Jaz Brisack became a union organizer and barista for the same reasons that talented young people have long chosen their career paths: a mix of idealism and ambition.
Starbucks baristas in Columbia, South Carolina, returned to their jobs on Saturday, May 21, following a three-day walkout to protest anti-union retaliation.
With unionization taking off at Starbucks, the company is quietly admitting that it’s in a bind: unionization threatens its low-wage model, but union busting hurts its public image as a supposedly progressive company.
Support for labor unions among college graduates has increased from 55 percent in the late 1990s to around 70 percent in the last few years, and is even higher among younger college graduates. That may help explain an upsurge for organized labor.
Starbucks baristas in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood voted Monday to unionize, becoming the giant coffee chain’s first Maryland workers to organize amid a fast-growing national movement. The vote was 14-0.
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