together.
Nowadays it seems we only risk what we’re sure we have to, only make demands that we’re sure we can win, and above all don’t do anything that might cost ourselves something. I’m troubled by it. I don’t see us ever making true headway this way. Willingness to sacrifice, to suffer, to lose some ground to make real progress is a way of labor relations we need to remember, practice and use as a tool.
But if there are only a handful of people in the union or on campus that are willing to throw down the gauntlet, we’ll keep going the way we have, losing more of our income each year, more work and less benefits, slinking our way to retirement hoping we’ll escape the worst of it.
We’re coming into a new academic year. Wouldn’t it be great to go to a Union Meeting and see the room filled to capacity? Hear our collective voices telling Donna, “We’re ready to do what it takes.” To feel each other’s pain and difficulties and share them rather than try to make ourselves so small so no one will notice us until we can leave? Let’s do this for ourselves! Let’s become an incredible force to be reckoned with! You willing?
Aggie Mitchkoski
Reader Comments (1)
Aggie, thank you for delivering such a powerful reminder of the significance of a single action. Shared sacrifice and a willingness to think beyond my own needs, has never left me feeling deprived.
You are, being the change you envision!