NEW: Over 100 unionized @Starbucks locations launched a one-day strike Thursday, Nov. 17, to demand that the company engage in good faith union negotiations & address understaffing at locations across the country.
Members of @SBWorkersUnited, the national union representing @Starbucks employees, organized the strike for Nov. 17 to coincide with the company’s annual “Red Cup Day” promotion, a major revenue booster for the coffee chain. ↕️ unicornriot.ninja/2022/starbucks…
Participating in the #RedCupRebellion, striking workers on the picket line in #SaltLakeCity told Unicorn Riot that they launched the strike not only in solidarity with other locations but in response to first-hand experience with unfair working conditions & anti-union activity.🧵
Across the country, union members & supporters participated in last week's Starbucks strike, making it the largest organized effort undertaken by the union since its formation in 2021.
Chronic understaffing, unfair workloads and hostile negotiation tactics were among the key complaints of striking Starbucks workers at the Salt Lake City location. 🧵
Last week's Starbucks strike came one day after the National Labor Relations Board filed for injunctive relief against Starbucks in federal court, demanding that the multi-billion dollar company stop firing employees in retaliation for union organizing: unicornriot.ninja/wp-content/upl… ↕️
In 2020 Philly Starbucks workers accused their employer of retaliation after a labor dispute & delivered a NLRB form to the store; workers said they'd faced retaliation for workplace organizing & were told not to discuss their pay or working conditions: unicornriot.ninja/2020/philly-st… ↕️
While the NLRB intervention marks a significant moment in the struggle to unionize Starbucks employees, those on strike say it's not enough.
“We’re going through the proper channels...we’re still being met with illegal activities” said Kit Grob, shift supervisor/union organizer.
Amidst the heightened scrutiny of labor policies & 170+ open NLRB cases against Starbucks for anti-union threats & labor violations since Aug. 2021, workers in Richmond Starbucks protested a supervisor accused of sexual assault being place in store. ↕️ unicornriot.ninja/2022/richmond-…
Starbucks says it has taken “aggressive” measures to engage in union negotiations, but employees at locations across the country have described hostile meetings and repeated delays to scheduled negotiations. [Thread above]
NEW▶️“Who Watches the Watchmen?” Community Resistance in Long Beach, California [Commentary]
Rapid response & patrol teams have become an effective strategy in deterring ICE activity and creating relationships with vulnerable populations affected by ICE.unicornriot.ninja/2026/commentar…
“Rapid response groups are geography based, and the more concentrated and focused and at scale that geography is, the more effective the rapid response group is,” states James Suazo, the Executive Director of Long Beach Forward.
“It usually entails people who are trained or familiar with what to do, how to document, [and] how to potentially intervene if that’s what the group has agreed upon. And really trying to quickly respond in an emergency.” - James Suazo
On January 7, an ICE agent shot and killed an observer near 33rd and Portland Aves., only the most recent in a series of abuses of power that have steadily mounted in recent weeks. The Minneapolis Police Department once again appeared on the scene for “crowd control."
Local police arrived after federal agents sprayed chemicals on residents who responded to the shooting – part of a larger pattern in Minnesota of integrated police actions between federal, county and local law enforcement.
New: Cop City RICO Cases Dismissed Years After 61 Activists Charged as Criminal Conspiracy
Racketeering charges against dozens indicted as co-conspirators in the Stop Cop City movement were dismissed yesterday marking a legal victory for the movement
The dismissal comes after more than two years of attempted prosecution that sought to convict protesters who opposed Atlanta’s sprawling police training facility, known as Cop City, as an organized criminal enterprise.
In September, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer said from the bench that he planned to dismiss the charges, but the decision was only made official yesterday.
8 years ago today: A coalition of neo-nazi groups held the so-called "#UniteTheRight" rally in Charlottesville, VA - after planning online for months to carry out racially motivated violence.
The even ended early after being outnumbered by militant antifascists.
Police stood down most of the day as fascist groups openly carried out attacks while using slurs. After the rally was shut down, one neo-nazi ran into protesters with his car, killing Heather Heyer.
(The cop keeping the road closed had been allowed to leave her post earlier.)
Virginia State Troopers monitoring protesters discussed wanting to mass arrest anti-racists - who they called "motherfuckers" - shortly before the car attack.
(See our 2019 story: "Neo-Nazi Gets Multiple Life Sentences In Federal Prison for Charlottesville Car Attack")
During the first Trump administration we obtained hundreds of pages of special agent manuals from ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in full - we released w/o redactions. It includes everything from denaturalization, to 'special response teams' to undercover operations:
Icebreaker Pt 1 – Secret Homeland Security ICE/HSI Manual for Stripping US Citizenship unicornriot.ninja/2018/icebreake…
"...denaturalization efforts are in line with the Trump Administration’s policies stripping DACA and Temporary Protected Status from hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have been contributing to this country for years." — Jennifer Chang Newell, managing attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project
Icebreaker Pt 2 – Confidential Homeland Security Asset Forfeiture and Search and Seizure Handbooks unicornriot.ninja/2018/icebreake…
"the [handbooks] ... exposes the inner workings of an extrajudicial system that has destroyed people’s lives without due process. This shadow system skirts the checks and balances that have traditionally staved off at least some abuses of power and gives the elite who run this country the unfettered ability to manipulate outcomes.” – Michelle Gross, Communities United Against Police Brutality
Current DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has often espoused racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric tied to the neo-nazi-originated “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory and embraces adopting anti-LGBTQ policies. Oh and she shot the family dog.
Mike Huckabee is Trump's ambassador to Israel.
He's rubbed elbows with actual white supremacists (Council of Conservative Citizens, pro-segregation), demonized gay people, and claimed "there's no such thing as a Palestinian."