How To Save Coffee: Lessons From the Degrowth Movement
Coffee is increasingly at risk from the climate crisis, and corporate-driven incremental change won’t save it. The theory of degrowth offers hope for a better world and a fairer coffee industry.
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Complete Breakdown
For paid subscribers: analysis of the latest breakdown in contract negotiations between Starbucks and its union.
3 min read
When Starbucks calls the wage demands of its frontline workers “unsustainable”, while giving its new CEO $113 million and paying out billions in dividends, it’s hard to take a generous view.
Although they reopened negotiations over a first union contract at the beginning of 2024, by the end of the year talks between Starbucks and its union had hit an impasse. On December 20, Starbucks Workers United staged a nationwide walkout that it named The Strike Before Christmas, citing what Reuters called “unresolved issues over wages, staffing and schedules”.
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Robot Baristas as Strikebreakers
Companies are turning to automation as a tool to fight back against industrial action. In coffee, that role could well be played by robot baristas—in fact, it sort of already has.