The barista uprising: Coffee shop workers ignite a union renewal
Baristas at Starbucks as well as independently owned coffeehouses have driven a surge in union organizing. They see their activism as benefiting not just themselves, but working people broadly.
As the wave of worker organizing at Starbucks took off this year, Steph Achter looked on with joy.
"I think we're all kind of on a similar page ... of just being like, enough is enough!" says Achter, a career barista who led a union campaign at an independently owned café in Milwaukee in 2020. "It's so exciting. I am pumped."
Achter is part of a barista-led labor movement that has grown with stunning speed. Coffee shops are driving a surge in union elections, up 70% from this time last year. Starbucks alone accounts for more than half the growth, but baristas at small businesses are unionizing too, and some of them well before Starbucks.
To understand how cafés became hot spots
