The latest to try to organize the company’s workers is the Industrial Workers of the World, a union with a long, feisty history and a counter-cultural aura.

Starbucks, the Seattle-based coffee giant, recently settled a complaint issued by the National Labor Relations Board that contained more than two dozen unfair labor practice allegations brought against the company by the IWW. The settlement stemmed from disputes at just three stores in New York City and will likely have little impact on the vast majority of Starbucks workers.

But it illustrates the careful approach the company is taking toward labor activists as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other union targets try to rebuild their images after union campaigns tarnished their reputations.

Here are some key questions and answers about the union issue:

What benefits does Starbucks offer workers today?

Starbucks offers what it considers generous pay and benefits. Part-time workers in its stores are eligible for medical, dental and vision benefits, and Starbucks covers eligible same-sex domestic partners.

The company’s medical plan helps pay for treatments like acupuncture, and store workers can get stock options, known as “bean stock,” and tuition reimbursement.

Starbucks made Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list this year, ranked at No. 29.

What’s the union’s strategy?

It wants to chip away at Starbucks’ image as a socially responsible corporation. The IWW has only about 2,500 active members, but its rank-and-file activism is attracting a small but growing number of young members.

Labor experts say many Starbucks workers fit the union’s profile. In New York, baristas at three stores have told management they have joined the IWW. (Union dues are $6 a month – less than the cost of the CDs Starbucks sells at its counters.)

What’s the background of this union?

The IWW, whose members were dubbed Wobblies, was founded in 1905 by socialists and anarchists, including Mary Harris “Mother” Jones. The union was strongest around the World War I era, but continued even when membership was so diminished, some believed the group had faded away when it hadn’t.

The organization has always emphasized worker solidarity and direct action, such as strikes and boycotts, rather than electing leaders to hash out contracts with employers. IWW officials argue that contracts can weaken a union’s effectiveness since they limit when workers can strike or take other actions on behalf of themselves and other workers.

Today, the IWW has members at some employers under contract while others, like those organizing at Starbucks, prefer to resolve issues through direct action, without a contract.

What does the union want from Starbucks?

The IWW’s demands include wage increases and providing workers with guaranteed hours and lower eligibility requirements and out-of-pocket expenses for health care benefits.

What are the tactics the union is using?

Publicly confronting Starbucks managers with lists of demands and disrupting store operations by getting supporters to pay for drinks with pennies.

How does Starbucks compare to, say, Wal-Mart, the huge discounter that’s often criticized for its employee relations?

The union argues that about 42 percent of Starbucks employees get coverage through the company, less than the roughly 46 percent of Wal-Mart workers who receive employer-sponsored coverage. “Starbucks has anointed itself a leader in employee health care but the fact remains that a lower percentage of its employees are insured than at Wal-Mart,” says Daniel Gross, a 27-year-old IWW union member and an organizer in New York.

What is Starbucks’ response?

Audrey Lincoff, a Starbucks spokeswoman, does not dispute the 42 percent figure but says it’s unfair to compare Starbucks’ benefits to those of other employers because it has a disproportionately young work force.

Moreover, Starbucks contends that the IWW has little support from its workers, noting that the night before workers were scheduled to vote on whether to unionize a New York store in 2004, the IWW withdrew its petition in what Starbucks said was a sign of insufficient support from workers. The union says it withdrew because Starbucks legally challenged the size of the bargaining unit of the election, delaying the vote, and that its strategy at the company has always called for direct action over organizing through elections.

How much do Starbucks workers make?

Starbucks won’t disclose an average wage for its workers but says that, for example, baristas in New York City start at $8.75 an hour.

According to the National Restaurant Association, the average wage for cafeteria, food concession and coffee shop counter attendants was $7.83 in November 2004, the most recent data available. By comparison, Wal-Mart says it expects to pay workers $10.78 an hour on average if, as the company hopes, it starts opening stores in New York City in the near future.

Starbucks’ pay “is above the market rate for like chains,” says John Glass, an analyst at CIBC World Markets who follows the restaurant industry.

What might this union flareup mean to Starbucks’ business?

Employee relations are a key part of the coffee chain’s image, but experts doubt that fallout from the recent wrangle with the IWW will taint the Starbucks brand.

“If the consumer’s perception is that they’re doing anything unfair or inconsistent with that image, certainly it will raise questions about the brand integrity with consumers,” says Denise Lee Yohn, an independent brand marketer based in San Diego who has done work for restaurant chains.

But Yohn says the company’s efforts to appear socially responsible – from selling fair-trade coffee, helping run a coffee farmer support center in Costa Rica and making cups with recycled paper – will probably trump that. “They have enough good stuff that kind of causes this halo effect over everything else, so they probably don’t need to take it as seriously as a Wal-Mart,” she says.