By most accounts Starbucks is a great place to work. The money's ok and there's the possibility of medical benefits, which is sadly unheard of at any other service industry employer not named Dick's Drive In, so there is a strong temptation to ignore it when news of Starbucks employees unionizing comes around. more ›

We posted yesterday on the push to unionize Starbucks cafes in Manhattan and a few emails and a few suspicious late night phone calls to Seattlest’s home phone from “private number” and we’re ready to give you the other side of the story. Actually we looked for this stuff before we posted yesterday, but couldn’t find any response from Starbucks on the issue of unions or critiques of their health care packages. Don’t acknowledge nuthin, won’t be nuthin. more ›

Unions are dead. At least as they apply to the service industry they are. The service industry killed them by making jobs easier and easier and hiring younger and younger until we finally arrived at the situation that we're in today. Employees are given the impression that one McJob is the same as another and there's no reason to worry about going from one to another to another in the space of a month. They all suck, by the way, and you can keep hopping forever. Employers never have to kick down any benefits (not you, Dicks) and can insta-train any new hires to immediately replace anyone who hops. Not a scenario that really invites the involvement of unions. Why bother for a job you're just going to have for a year anyway? more ›