Jenny Brown

Starbucks Is Bargaining Backwards, Baristas Say

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Jenny Brown

Union baristas are finally back to the negotiating table with Starbucks, but the workers charge that rather than progressing, the company is reopening already agreed-upon issues.

“They're trying to move backwards on issues we've already settled instead of settling the few that we have left,” said Mina Leon, a barista in downtown Manhattan who struck for two months to get the company back to the table.

Striking Nurses Reach Tentative Deal at Manhattan’s Richest Hospital Complex

Three smiling nurses stand against a barrier with signs about patient care

Update, February 20: After staying out for an additional week, the 4,200 nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospitals have reached a new tentative agreement, recommended by the hospital bargaining committee. They will vote on it starting today. —Editors

The largest and longest nurses strike in the city’s history will continue at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospitals after nurses there decisively rejected the hospital chain’s contract offer 3,099 to 867.

Delete the Starbucks App Now, Say Striking Workers

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Blog
Author(s): 
Jenny Brown

Starbucks barista Christi Gomoljak has been on strike for 80 days.

Managers at her Disney store in Anaheim, California had taken away the workers’ restroom without consultation. “There was a note on our break table that we were losing our employee restroom,” she said. Workers would have to go elsewhere in the busy theme park.

Management also accused workers of not really being sick when they took their sick leave, said Gomoljak. On top of that, “We were told by our store managers not to talk to each other.

2025 in Review: Stark Battle Lines, Big Potential

Montage of three photos, all showing details from crowds at large outdoor protests. 1: Workers hold blue signs printed with UAW logo, and someone behind holds a handmade "Bad DOGE" sign with Elon Musk's face. 2: An older white man and younger woman of color lean together. He has a fist in the air and she holds high a yellow sign with a fist graphic, the word "Solidarity!" and the Painters union logo. 3: A white woman holds a handmade "Bring Kilmar Home" sign with a photo of his face.

Already before Donald Trump was inaugurated in January, there were dire omens. Poultry workers reported that their supervisors were using Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric to divide workers up—allowing white workers bathroom breaks but denying them to Hispanic workers. “The more people are afraid to organize, the more the bosses will take advantage to create worse working conditions,” wrote Magaly Licolli of the worker center Venceremos in January.

Red Cups Raised in Rebellion, Starbucks Strike Spreads

A crowd raise huge red cups that say “Baristas on Strike”

Several hundred more Starbucks baristas walked out Thursday, the 22nd day of their growing unfair labor practice strike. It is now the longest strike the coffee giant has faced, spreading to 145 stores in more than 100 cities.

Kingston, New York, baristas joined the strike early Thursday, and management didn’t even bother trying to open the store. So the workers, joined by supporters, picketed a nearby store in Lake Katrine, piercing the crisp winter air with chants of “What’s disgusting? Union-busting!” and “I want to eat food and pay rent at the same time!”

No Contract Means No Coffee as Starbucks Baristas Walk Out

A group rallies holding signs that say Red Cup Rebellion: Unfair Labor Practice Strike, with a Starbucks coffee cup with a red line through it.

Chanting “What’s outrageous? Starbucks wages! What’s appalling? Starbucks stalling! What’s disgusting? Union busting!”, Starbucks workers at stores across the country walked out Thursday. They are on strike against unfair labor practices and the company’s stonewalling at the bargaining table.

Shutdown Deal: Federal Workers Say No, Not This Way

A close crowd with signs, including ‘Save our Services’ and someone with a bullhorn

Senate Democrats had some leverage, but they dropped the crowbar. Seven Democratic senators and an independent caved, spurring a Democratic deal with the Trump administration to end the 41-day government shutdown. It requires 60 Senate votes, with a preliminary vote expected today.

The Democrats had been refusing to approve the funding bill until Republicans restored health care funding. But the deal only extracted the promise of a floor vote in December on extending Affordable Care Act tax credits. There is no guarantee that any funding will be restored.

Strike Captains and Practice Pickets: Starbucks Workers Aim to Bring a Contract Home

Several people in high-viz green stocking caps gather around a sheet of paper, pickets in the background have signs saying ‘no contract, no coffee’

Unionized Starbucks workers are electing strike captains and getting customers to pledge they won't cross picket lines. They’re amassing in front of stores with picket signs, borrowing a slogan that UPS Teamsters used during their 2023 contract campaign: “Just Practicing for a Just Contract.”

Labor Needs an Independent Political Program, Says UAW’s Fain

A crowd with UAW signs gathers outside a union hall for a rally.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain recently laid out four priorities he says should form the nucleus of a workers’ political program. And he said that a broad strike in May 2028 is one way to fight for those priorities.

‘Willingly Forgoing Paychecks’: Federal Workers Support Shutdown Fight

Several workers with signs march towards the camera. Some say “Hands Off” our workers, our union, Social Security and other items

Thirty-five union locals, nationals, or other levels of union bodies in the federal sector signed on to an extraordinary Federal Unionists Network letter September 29 urging the Democrats to fight Trump administration cuts, even at the price of a government shutdown. It was titled “No Bad Budget in Our Name,” and signers represent tens of thousands of federal workers.

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