Speaker 1: Hey everybody. Uh, Robert Evans here along with Garrison and Chris. Um,
Speaker 1: we are pre empting the episode that will be airing
Speaker 1: after this because UM of events that happened in Portland,
Speaker 1: Oregon this weekend. On Saturday the nineteen there was a
Speaker 1: weekly racial justice march UM. The march again it occurred.
Speaker 1: It's occurred every week for a couple of years now. UM.
Speaker 1: It is instensibly led by the mother of a Patrick Kimmins,
Speaker 1: who is a Portland a young black Portland man who
Speaker 1: was killed by the police a couple of years ago. UM.
Speaker 1: This is a regular thing. As a general rule, you'll
Speaker 1: see a lot of folks in the right talking about
Speaker 1: this march is like an ANTIFA gathering. UM. This almost
Speaker 1: never gets any coverage whatsoever because as a general rule, UM,
Speaker 1: it's it's just a march where people, you know, protest
Speaker 1: police violence. It's not something that that tends to to
Speaker 1: draw much attention. UM, even within Portland's UM. This Saturday,
Speaker 1: a person who lived in the neighborhood where people were
Speaker 1: assembling for the march UM left their home confronted a
Speaker 1: group of women who were acting as corkers. Corking is
Speaker 1: a job at protests. It's a traffic safety thing. It's
Speaker 1: people on a mix of usually bikes, motorcycle scooters every
Speaker 1: now and you see like a one wheel and their
Speaker 1: job is to kind of route traffic around the march
Speaker 1: in order to keep people from getting hit by cars. Um.
Speaker 1: It is a safety thing. UM. These folks were confronted
Speaker 1: by this person. Reports on the ground that have been
Speaker 1: covered in local news from people who were there say
Speaker 1: that he started out yelling at them, calling them terrorists
Speaker 1: and UM. According to one person who was on the scene,
Speaker 1: within about ninety seconds began firing. Uh. He hit and
Speaker 1: killed one woman, UM, and he wounded four others. UM.
Speaker 1: And he himself was shot by a protester who was nearby,
Speaker 1: who was, to all everything we know so far, legally
Speaker 1: open carrying a rifle. UM. He is the shooter. UM
Speaker 1: is in critical condition in the hospital. UM. One of
Speaker 1: the people who was doing traffic security that night is dead. UM.
Speaker 1: I believe at least one is still in the hospital.
Speaker 1: The others have been released. UH. That's that's the the
Speaker 1: actual like, that's those are the facts of the situation
Speaker 1: as they're known. The protester who returned fire quickly afterwards
Speaker 1: turned themselves and their rifle into the police. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: the police to the stuff that they do in these instances,
Speaker 1: and then released the person who had responded defensively to
Speaker 1: the shooting. And that's where we are right now. UM.
Speaker 1: Portland police have been very cag and saying anything about this.
Speaker 1: They have framed it as a clash between a homeowner
Speaker 1: and protesters. UM. One thing we can say, based on
Speaker 1: where this person came out of it does not appear
Speaker 1: that they were a homeowner. Looks like they left a
Speaker 1: would have been like a rental thing. Not that that
Speaker 1: particularly matters, but it's interesting the framing with the police
Speaker 1: are choosing to use here. UM. And yeah, there's there's
Speaker 1: fairly little information as of right now. The name of
Speaker 1: the shooter has not been released by the police. UM.
Speaker 1: Neither has the name of the protester who responded um
Speaker 1: to the gunfire. But we do know, you know a
Speaker 1: number of the people who were hit. We know the
Speaker 1: person who is deceased. There is a go fund me
Speaker 1: up right now for the people who were injured in
Speaker 1: the people who were killed in the shooting. If you
Speaker 1: go type up stand with Portland and to go fund me,
Speaker 1: you will find the go fund me. Um, it's raised
Speaker 1: a significant amount of money already, but obviously people are
Speaker 1: going to have huge medical expenses. Yeah, there's a group
Speaker 1: of two. There were two of the people who were
Speaker 1: there were shot eleven times together. Um, it's a mess.
Speaker 1: It's just a horrible, horrible situation. So you know, certainly
Speaker 1: they could use your support. It's to cover like funeral expenses,
Speaker 1: medical expenses, and then you know, helping with the overall
Speaker 1: healing process of people are gonna miss work, people may
Speaker 1: want to quit their jobs and stuff in the wake
Speaker 1: of something like this because how could you go in
Speaker 1: and do pretty much anything after this, you know, Um, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so please please please go set them help, Yeah, send
Speaker 1: them help. Avoid kind of spreading anything more specific than
Speaker 1: that until there's there's evidence. There's not yet video of this,
Speaker 1: although one of the people who was there says they
Speaker 1: have a go pro that was taken by the police
Speaker 1: that may have something. I don't know the extent to
Speaker 1: which we will get that information. Again, the police have
Speaker 1: been acting to uh kind of make this look like
Speaker 1: a clash rather than what the evidence that Like reporters
Speaker 1: at OPB in the Portlands, Mercury and even the Times
Speaker 1: have have found the interviews they've conducted. Um, it seems
Speaker 1: fair to say that this was a mass shooting, UM
Speaker 1: that was stopped by a protester, as opposed to what
Speaker 1: I would call a clash. Ya. But that's that's obvious.
Speaker 1: Portland police aren't going to want that narrative to come
Speaker 1: out very telling. Lee. The mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler,
Speaker 1: issued a statement where he talked about the shooting as
Speaker 1: a piece of the city's ongoing gun crime, did not
Speaker 1: mention the woman who was killed, did not mention the injured,
Speaker 1: but expressed his sympathy with the police for being so tired. Um.
Speaker 1: So you know that's Portland's. Yeah, I mean it's pretty
Speaker 1: sick and like you shouldn't like it's not like it's
Speaker 1: not like dismissing it by saying it's Portland's saying like
Speaker 1: this is like, no, there's there's been growing rather right
Speaker 1: from the city and people the past few years that
Speaker 1: have basically been encouraging something like this to happen. Um,
Speaker 1: And now that it has, it is also pretty sick
Speaker 1: looking at different like media framing and police framing and
Speaker 1: talking about it's a homeowner and how it was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was like a clash, not like an outright attack
Speaker 1: on people. Um. Yeah, so it's it's it's bad, it's
Speaker 1: it's pretty gross. But what we can do right now
Speaker 1: is support the people who were there. Yeah, go fund
Speaker 1: me for medical expences and you know, mental health effects
Speaker 1: in the Yeah, because just a bit, some of the
Speaker 1: wounded were themselves plugging up the bullet holes of other
Speaker 1: wounded while they had also been shot. Because it was
Speaker 1: a lot of the people doubled as medics or had
Speaker 1: some sort of medical training. Um, there were medics who
Speaker 1: were like threatened by police when they arrived on scene
Speaker 1: for not being willing to stop providing um pressure to
Speaker 1: a gunshot wound. Like a bunch of ugly stuff happened.
Speaker 1: There's a mix of ugly stuff and like stuff that
Speaker 1: seems ugly but it's pretty normal. Like the ambulance did
Speaker 1: not move in immediately, which obviously people on scene were
Speaker 1: very angry about. That is standard everywhere for like ambulances
Speaker 1: at active shootings, and it's just I mean, it's not pleasant,
Speaker 1: but it's also like they're not ever acting from as
Speaker 1: much information as the people who were there maybe have.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not gonna blame you know e M
Speaker 1: T S or whatnot for following s OP in this situation.
Speaker 1: I will blame the police for their responses to stuff
Speaker 1: like this, obviously, and the fact that, um, you know it,
Speaker 1: it's it's unlikely that a satisfying police investigation will be conducted.
Speaker 1: That said, it does seem like we already based on
Speaker 1: the early reporting that exists from again a number of
Speaker 1: different news organizations, number of different local journalists, that we
Speaker 1: have a pretty good idea of the basics of what happened. UM. Obviously,
Speaker 1: more will come out in addition to you know nothing
Speaker 1: but respect to the medics who responded. UM. I think
Speaker 1: it's worth acknowledging that the protester who shot the shooter
Speaker 1: UM seems to have from the evidence we have handled
Speaker 1: themselves as close to perfectly as you can in a
Speaker 1: defensive shooting. UM. They stopped the threat, UM, they went
Speaker 1: to the police, they turned in the rifle. They did not.
Speaker 1: And there's a number of reasons for this, including the
Speaker 1: fact that, like the last time there was a shooting
Speaker 1: that was involved a left wing demonstrator, that person was
Speaker 1: hunted down and killed by U. S. Marshals. UM. But
Speaker 1: it also, I think helps when it comes to the
Speaker 1: legal stuff that's going to wash out on this the investigation.
Speaker 1: It really helps that this person dotted their eyes and
Speaker 1: crossed their ties to make it very clear that this
Speaker 1: was a um A very like legal self defense situation. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the folks who participate in
Speaker 1: these things don't particularly care about the law one way
Speaker 1: or the other. But in terms of how other people
Speaker 1: see what has happened and what the fallout to this is,
Speaker 1: and maybe the degree to which people properly put some
Speaker 1: blame on the city for this, I think it is
Speaker 1: helpful that the person who responded UM with their rifle
Speaker 1: to the shooting conducted themselves so carefully. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: I have I have a lot of respect for everybody
Speaker 1: on the ground. A lot of hard decisions had to
Speaker 1: be made UM, and it seems like in a the
Speaker 1: worst case scenario situation, the people who were on the
Speaker 1: ground handled themselves UM with a tremendous amount of thoughtfulness
Speaker 1: and encourage. I think that's everything. Yeah, I don't think
Speaker 1: there's not nothing much else to say at this moment
Speaker 1: right now, Too safe, be careful, and again to go
Speaker 1: fund me, just type type go fund me stand with
Speaker 1: Portland into Google. It will take you to the go
Speaker 1: fund me um and you can help folks out there. Hello,
Speaker 1: welcome to it could happen here. I'm Garrison, and today
Speaker 1: we're talking about two of my favorite things, which is
Speaker 1: unions and coffee. UM. Joining me as a usual is
Speaker 1: Chris and Sophie. What do you guys think about about
Speaker 1: coffee and unions and the combination thereof big on unions
Speaker 1: like that, like like making them, like having them not
Speaker 1: big on coffee. It's it's too bitter. I can't do it. Unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Union's great coffee, great, Cris ad Chris gets the wall.
Speaker 1: It's the ultimate canceling that we are coming down all
Speaker 1: the coffee issue. I don't ever tell prop that. Don't
Speaker 1: ever talk prop. You don't like coffee. Um, and anyway
Speaker 1: to join us to discuss coffee and unions is a
Speaker 1: union organizer and uh also someone with a podcast, so
Speaker 1: that's fun. Uh. But Kayleie Schuler, Hello, Hello, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for having me. You know what they say
Speaker 1: about unioniced coffee, that's better, it tastes better. That's yeah,
Speaker 1: that is that is That is what I have heard
Speaker 1: much better quality. That is true. Maybe that's the problem
Speaker 1: that Chris has been having. Yess here, Yeah, that's the
Speaker 1: that's the thing that's a Chris jumped to jump to conclusions.
Speaker 1: But you failed. You failed to consider the coffee question. Um. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about unions and coffee and Starbucks
Speaker 1: today because there's been a massive wave of Starbucks uh
Speaker 1: location unionizations around the country, and I like to start
Speaker 1: by kind of discussing the origin of this like wave
Speaker 1: of unionization efforts all across the states. Yeah. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll just stay right off the bat like, um, legalities, logistics,
Speaker 1: the nitty gritty is still not my forte and all
Speaker 1: of this. Um, So I might not do the best
Speaker 1: job explaining it, but I'm going to do my best, um,
Speaker 1: and to get into the origin story of the whole movement.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to get into my origin story a
Speaker 1: little bit um with this effort. So um. I started
Speaker 1: working at Starbucks last year, and uh, not long after,
Speaker 1: I was approached by uh my fellow partner, my friend
Speaker 1: Tyler Deger, and he's also one of our committee members here,
Speaker 1: and he was like, hey, did you hear about what
Speaker 1: has happened in Buffalo, and as you guys probably know,
Speaker 1: Buffalo was the first to unionize UM, and so he
Speaker 1: was really excited about it. I was like, yeah, sounds cool.
Speaker 1: Probably not my thing though, UM, and he was like, no,
Speaker 1: it's it is, like, just let's talk about it. I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, fine, we talked about it. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, this makes so much sense, we should
Speaker 1: definitely do this. So UM, as far as I know,
Speaker 1: this uh started in Buffalo. They reached out to Workers
Speaker 1: United because they knew that this was something they needed
Speaker 1: and wanted. UM. And then when they successfully unionized, I mean,
Speaker 1: it just sparked so much inspiration across the country and
Speaker 1: we hopped on really quick. UM. Other locations in Boston
Speaker 1: also hopped on not long after, and uh yeah, it
Speaker 1: kind of spread like wildfire. Yeah, it's been wonderful to
Speaker 1: watch the of wave of of of attempts and in
Speaker 1: some cases, like in a lot of cases of like
Speaker 1: successful attempts just kind of take you know, just go
Speaker 1: all like it's how fast they've been happening in so
Speaker 1: many different places around around the country. UM. I'd like
Speaker 1: to talk I like to talk about like why the
Speaker 1: Starbucks unionization kind of effort is so important? Like why
Speaker 1: why this is? Like, of course, like unions are obviously
Speaker 1: like generally a net good, but like why specifically is
Speaker 1: it's is it important to unionize these Starbucks locations? Like
Speaker 1: what types of like um issues is the unization trying
Speaker 1: to kind of solve and give you know, workers better
Speaker 1: conditions at these at these stores and cafes. So this
Speaker 1: great question. And first I want to start by saying
Speaker 1: Starbucks is a great place to work. I say that
Speaker 1: all the time I read the benefits. There are benefits,
Speaker 1: good ones. They pay minimum wage or whatever, Like the
Speaker 1: pay is decent, we have benefits. It's really a lot
Speaker 1: of people who work at our Starbucks say it's one
Speaker 1: of the better jobs they've had, and we deserve a
Speaker 1: union for It's I mean really, in my brain, it's
Speaker 1: kind of akin to insurance. Right, you have it in
Speaker 1: case you need it. If an emergency happens, you don't
Speaker 1: have to pay the whole um e er bill out
Speaker 1: of pocket. You've got some coverage coming from somewhere. Right, That,
Speaker 1: at least in my mind, is what this union is for. Um.
Speaker 1: That being said, we also just want to obviously democratize
Speaker 1: our workplace. We want to have a spot at the
Speaker 1: bargaining table because we you know, we have HR, we
Speaker 1: have people to go to. But unions are partners looking
Speaker 1: out for partners, and that's it. Starbucks looks out for
Speaker 1: partners and profit. You know, it's a business, it's a
Speaker 1: huge business. UM. So this would just give us UM
Speaker 1: a stronger sense of empowerment. And uh again, I really
Speaker 1: think of it kind of like insurance. It's just us
Speaker 1: making sure we're taken care of at all times. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what what type of kind of you know, whenever the
Speaker 1: discussion of union's kind of starts at workplaces, there's always
Speaker 1: like an element of like secrecy and you know, being
Speaker 1: worried about you know, different types of suppression. So what
Speaker 1: types of kind of things have people been doing when
Speaker 1: the when the union is like trying to get is
Speaker 1: trying to get trying to get off the ground to organize,
Speaker 1: Like like are people using like signal chats? Like what
Speaker 1: what is what is like in this in these stores?
Speaker 1: How is how are we trying to get more people
Speaker 1: to like be comfortable with this idea and get like
Speaker 1: get started with the organizing process. That's a really good question.
Speaker 1: And we're still doing that work all the time. That
Speaker 1: work doesn't really end, especially because um, it's commonly known
Speaker 1: now so I don't feel scared to say it. But
Speaker 1: there are being there is union busting happening. It's happening
Speaker 1: all the time. UM, and it's scary and it's intimidating,
Speaker 1: and it's meant to be and it's effective, you know. So, Um,
Speaker 1: we have a majority yes vote in my store. I
Speaker 1: already know that. But it also takes upkeep. It takes maintenance. Um.
Speaker 1: It takes checking in with people and you know, for
Speaker 1: my money, checking in and saying, hey, how are you
Speaker 1: feeling about this? Are you doing okay? Like I know
Speaker 1: that this is scary. I know that you're hearing things
Speaker 1: like do you have any questions? Um. It takes us
Speaker 1: doing our due diligence and researching the things that they're saying. Um.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean it's it's kind of a constant
Speaker 1: thing as far as like technically how it's done. I
Speaker 1: mean lots of group chats, just like, way too many
Speaker 1: group chats. That that is been most of my experience
Speaker 1: with most most political organizing. A general is just way
Speaker 1: way too many group chats. Yeah, in terms of like
Speaker 1: what Starbucks is doing to start there like union busting response?
Speaker 1: Is this website that they have launched. Yeah, I I
Speaker 1: know you've I know you've tweeted about this, uh about
Speaker 1: this site, So I would love to love to discuss it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I just went off. I didn't really think
Speaker 1: much of it, you know, I just I saw it
Speaker 1: on there and just was like, this is lies. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean, well, for one, I'm trying to remember everything
Speaker 1: I've read and tweeted. But the one that's coming to
Speaker 1: mind is when they say this may affect your relationship
Speaker 1: with your store manager and it may make it difficult
Speaker 1: for to me, that is that may depends entirely on
Speaker 1: how much um, union bustings are about wants to do.
Speaker 1: If you want to tell our store managers that this
Speaker 1: will negatively impact our relationship with them, if that's how
Speaker 1: you want to frame it, then yeah, I probably will. Um.
Speaker 1: If you if you want to make it more difficult
Speaker 1: by not negotiating the contract easily with us, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: then that might happen. It's not that's not a union problem.
Speaker 1: That's a Starbucks problem that they are framing as a
Speaker 1: union problem. Um. Yeah, I can't what were the other
Speaker 1: things that I id just like to also explain, like
Speaker 1: what the site is and what it's like trying to do.
Speaker 1: Oh sure, yeah, I mean it's it's um, it's union investing.
Speaker 1: It's uh, it's giving it's giving partners the facts that
Speaker 1: they need to know, you know, like it's it's we
Speaker 1: want to make sure that you are informed before you vote. Know, Um,
Speaker 1: that's what that is. It's this like sleekily designed page
Speaker 1: that has the list of facts about about organizing and
Speaker 1: all the reasons why it's going to negatively represent, negatively
Speaker 1: affect your relationship with the Starbucks Corporation. Oh, this was
Speaker 1: one of the points said, Um, the union may not
Speaker 1: negotiate for some things you are hoping for, and some
Speaker 1: things you value now might go away. That is so ridiculous.
Speaker 1: That's a threat. Yeah, that's a threat that your well
Speaker 1: being will be changed, Like we might not negotiate this
Speaker 1: contract very nicely with you. That the union is us.
Speaker 1: They love to talk about the third party and oh,
Speaker 1: your your store manager is gonna have to work with
Speaker 1: a steward. The steward is going to be someone who
Speaker 1: already works in the store. Yes, the steward is us.
Speaker 1: The union is us. Why would we negotiate a contract
Speaker 1: that doesn't benefit us. That's so silly, It's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's very typical union busting kind of behavior. And if
Speaker 1: you know, if they can just if this type of
Speaker 1: propagandic you know, can just convince a few people and
Speaker 1: and and scare and scare only only a couple of
Speaker 1: the people, that will be enough to kind of cause
Speaker 1: division and shutdown efforts in the store. Right, So that's
Speaker 1: that's that's all that their goal is is to prevent
Speaker 1: you know, at least one more store from not doing it.
Speaker 1: That's like, as long as they do that, then it's
Speaker 1: then then then it's like successful. Um. Absolutely, And you know,
Speaker 1: based on how many people work at an individual, individual store,
Speaker 1: that's not entirely unlikely, right is it? Will? You know
Speaker 1: it will? Like you you, union busting efforts do work
Speaker 1: in a lot of cases, and that's why they still
Speaker 1: do them. Like that's absolutely absolutely yeah, And that's why
Speaker 1: it's it's really important for um, you know, if there
Speaker 1: are any partners listening to this, um. And partners, by
Speaker 1: the way, is what you know we call ourselves at Starbucks. Yes,
Speaker 1: the the social aspect of this within your store. The
Speaker 1: checking in with your partners and seeing how they're feeling
Speaker 1: about it and having UM as many face to face
Speaker 1: conversations as you can have and really really sticking by
Speaker 1: each other is really important because Yeah, like I said,
Speaker 1: these UM tactics are tried and true, they're effective, they're intimidating, UM,
Speaker 1: and so you have to really supporting each other through
Speaker 1: that and keep reminding each other like, no, there's a
Speaker 1: reason we're doing this this, this is actually still a
Speaker 1: good thing, you know, because on top of our jobs,
Speaker 1: and then a lot of partners are in school or
Speaker 1: they have families, like we already have a lot going on,
Speaker 1: and then we have to go into work and be
Speaker 1: reminded that our desire for a union is not valuable
Speaker 1: to Starbucks, and so they're gonna make things harder by
Speaker 1: doing all the things they're doing. Um. You have to
Speaker 1: really really be there for each other through this process. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's, you know, solidarity one of the key
Speaker 1: of the key tenants of this type of you know,
Speaker 1: the type of organizing. Absolutely. I know Chris is a
Speaker 1: pretty big union appreciator. I mean, I I like unions,
Speaker 1: but but Chris, Chris really really really really enjoy. So
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if you if you have anything, he likes
Speaker 1: them so much, he'll he'll even like unionized coffee. He'll
Speaker 1: be like this coffee still, it will it will good work, Chris.
Speaker 1: Some of the some of the there's some storts in
Speaker 1: Chicago that are unionizing, and I'm like, hmm, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: you should check them out. Yeah, you should at least
Speaker 1: at least check about and say like hi, it'd be like, yeah, great,
Speaker 1: what's a great thing to do. Um, definitely go to
Speaker 1: those stores, go up to the counter and offer you
Speaker 1: or um order your coffee, and then ask them to
Speaker 1: write like unions strong or we love unions as your name. Um,
Speaker 1: because when the barisas are making the coffee and they
Speaker 1: still like see that sticker come through, it's we really
Speaker 1: love that, Chris. They have great tea there too, ice cream, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the honey tea, it's really good. Or the chie likes
Speaker 1: saying information though about like yeah we have there's finally
Speaker 1: a store that's like somewhat near Los Angeles where I
Speaker 1: am that that is announced they're unionizing, which is exciting, Like, okay, California,
Speaker 1: way to join the party. Late but you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's cool, go ahead. Yeah. One thing I'm interested in
Speaker 1: is how how big is the shop, Like how many
Speaker 1: people are sort of like, well, I'm not not in
Speaker 1: the like, just how many people there like could potentially
Speaker 1: join the union. I mean, anyone could. I think we
Speaker 1: have about twenty. I could be so wrong, but I
Speaker 1: think we have around twenty partners in our store right now. Um,
Speaker 1: and yeah, any well, yeah, just about anybody could join that.
Speaker 1: Not anyone who's salaried. Yeah, okay, but I mean that
Speaker 1: seems that seems pretty common across all the different stores.
Speaker 1: Is around that it's around like twenty union eligible people
Speaker 1: per location. Seems roughly accurate based on the stuff I've
Speaker 1: seen from you know, Seattle to Philadelphia to Boston to
Speaker 1: Buffalo too, you know, all all places in between. And yeah,
Speaker 1: so part part of part of like the actual more
Speaker 1: organizational structure is a linked to Work as United. Yes,
Speaker 1: part of the part of the Service Employees International Union
Speaker 1: UM affiliate kind of a family of unions UM who's
Speaker 1: kind of led the lad the campaign or you know,
Speaker 1: has been part of the campaign UM to unionize the
Speaker 1: you know, thousands of locations through the States and yeah.
Speaker 1: I think around like eighty locations, including two of the
Speaker 1: company's flagship ones inside Seattle and New York, have have
Speaker 1: joined this this effort, and it does seem like every
Speaker 1: day there's like more stores popping up. Who are who
Speaker 1: are who are saying yeah, this is a good idea.
Speaker 1: This is whether it be to you know, be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: some of our equipment is old, and it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: it causes like keep burns because it's not like maintenance properly,
Speaker 1: or being like yeah, there's a lot of like sexual
Speaker 1: harassment caused by like some like some like patrons that
Speaker 1: never gets addressed by management um and or you know
Speaker 1: saying like yeah, I may be deserved to be paid
Speaker 1: more than fifteen dollars an hour um. With rent being
Speaker 1: you know as high as as high as it is,
Speaker 1: maybe we should be paying over twenty bucks an hour.
Speaker 1: I don't know how everybody else is doing, but my
Speaker 1: rent situation is interesting. So rent has been ballooning in
Speaker 1: recent in recent months, even it's been it's been really
Speaker 1: going up, which I mean, I'm sure we'll talk about
Speaker 1: it at some point on the show here, but yeah,
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of there's a lot of issues
Speaker 1: that are being like, yeah, maybe people should be paid more,
Speaker 1: people should be at the bargaining table. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of things to address to make it a safer workplace,
Speaker 1: to make it a workplace where you're more respected. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's uh, it's really nice to see people saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna put up with the city more and
Speaker 1: we can do something about it, because like there are
Speaker 1: mechanisms to to do this, right, that's why it's happening.
Speaker 1: So that's that's very uh, very exciting to see taking place.
Speaker 1: It really is. And it you know, you make a
Speaker 1: lot of great points and bring up a lot of
Speaker 1: the benefits of having a union, and it just like
Speaker 1: it just surprises me how anti union Starbucks is is
Speaker 1: period um, because it's just it's like, I don't know, you, yeah,
Speaker 1: you paint such a beautiful picture, because it is a
Speaker 1: beautiful picture to have autonomy and um, respect and empowerment
Speaker 1: in the workplace. You know, they they train us to
Speaker 1: work through the lens of humanity, you know, by their words,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's pretty humane to let people have a say,
Speaker 1: a real stay in the workplace. You know. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it kind of exposes that type of you know,
Speaker 1: pretty pretty corporate language that formative. Yeah exactly, it's, um,
Speaker 1: I am interested in like the other like kind of
Speaker 1: union busting or soft union busting kind of stuff going
Speaker 1: on even like before this website in terms of how
Speaker 1: like manage like how like management has been responding, um,
Speaker 1: and how more like like what like what like the
Speaker 1: local responses to wind stores start talking about this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And and another fall up to that is I noticed
Speaker 1: that COVID was mytioned on this on this website. Is
Speaker 1: that being brought up within union busting at all? Or
Speaker 1: is that brought I just it was like a huge
Speaker 1: red flag for me that they used like well, we
Speaker 1: helped your during COVID we were there for you, which
Speaker 1: really did not. That's like that's like that's like that's
Speaker 1: like abusive terminology. That is pretty manipulative to be like
Speaker 1: we we helped you during a pandemic. It's it's like, well, yes,
Speaker 1: as you should. Yeah, you're the place where I was employed.
Speaker 1: I give something to you, you give something to me.
Speaker 1: And yeah, and as I Twitter ranted in the comment,
Speaker 1: you know, like with peace and love, we had to
Speaker 1: beg to get our cafe closed, you know, like we
Speaker 1: we like, it wasn't like we just uh cases rose
Speaker 1: and they came in and said, hey, guys, we're gonna
Speaker 1: close it. Like we had. We were calling and um
Speaker 1: making a stink and I mean we were talking about striking,
Speaker 1: but then remembered we're not unionized yet. We didn't but
Speaker 1: uh yeah, I mean it was we Yeah, we were
Speaker 1: really fed up. UM people sitting in there for hours
Speaker 1: with their faces out, you know, as cases were rising.
Speaker 1: So UM yeah, great point. That's really pretty manipulative because
Speaker 1: like you should be helping us through covid. UM. That's
Speaker 1: not like a that's not a benefit, that's just that's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not killing people. It's like should should be something
Speaker 1: that's just kind of always there. UM, shouldn't shouldn't be
Speaker 1: an extra, you know. Yeah. And I mean as far
Speaker 1: as UM, you know, sort of local UM interference, I
Speaker 1: guess I'll say UM. I do want to say UM.
Speaker 1: In my case, our store manager, UM, I really care
Speaker 1: about her. UM. I have a great working relationship with her.
Speaker 1: I really respect her. She's done a lot of good
Speaker 1: for our store. UM, and she's really just doing the
Speaker 1: best she can having conversations with us. UM. She has
Speaker 1: her opinions and feelings about it, and I just try
Speaker 1: to listen to them, and she listens to mine. Um.
Speaker 1: But there definitely Yeah, I mean as soon as we
Speaker 1: filed for an election, we started actually as soon as
Speaker 1: we started organizing, and they sort of caught wind. Um.
Speaker 1: We started having barista meetings, which are as vague as
Speaker 1: they sound, um, And people who had worked there longer
Speaker 1: than me said, we've never had these before. Um, maybe once,
Speaker 1: you know, in a few years. Um. So we started
Speaker 1: having all these meetings and not even talking about the
Speaker 1: union at first, but all of a sudden they wanted
Speaker 1: to hear from us and fix things in the store
Speaker 1: and and all this stuff and be super helpful and present.
Speaker 1: And then there definitely just was a heightened corporate presence
Speaker 1: in the store. Um, people we've never seen before coming
Speaker 1: in like, hey, how are you doing? Want to talk?
Speaker 1: It's like, no, you're a stranger, like all low to
Speaker 1: talk to you. Um. So that was weird. Um. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's there's definitely definitely just a shift in presence. Um again,
Speaker 1: any of these meetings and um, yeah, it's been interesting.
Speaker 1: What what do you kind of how do you see
Speaker 1: like the situation resolving like do you do you like
Speaker 1: how how like do you have has also like, yeah,
Speaker 1: what's like the state of of of your stores specifically? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we are on our way to an election. Um,
Speaker 1: we've requested an election. Uh so we're really just like
Speaker 1: in a waiting period for that. We don't know exactly
Speaker 1: when it's gonna be. We've heard soon, um, but who
Speaker 1: knows when that is? Um? We yeah, we have some
Speaker 1: we we had to do a zoom hearing for some
Speaker 1: of the legalities for things here in Massachusetts. That was interesting.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so we're we're just waiting for the election
Speaker 1: at this point. And the election is what will uh
Speaker 1: you know, that's when we're going to cast our yes
Speaker 1: or no vote, um, and we will find out whether
Speaker 1: or not we're gonna unionize. And I think we will unionize.
Speaker 1: It's looking that way. I'm confident, um, and I really
Speaker 1: look forward to that. What do you think, um, Like,
Speaker 1: what do you see is happening after the vote is done? Like, like,
Speaker 1: assuming it is a vote yes, Like, how do you
Speaker 1: think this will impact um working at the store going forward?
Speaker 1: It's gonna be interesting and it's going to be an adjustment,
Speaker 1: right because from the time that we vote and we
Speaker 1: vote yes. Let's say we vote yes and we're going
Speaker 1: to unionize. There is it could take a long time.
Speaker 1: It could take a year. We don't know. It could
Speaker 1: take more and less UM to get from that vote
Speaker 1: to you know, what we refer to as the bargaining
Speaker 1: table UM to negotiating a contract with Starbucks. UM. And
Speaker 1: in that time there are things UM. And again, if
Speaker 1: partners are listening, you can do your research on this
Speaker 1: on the n l r B website. UM. There, you know,
Speaker 1: there are things that will be UM different in that
Speaker 1: waiting period. Right, So if if Starbucks decides to release
Speaker 1: UM a nationwide UM spring raise, because why not we
Speaker 1: love giving you raises, UM, we would be exempt from
Speaker 1: that because we're in negotiations. Because we're in this sort
Speaker 1: of in between spot. UM there there are little weird
Speaker 1: things that we might have to just be aware of
Speaker 1: no going in UM in that sort of interim uh yeah,
Speaker 1: and then eventually, you know, those raises and any other
Speaker 1: things that we've sort of been waiting on get brought
Speaker 1: to the bargaining table. Yeah. I think this is an
Speaker 1: important thing for people to understand when when you're doing
Speaker 1: union organizing right is you know, you have this giant
Speaker 1: push and you have like you have to have the
Speaker 1: push to get to get either recognition or to get
Speaker 1: this the National Labor Relations Board vote. But most unions
Speaker 1: that go under go under in like before the first contract,
Speaker 1: and you have to like that's that's something that you
Speaker 1: know when when you when you talk to people who
Speaker 1: who are the professionally you need organizers, they talked, they
Speaker 1: talked about this constantly, just like you have to hold
Speaker 1: it together during during that period between your first like
Speaker 1: betwetween when you when your when when you get recognized
Speaker 1: it when your vote ends that first contract. And it's
Speaker 1: hard in a lot of ways, Yeah, because they thinks
Speaker 1: we're talking about like management will do you know, they'll
Speaker 1: they'll intensify the union busting because they're hoping the union
Speaker 1: will still fall apart. But if you hold it together
Speaker 1: and if you get that first contract your union, like
Speaker 1: you know, you now have a union and you've basically
Speaker 1: stabilized and at that point, like you now have a
Speaker 1: seat at the table and you have to take your
Speaker 1: seat the table and fight. Yeah, but it's a big
Speaker 1: responsibility when when you say hold it together during that time,
Speaker 1: do you do. You mean, like, um, just through those
Speaker 1: changes and that interim and that sort of weird awkward phase,
Speaker 1: like you have to like just hold it together like
Speaker 1: mentally and just kind of power through it. Yeah. Well also,
Speaker 1: I mean you have to, like you have to just
Speaker 1: keep making sure everyone's involved, which is something that's difficult because, Yeah,
Speaker 1: especially after sort of the initially because people have also
Speaker 1: had like a job to do it in this entire time, right,
Speaker 1: they're still they're still make and coffee, they're still making
Speaker 1: a podcast, they're still doing whatever. Sover. Have you ever done?
Speaker 1: This is sort of beside the point, but it's fun.
Speaker 1: Have you guys ever done like the sixteen personalities personality assessment?
Speaker 1: At some point? I've never done it. It's really fun.
Speaker 1: I just did it for school, and it's the thing
Speaker 1: that tells you, like, I'm an i n f J
Speaker 1: TV and my thing is the advocate Sophie. What's yours?
Speaker 1: You look like you had one ready to go. I
Speaker 1: don't remember what it was, but I remember having to
Speaker 1: do it like fifteen times in school. Yeah. I also
Speaker 1: I also forget what I the one that I did
Speaker 1: for when I was in school as well, But I
Speaker 1: I brought it up because I'm thinking I want to
Speaker 1: send it to my fellow organizers and be like, do
Speaker 1: this and we can sort of highlight what each other's
Speaker 1: strengths are, um and start playing into those because like
Speaker 1: you were saying, Chris, like it really is a team effort,
Speaker 1: and I think it only really works if you are
Speaker 1: utilizing people and respecting people's strengths, you know, because not
Speaker 1: everyone has the same strengths. Like, yeah, you might be
Speaker 1: a kick as graphic designer, but like not everyone can
Speaker 1: do that. You know, maybe they're better at hosting get togethers,
Speaker 1: or they're better at writing emails or whatever. You know.
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, playing to strengths is so important in
Speaker 1: the long run because yeah, it can take a year
Speaker 1: to get to the negotiating table, which which like is horrible,
Speaker 1: Like that shouldn't be like it should it shouldn't be
Speaker 1: that long. Um. And you know, tactics such as like specifically,
Speaker 1: you know, raising wages around a unionization effort so that
Speaker 1: people in the union don't get it. That is like
Speaker 1: another form of union investing. Like that is like, don't
Speaker 1: think they haven't thought that through, Like that is that
Speaker 1: is part of that whole process. Being like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you could have a union or you can get higher
Speaker 1: wages out Like that's like, that's that is part of
Speaker 1: what's going on. It's because they want people to not
Speaker 1: sign on to have long term benefits, so they're going
Speaker 1: to offer these short term benefits. So like it really
Speaker 1: is like because of how elongated the unionization process can be,
Speaker 1: it gives a lot of time for people to get
Speaker 1: burnt out. Um, and and combating that, like combating being
Speaker 1: burnt out is one of the most important parts. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's really it's really challenging sometimes. Oh my gosh, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean I love that conversation. I'm like a mental
Speaker 1: health dweeb. Um, it's it's my it's what my my
Speaker 1: podcast is called Your Messy Friend, and that's basically all
Speaker 1: I talk about is mental health. And yeah, the burnout.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm recovering from burnout right now. You know, Um,
Speaker 1: it's very real. You have to make sure that you know,
Speaker 1: while you're taking care of everybody else and making these efforts,
Speaker 1: like you have to make sure that you are checking
Speaker 1: with yourself every a and making sure your needs are
Speaker 1: being met because giving from an empty tank does not
Speaker 1: last long. As I'm sure you guys know, yeah, if
Speaker 1: you uh, if if you're, if you're, if the water
Speaker 1: in your espresso machine is out, then nothing can flow
Speaker 1: through to make the exactly see. It was what an
Speaker 1: amazingly crafted metaphor. I just not tortured it at all anyway.
Speaker 1: So what is the like turnover rate at the store? Like,
Speaker 1: like how how quickly are people coming in and out
Speaker 1: of jobs? And how has that been affecting organizing? The
Speaker 1: cool question. Um, we haven't had a ton of people
Speaker 1: leave since I got there, I mean, and I definitely
Speaker 1: I can pretty confidently say none of those had to
Speaker 1: do with unionizing. Um, it was all for just like
Speaker 1: different reasons. Um, we've had quite a few more people
Speaker 1: come in recently, and I would say that, Um, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's weird because our current store manager, uh was great.
Speaker 1: She was hired around the same time that we really
Speaker 1: started amping up union stuff. And you know, it's almost
Speaker 1: unfortunate because I think she thought it was it was
Speaker 1: about her, and it just so wasn't you know. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, so it's who knows if it was just
Speaker 1: because she was there now or because of the union
Speaker 1: stuff or both. But uh, they did start hiring quite
Speaker 1: a few more people, um around the time that we
Speaker 1: started organizing, And yeah, I mean it's you have to
Speaker 1: walk this fine line when you have new people coming in.
Speaker 1: Of course, you want to get to them and give
Speaker 1: them your info um or at least give them resources
Speaker 1: to look into before corporate gets to them. UM. But
Speaker 1: then you also they're they're learning a new job. It's
Speaker 1: really fast paced and overwhelming, Like you have to be
Speaker 1: careful not to totally overwhelm them either. I mean that
Speaker 1: that's really something I've just tried to keep in mind
Speaker 1: throughout the whole process. Is like when my friend Tyler
Speaker 1: approached me, I was like, I don't know what this is.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know if this is necessary for me.
Speaker 1: And now I'm on the committee, you know, so you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like, it's that thing where I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I could be convinced, maybe anyone can. All right,
Speaker 1: is there um any direct action that people who are listening,
Speaker 1: or any called action you have for us that we
Speaker 1: can to our listeners or links or anything that you
Speaker 1: think would be useful for our people to know. That's
Speaker 1: a cool idea. Yeah, thanks, Um, Like we mentioned before
Speaker 1: if you want to just like stop by your local
Speaker 1: unionizing Starbucks and get a coffee with the name you know,
Speaker 1: unionized or union strong. That like that in person support,
Speaker 1: especially when your first organizing, is really really helpful. Even
Speaker 1: just stopping by to drop off a card or say hey,
Speaker 1: good luck with unionizing. UM, that really means a lot. UM.
Speaker 1: You can follow SB Workers United on Instagram and Twitter
Speaker 1: and just engage with us, UM reach out if you
Speaker 1: need info about how to organize. The people on Instagram
Speaker 1: or so, I mean on all the platforms are just
Speaker 1: like so on top of responding UM and uh, website,
Speaker 1: I think we have a website? Would I would assume so,
Speaker 1: I would assume at this point. Yeah, I mean we
Speaker 1: have a pretty pop in Instagram and Twitter. But UM, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think I'm forgetting anything. I think
Speaker 1: that's that's about it. UM and just making noise on
Speaker 1: online is also really helpful. You know, I love when
Speaker 1: people comment on Starbucks posts and they're like, yeah, how
Speaker 1: about unions though, yeah, nion. The website is s B
Speaker 1: Workers United dot org, affiliated with the Workers United and
Speaker 1: the Starbucks know. I think Effort, which has ways to
Speaker 1: donate or by by merch in support of the union
Speaker 1: and that kind of stuff, which funds I'll go to
Speaker 1: the go to the campaign and you know, just in
Speaker 1: case it wasn't clear, Like and this is something you'll
Speaker 1: hear from Starbucks. Is all of this about the third
Speaker 1: party and Workers United is going to do this us
Speaker 1: and that, blah blah blah. We essentially, you know, we
Speaker 1: work with that. They promote our cause, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, they're here to support our mission and our goals.
Speaker 1: I mean, you'd be amazed by how much partners do
Speaker 1: for this, you know, so much. But we we do
Speaker 1: the nitty gritty every day, communicating with each other. We're
Speaker 1: communicating nationally now we have a platform for that. UM
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's really cool. And so like they are,
Speaker 1: they're kind of like, I don't know, the supporting beams
Speaker 1: of of everything we're doing. You know, it's us, yeah,
Speaker 1: but like the actual makeup of it definitely is with
Speaker 1: Starbucks employees, you know, and all the people I've been
Speaker 1: in like Twitter conversations with our d m s who
Speaker 1: are involved. It's like, yeah, like everyone who's like actively
Speaker 1: involved in doing it all has worked at Starbucks before.
Speaker 1: Um and still and still are like it is. It
Speaker 1: is definitely being led by the workers. Um and yeah
Speaker 1: that's really great and really crucial. UM. Do you have
Speaker 1: any do you have any other plugables either for yourself
Speaker 1: or for yeah anything else plug your pod? Yeah? Thanks guys, UM,
Speaker 1: this was really fun. Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1: I love podcasting. UM, so yeah, I mentioned sp Workers
Speaker 1: United on Instagram and Twitter. Make sure you give them
Speaker 1: a follow, follow Barista's you find along the way. Who
Speaker 1: are you know speaking up about this? Show them your support. UM.
Speaker 1: My podcast is called your Messy Friend. You can find me.
Speaker 1: I think wherever you get your podcasts definitely Spotify That's
Speaker 1: what I use. UM and yeah that's about it. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much Kayleie for joining us today. You
Speaker 1: talked about Starbucks and unions. UM can follow us online
Speaker 1: on Twitter, Instagram, at Happened Here pod and cool Zone
Speaker 1: Media and I think that does it? Does it for us?
Speaker 1: Can't wait for y'all to win? Yeah, absolutely can't. Can't
Speaker 1: can't wait for you guys to win. As soon as
Speaker 1: as soon as Portland locations start going, I'll definitely go
Speaker 1: in and support, But until then I will make coffee
Speaker 1: alone in my my my my lonely, my, my lonely
Speaker 1: espresso machine. Um, but yeah, thank you, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for for coming on to talk. Thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. It could Happen here as a production
Speaker 1: of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts on cool zone Media,
Speaker 1: visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check
Speaker 1: us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources
Speaker 1: for It could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zone
Speaker 1: media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.