The Starbucks union authorizes a strike on one of Starbucks’ busiest days. Plus, researchers find that pod machines are leeching microplastics, and drinking too much coffee while driving might negatively impact your alertness.
‘Starbucks Workers Union Vote To Authorize Strike Amid Stalled Talks’ – via Reuters
Members of Starbucks Workers United are about to go on strike on Red Cup Day, traditionally the company’s busiest day of the year.
After months of stalled contract talks, 90% of unionized workers voted to go on strike unless the coffee giant agrees to a first contract with Starbucks Workers United (SBWU). If a contract isn’t reached by Nov. 13—Red Cup Day, where the company hands out free collectible cups—workers plan to walk off the job.
The Starbucks union comprises thousands of workers across 650 stores nationwide. Union representatives have been trying to negotiate a first collective bargaining agreement with the company for well over a year. Negotiations have stalled in recent months, and workers have been staging practice pickets across the country to pressure Starbucks to return to the bargaining table.
“If Starbucks keeps stonewalling, they should expect to see their business grind to a halt. The ball is in Starbucks’ court,” SBWU spokesperson Michelle Eisen said in a statement. In its own statement, Starbucks said that any contract “needs to reflect the reality that Starbucks already offers the best job in retail” and that the union only represents 4% of its U.S. locations.
SBWU has targeted Red Cup Days for strikes in the past, calling those strikes the “Red Cup Rebellion.” Union workers have described working on Red Cup Day, when Starbucks hands out free reusable holiday-themed cups, as “one of the most infamously hard, understaffed days for the baristas.”
In September, a coalition of 45 organizations sent a letter to Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, urging him to finalize a contract with the union and pledging not to cross any potential picket lines. The group wrote that “We will continue to back union workers’ fight, including by not crossing barista picket lines at Starbucks if they feel striking is necessary. We may even join them on the picket line if progress toward a fair contract isn’t being made.”
In other Starbucks news, the company agreed last week to sell a majority stake in its Chinese business to the private equity group Boyu Capital for $4 billion. The deal, which Starbucks referred to in a press release as a “joint venture,” is “one of the largest divestments of a China unit by a global consumer company in recent years,” according to Reuters.
Read more on the potential Red Cup Day strike here.
‘What Happens to the Plastic in Single-Serve Coffee Pods?’ – via Time
There’s a lot of plastic in coffee. Well, not in the beans or the beverage specifically, but in the bags and takeaway cups. We’ve reported before on microplastics leaching from disposable cups—hot water can break down the cups’ thin plastic lining, which means you could be consuming thousands of microscopic pieces of plastic while enjoying your morning coffee.
According to new research, the same thing could be happening with plastic coffee pods.
The study, published in Science of the Total Environment, examined how microplastics leach from different coffee preparation methods, including pod machines. Mohamed Abdallah, one of the study’s authors and a professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, told Matt Fuchs in Time that they found “significant levels of microplastics” in the pod-made coffee.
Abdallah “confirmed the source of these microplastics by tracing them back to the same kind of plastic used to make each pod,” Fuchs writes.
Coffee pod machines are extremely prevalent: Keurig says 38 million households in the United States used one of its brewers in 2022. Because pod machines are so popular, their safety has been a topic of research for scientists before. Previous research found that pod machines can leach low levels of estrogenic chemicals (chemicals that can mimic or interfere with the body’s hormones) into coffee, although this is true for most plastic products.
Whether or not microplastics have a direct impact on human health remains a subject of debate, Abdallah notes. “Our understanding of the toxicity of microplastics remains in its infancy,” he told Fuchs.
Alternatives to plastic, such as stainless steel or bioplastic pods, are available. However, Fuchs points out that some research has found that bioplastics “are just as toxic as other plastics.”
And of course, even if you avoid pods completely, your drip brewer is probably made from plastic as well. Heck, upwards of 83% of tap water worldwide contains microplastics. They may just be impossible to avoid at this point.
Read more on how we’re all consuming microplastics with our coffee here.
More News
‘U.S. Senate Bid to Fast-Track “No Coffee Tax Act” Denied’ – via Daily Coffee News
‘Vietnam’s Top Coffee-Growing Region Escapes Worst of Typhoon’ – via Bloomberg
‘Kansas City Roaster-Retailer Prefix Coffee Shutting Down All Locations’ – via Daily Coffee News
‘Compass Coffee Co-Founder’s Lawsuit Against Partners Moves Forward’ – via Washington Business Journal
‘Chick-fil-A Opens Specialty Coffee Shop Concept Daybright’ – via Daily Coffee News
The Week in Coffee Unionizing
Workers at eight Kaldi’s Coffee locations in St. Louis, Missouri, have announced their intent to unionize with Unite Here Local 74. They are seeking voluntary recognition from the company, which has multiple branches in the St. Louis area and locations in Atlanta, Georgia, following its 2023 merger with Dancing Goats Coffee.
“We just want better working conditions,” Kaldi’s worker and organizer Iana McAllister told Missouri Public Radio’s Olivia Mizelle. “We also want higher pay, we want better health insurance, and we also just want to be treated with dignity and respect like we all as humans deserve.”
The organizing campaign began in the summer, after issues such as broken air conditioning and drainage problems led workers to go on strike with the help of the Missouri Workers Center. The company fixed the problems, although organizers say one worker was fired for raising the issues in the first place.
“We respect our team members’ rights under federal law to discuss working conditions and make their own choices about union representation,” Kaldi’s said in a statement. “Any decision about unionization belongs to them, and we’ll continue to follow the established legal process.”
Is Coffee Good For You?
Drinking alcohol while driving is obviously extremely bad, as is driving tired and looking at your phone (seriously, don’t do any of these things. Pull over if you need to read that text). But we’re told that drinking coffee is a good way to keep yourself more alert while behind the wheel. While that’s true, research shows that excessive caffeine consumption might be risky on the road.
In a study published in Safety Science, researchers from Loughborough University in the U.K. and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute examined 3,000 truck drivers and how caffeine consumption affected their ability to drive safely. Participants were split into two groups: low-caffeine consumers (those who drank one caffeinated drink per day) and high-caffeine consumers (those who consumed five or more).
High-caffeine-consuming participants reported poorer sleep outcomes, which makes sense given caffeine’s effects on sleep. But drivers who consumed a lot of caffeine also reported higher daytime sleepiness, were at higher risk of sleep apnea, and had poorer driving records, including more past crashes.
“Caffeine is an effective countermeasure to driver sleepiness, however, high caffeine consumers do not exhibit any benefit to driving safety indicators,” the study authors wrote. “In fact, there is some evidence for safety concern because high caffeine consumers self-report more crashes and worse driving safety indicators than low caffeine consumers.”
The study, like so much of the research we feature in this section, was observational and relied on self-reported dietary information. Previous research has found that moderate amounts of coffee can be beneficial as a short-term alertness aid while driving—especially if paired with a quick nap on the side of the road.
And to contradict this entire section, one 2013 study even found that caffeine “can significantly protect against crash risk” for long-distance truck drivers. So who even knows?
Beyond the Headlines
‘Starbucks Baristas Practice Rallying in 60 Cities Ahead of Potential Strike’ by Ashley Rodriguez
‘The Next Generation Of Coffee Refugee Programs Rise To Meet The Challenge’ by Jenn Chen
‘Regenerative Agriculture: Climate Solution or Yet More Coffeewashing?’ by Fionn Pooler
‘Eleven Roasters Say What They Really Think About Coffee Tariffs’ by Garrett Oden
