Embittered Baristas Continue Kansas City Starbucks Union Crusade

Of course TKC believes that EVERYONE has a right to earn more cash and engage in collective bargaining . . .

However, we're uncertain if barista complaints "move the dial" for so many local consumers outside of garnering social media support.

Here's the word . . .

“The labor shortage is employer-created and has been a long time coming,” says Chris Fielder, a barista at the Plaza Starbucks. Fielder is a member of the organizing committee at the Plaza store, one of two metro Starbucks that filed for union elections last month (the other is in Overland Park, at 75th and I-35). If successful, Fielder and his coworkers would be represented by Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.

Fielder says unsafe working conditions, unchecked sexual harassment from customers, and wages that have barely moved for some of the coffee shop’s longest-tenured employees all contributed to his decision to join the effort.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Collective action, the Starbucks Union, and what comes next for the hospitality industry

It wasn't a worker shortage, it was a wage shortage. Or maybe it was a work ethic shortage. People didn't want to work anymore, or people didn't want to work for crummy employers anymore. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.