Starbucks workers launch rare campaign to form a union
CBSN
Workers at three Starbucks coffee shops in the Buffalo area filed petitions Monday with the National Labor Relations Board asking for a vote on union representation, the latest development in a pandemic-era reckoning on wages and working conditions.
Employees at the stores told the New York Times they are seeking to organize under the Starbucks Workers United banner to address chronic problems such as understaffing, unpredictable scheduling and insufficient training. An organizing committee of four-dozen workers sent a letter last week to Starbucks president and CEO Kevin Johnson asking for assurances that employees who favor a union won't face reprisals.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.