Photo: Amber DaSilva / Jalopnik Here’s a confession: I hate most vanity plates. They’re usually dumb, trite, or going for an all-too-obvious joke, like Corvette plates touting the superiority of V8s over forced induction. Yet, my most recent two cars have each had vanity plates: My FR-S was K4NSE1, as in kansei dorifto, and my … Read more
Starbucks has agreed to sit down with workers from its 400 unionized stores in late April and start hammering out principles for a labor accord, another sign the coffee chain and the union may be on the cusp of a new, productive relationship. Both sides said the bargaining sessions were meant to create a framework … Read more
Starbucks and the union representing workers at hundreds of its stores said Tuesday they had agreed upon a “path forward” to negotiate collective bargaining agreements and develop “a fair process for workers to organize.” Both the union, Workers United, and the coffee chain described the accord as a major breakthrough after two years of nonstop … Read more
Starbucks baristas from 21 stores around the country told the company Tuesday that they plan to organize, potentially adding hundreds of new members to a union campaign that’s battling the coffee chain for first contracts. The union, Workers United, said it is the largest group of Starbucks stores to go public with their organizing plans … Read more
Dillon Dix was excited to compete this year in Starbucks’ North America Barista Championship, a company-wide contest in which the winner would receive a paid trip to Starbucks’ coffee farm in Costa Rica. But he found some disappointing news in the fine print about the contest: Unionized Starbucks stores are not eligible to participate. Dix … Read more
When you buy your next motorcycle, what will you buy it for? Will it be a highway hauler, a single-track slayer, or just a competent city commuter? The answer of course, is rarely just one thing — we all pick out our bikes based on a thousand little criteria, a unique mix of use cases … Read more
white bicycle, or ghost bike, with a sign saying rest in peace locked to a pole on a New York City street is a memorial at the site where a cyclist was killed by a crash motor vehicle. Image: Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group (Getty Images) Biking ain’t easy; in fact it can be straight up … Read more
Some new unions are facing an unforeseen hurdle as they try to bargain first contracts with big-name employers: getting sued for the names they’ve chosen. Starbucks is the latest company to file an intellectual property lawsuit against its employees’ union. The coffee chain claims that the group, Workers United, is “diluting” the Starbucks brand and … Read more
Ella Clark didn’t have much time to goof around after she graduated from high school in June. The 18-year-old had to prepare for a federal hearing in San Francisco where she would square off with corporate lawyers representing the biggest coffee chain in the world. Clark believed Starbucks had violated her rights as she tried … Read more
Last year, the independent, fledgling union Trader Joe’s United accomplished what had never been done before: It formed the chain’s first unionized store, in Massachusetts, then its second, in Minnesota. Once the celebrations were over, workers got down to the less glamorous business of negotiating a first contract. But Trader Joe’s insisted everyone participate in … Read more
