Andrea Hsu
Andrea Hsu is NPR's labor and workplace correspondent.
Hsu first joined NPR in 2002 and spent nearly two decades as a producer for All Things Considered. Through interviews and in-depth series, she's covered topics ranging from America's opioid epidemic to emerging research at the intersection of music and the brain. She led the award-winning NPR team that happened to be in Sichuan Province, China, when a massive earthquake struck in 2008. In the coronavirus pandemic, she reported a series of stories on the pandemic's uneven toll on women, capturing the angst that women and especially mothers were experiencing across the country, alone. Hsu came to NPR via National Geographic, the BBC, and the long-shuttered Jumping Cow Coffee House.
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A barista-led labor movement has dealt challenges to coffee shop owners, and not just Howard Schultz. In Milwaukee, two independently owned cafés faced union drives with two very different outcomes. -
Baristas at Starbucks as well as independently owned coffeehouses have driven a surge in union organizing. They see their activism as benefiting not just themselves, but working people broadly.
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With the existence of a grass roots union at stake, the National Labor Relations Board is considering Amazon's objections to the Amazon Labor Union's historic victory.
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Union campaigns aren't always successful, but just the threat of a union can lead to change. That's what happened at one coffee company in Milwaukee where workers now have multiple ways to speak up.
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A small business owner in Milwaukee poured everything he had into opening the coffee shop of his dreams. His workers had dreams of their own — and they formed a union.
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Baristas across the country are leading union drives at their workplaces. A combination of factors have led to this surge in activism among service workers who before now felt they had little voice.
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Working from home isn't possible in many jobs, but in companies where it is, the return to office has become a point of tension between workers and their bosses.
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More than two years into the pandemic, many workers who have worked remotely during that time are resisting returning to the office, forcing their bosses to reconsider how to move forward.
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Workers are winning union elections across the country, but the next step might be more difficult. Collective bargaining can take years, and some workers never see a contract.
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On an investor call, Starbucks interim CEO Howard Schultz said the company was investing $1 billion to raise wages, enhance benefits and modernize stores. But unionized stores won't get some of that.
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An Amazon sorting center on Staten Island in New York has voted against unionizing, a month after a larger Amazon warehouse across the street voted to join the Amazon Labor Union.
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Starbucks workers have driven a surge in union election petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board. Unionizing has also picked up at colleges, non-profits and pot dispensaries.
