Hello everybody. I’m Graham Elwood. And I wanted to talk to you about the rise in unions in America. 

Specifically with Starbucks, There was big, big breaking news a couple months ago when the first ever Starbucks unionized.

News Anchor: “The National Labor Relations Board says that workers voted 19 to 8 in favor of a union at one of three Starbucks in Buffalo.”

And since then, Starbucks has been trying to union bust.  Unions are a big part of America. And so is union busting, 

Today, six managers showed up in Chicago’s Logan Square location to pull partners aside for hostile anti-union meetings, where partners left feeling guilty and scared. We call on Starbucks to end their intimidation tactics and allow us to organize freely and without interference.

This is from SB Workers United.

I thought America was about freedom and being able to make your own wage and earn a good living. Hmm, not with big corporations, but they’re not stopping unions. 

Eugene, Oregon is on: That makes 64 stores around the U.S. that have filed for union elections in 18, actually 19 states.

This is the second time this week that Starbucks has explicitly targeted black union organizers with falsified work complaints. 

So that’s one of the things. Someone who’s organizing a union, oh, they’re getting bad marks on their corporate report card or whatever. 

After three-year Starbucks partner Laila started a union campaign. Her district manager attempted to write her up for six months worth of phony complaints to pressure her, to quit. 

Weird. This model employee is suddenly a troublemaker when they just want fair wages.

Good union wages are actually good for America. 

This the blue is the number of employed workers in unions. And this is number of wage and salary workers. Right? Look at this. 

When union membership was at its peak in the 1950s, that’s what everyone talks about, oh the glory days of America, people forget in the 1950s union membership was at its highest, corporate tax rate was at its highest.

And that’s when we had a thriving middle class. But since this is all gone down, Americans can barely pay their bills. And all they’re asking for is fair wages, but it’s just too hard. 

The companies always complain: We don’t have the money because, where’s the money going to? 

Oh, new raises for the Starbucks CEO, Kevin Johnson, total compensation rose 39% in 2021 to 20.4 million. 

Anybody out there working a regular job, get a 39% raise?  And especially in the middle of a pandemic ? So he gets a 39% raise, but you get written up just for trying to organize a union.

You wanna keep working at Starbucks. You want Starbucks to be profitable. You just want to enjoy some of the profits. 

Unions are good for America. They’re good for Americans.

Both political parties talk about unions. They talk about the American worker, but both political parties are paid by big corporations to thwart any legislation that benefits union and union workers. 

Support a union, support union workers, union shops, union stores. And if you don’t have a union where you work, form one. Thanks for watching. That will make America great.