Workers at two more Starbucks stores voted to unionize this week, one in Seattle and one in Mesa, Arizona. That makes the first on the West Coast and in particular the company’s hometown, and the second in Mesa, which becomes the second city, after Buffalo, with more than one unionized Starbucks store. And it makes eight union wins out of nine votes—a tiny number of stores in the context of the 9,000 Starbucks nationwide, but an excellent win percentage. That win-loss record comes as Starbucks spends large amounts of money on union-busting lawyers. And by the way, the Seattle vote was unanimous.
The number of stores at which workers have filed for union representation elections keeps growing, now sitting around 150. At some point, will Starbucks consider that it’s losing a lot while spending a lot of money on losing, and consider changing its approach?
● There’s a tentative deal to end the Minneapolis teachers strike after more than two weeks. According to the union, “major gains were made on pay for education support professionals, protections for educators of color, class size caps and mental health supports.” Some ESPs will get a more than $4 per hour raise.
One really promising part of the deal, in a city where a majority of teachers are white and teachers of color are most likely to be hit by layoffs because they haven’t had a chance to build seniority, is this: “Union leaders said Friday that the new contract also includes agreements that would exempt teachers of color from seniority-based layoffs, which means, when layoffs come, the next senior person not covered by those protections would be laid off.”
● Google settles with six employees who worked on unionization efforts and then charged the company with illegal retaliation.
● Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider ask, Why are we letting Republicans win the school wars? Damn good question.
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● For the first time in history, public television workers in Chicago are out on strike, Jeff Schuhrke reports.