Portside

After years of scorched-earth union-busting and stonewalling tactics by their bosses, Starbucks workers are trying to get their union drive and contract negotiations unstuck through a nationwide strike.

Unions elevate workers from being powerless subjects of a boss to being participants in a democracy, with rights and powers of their own.

The union has been bargaining to reach a contract with Starbucks for over three years, with no end in sight. It says that the new dress code represents “bad faith bargaining,” .

The “worker-to-worker” organizing model adopted by many of the most dynamic unions and campaigns in the country has enormous promise for revitalizing labor — in large part because it puts workers themselves in the drivers’ seat.

Blanc argues that the current imbalance of power between labor and management in the U.S. can only be changed, for the better, with large-scale, coordinated organizing efforts rooted in the rank-and-file. His most detailed case focuses on Starbucks.

Judge says coffee giant has no standing in appeal of NLRB finding that it fired two workers for trying to unionize

Striking Amazon and Starbucks workers in California and elsewhere have long pushed for union contracts. The Trump administration is unlikely to be on their side.

World’s largest coffee chain agrees framework with Workers United as push to increase unionization continues apace