Posts tagged barista

    US unions see unusually promising moment amid wave of victories

    March 16, 2022 // Gebre said the nation’s unions should send far more organizers and money to back the union drives at Starbucks and Amazon. “The rest of the labor movement should be willing to lend a hand,” even if they don’t get any of the members, said Gebre, who was recently named Greenpeace’s chief program officer. “That’s what solidarity means.”

    SEIU DROPS ITS FRONT IN UNIONIZING STARBUCKS

    March 7, 2022 // Proponents had insisted that the movement, which now extends to 103 stores, was a homespun phenomenon arising spontaneously throughout the chain’s domestic arm. The narrative held that the baristas-turned-organizers were union neophytes who discovered they shared a desire to have more say on the brand’s direction and store operations, without any choreography from an outside labor force. Few reports even mentioned that the activist employees were receiving advice or financial support from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) through its Workers United affiliate.

    Rep. Tlaib tells striking Great Lakes Coffee workers they deserve better

    February 28, 2022 // U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib joined more than 200 people who rallied in support of striking Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Co. workers in Detroit on Wednesday, telling the baristas and cooks they deserve better pay and work conditions.

    In The Worker Empowerment Movement, Starbucks Employees Are Starting To Embrace Unions

    February 27, 2022 // A common, unifying theme is that workers feel that they are being taken advantage of, forced to work long hours for low wages and treated rudely by their unsympathetic managers. These workers are pushing back against poor pay, unpleasant working conditions and a lack of respect from management. Once they’ve left, many take their time to seek out new types of opportunities that offer meaningful work and a path to advance.

    UPDATED: Starbucks Workers Union Now Has 97 Stores Under Petition in 26 States

    February 17, 2022 // Starbucks Workers United—an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union—has expanded its campaign to North and South Carolina, according to a series of tweets by the union on Tuesday evening.

    Great Lakes Coffee workers in Detroit go on strike, demand better pay and working conditions

    February 17, 2022 // “It is not OK how hard we have to work for the little amount we get paid when we know damn well that when we come to Great Lakes they are doing just fine,” Santiago-Romero said during the rally. “We need to make sure that we get a piece of the pie.”

    Will the Starbucks union victories ignite organizing across the country?

    January 17, 2022 // All this activism could simply evaporate — just another false dawn for unions — but it's also possible that we're at the dawn of a new era, one in which the working underclass is drawn, like the industrial workers of the 1930s, into the mainstream and the labor movement is empowered. But does being unionized then become just one more attribute of being a barista? Or does union success at Starbucks signal a nationwide organizing wave across the low-wage service sector? 2022 might just be the year we see the beginnings of a new American labor movement.