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Coffee shops have experienced a surge in union elections long before the relatively recent Starbuck union drives have made the news. While the Starbucks union drives do account for more than 50% of the growth, the increase in union organizing, up by 70% over last year alone, has also occurred in small independent coffee shops. The interest in unionizing reflects the kind of employees that coffee shops tend to hire - young people, often educated and progressive in political outlook, who as a generation have experienced a fair amount of upheaval in hard economic times, social unrest, as well as a global pandemic that conditioned workers to demand more. Many baristas have also paid attention to recent worker's movements such as the fast-food workers "Fight for $15" that emphasized better wages for those in the hospitality industry. The pandemic also made it clear that such workers were often left out of the decision making process that affected their health and safety.

Six million people are still looking for work in today's economy, along with another 5.7 million people who have given up but still need a job. Meanwhile, labor shortages across the country in various industries imply many employers are somehow still not hiring or retaining the numbers of people that they need. Recruitment professionals think that various underutilized groups of talented people who often had difficulty getting interviews before the pandemic may have an easier time now with the many labor shortages, but it's still difficult to get employers to consider looking for talent in groups they're not familiar with - such as people with disabilities, people who have been incarcerated, and retired people who may be looking to return to work. Other neglected groups include college age and other young people between the ages of 16 and 24. Discrimination and barriers still exist in hiring, and these days, with a renewed appreciation for flexible work arrangements, people with disabilities may especially benefit from being able to work at home with greater comfort levels.

The Covid pandemic ushered in a time where flexible work agreements were increasingly utilized by companies and granted many employees the benefits of working remotely - benefits that look likely to stay, reports management consulting firm McKinsey, which surveyed 25,000 Americans. 58 percent of American workers now have the option to work remotely at least one day a week, while 35 percent can do so up to five days a week. 87 percent appreciated the opportunity to work remotely and spend an average of three days a week at home. When the survey data is extrapolated to the entire US population, at least 80 million Americans work remotely part of the time. However, 41 percent of those surveyed say they don’t have any option to work remotely, and McKinsey admitted that the survey, which was conducted online, was likely to favor the educated with higher incomes and who lived in areas with good internet. The survey attempted to address this with weighted models, but results still showed that younger, well-educated people with better incomes were mostly likely to have the benefit, and male employees were also better represented, with 61 percent of men being able to work remotely versus 52 percent of women.

A U.S. District judge dismissed a class action lawsuit brought by eight Mali citizens against Nestle, Hershey, Cargill and other firms for engaging in child slavery on cocoa farms on the Ivory Coast. The court ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to prove there was a traceable connection between the plantations they worked on and the seven defendant companies, as well as failing to explain the role of supply chain intermediaries, as the defendants did not oversee activity in areas where about 70% to 80% of the cocoa is produced. The plaintiffs had hoped to use the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act to end the "system" where cocoa workers were lured as children to jobs that they were never paid for, and living under the threat of starvation if they refused to work. The defendant companies argued that they had been working on ending non-forced child labor in cocoa supply chains, but that the suit's overly broad theory would leave too many parties liable and raise prices for consumers and retailers. The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled against a similar case last June brought under the Alien Tort Statute, and the decision was amongst others that would limit federal cases brought on behalf of labor abuses outside the country.

Labor leaders at the Labor Notes conference expressed hope that the prominent unionization activity taking place across various industries is more than just a blip. The 4000 attendees at the June conference were a mix of grassroots activists and labor union supporters, who opined that the pandemic and the anti-police protests in 2020 have resulted in workers that are no longer afraid of the word "union" and who are increasingly assertive towards their employers in obtaining better working conditions, a behavior that has not been seen in decades. Interest in the labor movement had declined since the 1980s and only in the last two years has there a resurgence in union organizing, leading to strikes in the private sector, such as "Striketober" last fall at Kelloggs, Nabisco, and John Deere. According to Gallup, union popularity is at its highest since 1965.

Microsoft and the Communication Workers of America union have agreed to a neutrality pact, where Microsoft's employees can decide without hurdles whether they want to support a union or not. The CWA had previously been opposed to Microsoft's plan to purchase Activision Blizzard, which had recently started collective bargaining negotiations with workers who had voted to join a union. Microsoft announced earlier this month it would not oppose efforts at union organizing, a decision noteworthy for its supportiveness, coming at a time when union activism has been surging at other companies.

A minimum wage bill called "Good Jobs for Good Airports Act" might give hope to airport workers who were poorly compensated even before the pandemic and its chaotic aftermath resulted in understaffed working conditions at a time when pent-up travel demand has increased. The bill would ask that the minimum wage for US airport workers, including those who work for contractors, be raised to $15 an hour, be provided with paid time off and at least $4.60 an hour toward health insurance. Currently, many airport workers - who work an assortment of duties ranging from wheelchair assistance to cleaning plane cabins in ten minutes - work below minimum wage, with no paid time off and few benefits, with health insurance often being unaffordable and out of pocket. Airlines and airports have often relied on contractors to source employees, with the contractor who offers the lowest bid on labor often winning the bidding war. The bill was met with approval by many of the U.S's largest transportation unions.

Southwest Airline pilots took to the field - the Dallas Love Field - in the hot sun on Tuesday, to protest what they see as poor management decisions that have led to brutal travel woes this summer. Fliers eager to travel have spiked demand (and prices) for flights, but have faced multiple cancellations and delays this summer from numerous airlines as the industry still struggles with the pandemic's aftermath, which led to decreased flights due to staffing woes that are still being exacerbated by Covid cases. Airline employees, unhappy with the increasingly long hours due to understaffing and sick employees, are asking for more pay and benefits, and are hoping that appealing to the frustrated public will help. Last week the Air Line Pilots Association posted an open letter to Delta customers, emphasizing that Delta pilots felt just as frustrated as their customers over increasingly unreliable schedules, and that a record number of overtime hours were being flown because there weren't enough pilots for the flights being scheduled. American Airlines pilots had also picketed near the New York Stock Exchange earlier this month, commiserating with frustrated travelers.

The Towson, MD Apple store employees voted to unionize by a margin of 65-33 on Saturday, making it a historic moment as the first Apple store to do so. The vote to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers will next need to be certified by the National Labor Relations board, after which the union and Apple would negotiate a contract. In the meantime, Apple may still raise challenges to the process, by perhaps refusing to acknowledge the bargaining unit as appropriate, and that it withdraws recognition of the endeavor and no longer supports those in the bargaining unit. Negotiating a contract has many hurdles that the company can employ, but the pre-eminence of the technology giant's brand name may make things more difficult for Apple. The recent upsurge in pro-union activities across many industries can help union organizers point to this latest triumph at Apple as showing that even retail behemoths are able to be unionized, and Apple's prominence in traditional and social media may encourage workers, especially younger workers, to attempt union organizing.

The ALF-CIO revealed at their Philadelphia convention that they hope to grow union membership by a million over the next ten years, but some union leaders thought that, in the wake of prominent union drives at Starbucks, Amazon, and Apple, that the nation's largest union needs to aim higher and take advantage of the increased interest in unions. A goal of roughly 100,000 members per year is a growth rate of less than 1% for the country's unions. Unite Here, the union for hotel workers, for example, managed to increase membership by 8% before the pandemic. Other union leaders felt strongly that now was the time to set bigger goals based on young employees, who historically have made up the largest source of union growth. Newly elected ALF-CIO president Liz Shuler defended the goal as a "measurable" goal, and not merely a dream. She also announced the creation of the Center for Transformational Organizing, which will focus on how to unionize new-economy companies.