The Labor Notes Podcast

Starbucks Workers are on a Nationwide Strike for a First Contract (with Starbucks Workers United member Sabina Aguirre)

As of Thursday morning, members of Starbucks Workers United were on strike in 65 stores across the U.S., a massive escalation in their fight for a first contract. They are asking customers not to buy coffee at any Starbucks location during their strike.Starbucks baristas have been in bargaining for over a year and half now, after striking regularly to get the company to the bargaining table in February 2024, as our editor Jenny Brown reported at the time.Baristas have said that they are subjected to low pay (starting at $15 to $19 an hour) that leaves them dependent on SNAP and Medicaid, and that they are dealing with dire understaffing that's led to overwork for them and long wait times for customers.Joining the pod this week are Jenny Brown, and Starbucks barista Sabina Aguirre, who works in Columbus, Ohio. Learn more about how members organized to get strike ready in Jenny’s recent piece, “Strike Captains and Practice Pickets: Starbucks Workers Aim to Bring a Contract Home.”Starbucks Workers United members are asking customers to show solidarity by: 
Not crossing the picket line — don’t buy Starbucks from any of its locations during the strike.
Joining a picket line near you by using the Starbucks Workers United picket line map. 
Joining the allies call on Monday, November 17 
Amplifying their posts on Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok, and Bluesky. 
Learn more at nocontractnocoffee.org.

How Do We Build Worker Power Under Trump 2.0? (with guest Eric Blanc)

The current moment in the U.S.—marked by billionaire assaults on the working class, the Trump administration’s authoritarian maneuvers, and widespread voter dissatisfaction with both major political parties—presents new challenges and opportunities for the labor movement. Rank-and-file members can and are demanding more of their leaders, and unions are being challenged to think about how they should be mobilizing their roughly 14 million members right now. If the goal is to lift up independent working-class leaders and organizations, what should unions be doing differently to rebuild union density and democracy?  Eric Blanc, one of the contributors to the Labor Notes Roundtable series, where we have invited organizers and scholars to address that question, joins the pod to discuss his piece, “After No Kings, How Can We Escalate?”Blanc is an assistant professor of labor studies at Rutgers University and an organizer trainer in the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee.

All Horror Movies Are About Organizing, Actually: The Labor Notes Hallowepisode

What can horror movies and fiction teach us about fighting back against the real life horrors of our bad bosses? Tune in to our Hallowepisode to hear about the organizing lessons we saw in the 1988 cult classic from John Carpenter, They Live, and Shirley Jackson’s 1959 pillar in the horror genre, The Haunting of Hill House. Plus, a little Stewards Corner with… Nosferatu (2024) Gulp! But don’t worry, we don’t bite.

Are the Democrats F*cking Up the Shutdown?

Federal Workers organizing with the Federal Unionists Network have been using the shutdown to organize within their unions, and to push the message that workers should collectively stand firm against cuts to vital programs and executive overreach. Their actions are bringing clarity and organization to the fight at a time when leading Democrats are framing the shutdown as an inconvenience and Donald Trump as its perpetrator. Labor Notes editor Jenny Brown joins the pod.

Stewards’ Corner: Workplace Safety Is Not a Game

Employer-run safety games are not merely instructional or even “fun.” They’re there to trivialize workplace hazards and to pass the buck onto individual workers for their own safety, instead of listening to workers about how to eliminate the dangers they encounter at work every day. Labor Notes Organizer Kari Thompson joins pod co-hosts Danielle Smith and Natascha Elena Uhlmann to talk about a Stewards’ Corner piece we ran on this topic, titled, “Workplace Safety is Not a Game.” This piece was adapted from the UE Steward, a project by the United Electrical Workers Education Department that publishes how-to articles. Browse them all at bit.ly/UESteward.

Wells Fargo Workers Push to Bring A Union to the Banking Industry

Workers at Wells Fargo are organizing the first union at a major U.S. bank—in one of the least-organized industries in the country.
Labor Notes Editor Dan DiMaggio, whose story on their organizing efforts is on the cover of our October issue, joins the pod. You can also read his piece,“Wells Fargo Workers Push to Bring A Union to the Banking Industry,” on our website.
Subscribe to the Labor Notes magazine by Tuesday, October 14, to start receiving it from the November issue onwards: labornotes.org/subscribe

May 2028 Could Be the Push the Labor Movement Needs to Survive, Grow, and Build Power

Announcing the New Labor Notes Resource: May2028.org
Are you and your co-workers organizing against attacks on our democratic rights as workers?
Are you, like an estimated 250,000 workers so far, committing to heed United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain’s call for a coordinated strike?
Are you already planning other ways to be part of a nationwide show of power less than three years from now?
Visit May2028.org for new Labor Notes guides on organizing with your fellow union members, co-workers, and members of your community.
Labor Notes organizers Luis Feliz Leon and Keith Brower Brown join the pod. 

The Labor Notes Pod will be back next week on Friday, 10/3

We're taking a break from the pod this week as our staff meets in person to make plans for the next six months of Labor Notes programming! We'll be back to our regular schedule next week with a new episode on Friday, 10/3. In the meantime, send us voice notes of your organizing questions to podcast@labornotes.org! We can't wait to feature them on a future episode and answer your questions. See you back here next week!

How Beauty Salon Workers Built a Groundbreaking Union

Last month, workers at some of the Los Angeles and Santa Monica locations of Sugared + Bronzed, a salon chain offering spray tanning and sugaring hair removal services, voted to unionize with Communications Workers Local 9505.
Workers say the job is an arduous balancing act of delivering a comfortable, safe experience providing intimate services to customers, while navigating a breakneck pace of appointments. Inside the fight to build a beauty salon chain union. 

Turn a Disciplinary Meeting into an Organizing Opportunity

Union members have Weingarten rights, stemming from a Supreme Court ruling in 1975, to ask for a steward at any meeting they believe could lead to discipline. Stewards can do a lot to support members in these meetings, and also organize against patterns of unfair discipline.Labor Notes Organizer Kari Thompson, who leads some of our Stewards’ Workshops, joins the pod.