Bradley Rohlf lost his job because he wore a T-shirt.
It was about a year ago. Rohlf worked at the Starbucks at the intersection of Clayton Road and Lindbergh Boulevard in Ladue. He and his fellow baristas had joined the union. They were part of a national movement. The workers wore union T-shirts to highlight their unity.
Starbucks fired Rohlf and disciplined some of his colleagues.
I wrote about him the day he was fired, as his fellow Starbucks workers went on strike for a day. Rohlf was confident he would win reinstatement to his job after filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Starbucks of anti-union activity.
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His confidence was not misplaced. In September, an administrative law judge ruled overwhelmingly in Rohlf’s favor, ordering Starbucks to rehire him and pay wages for the work he missed over the past year.
“It’s a huge weight off my shoulders,†Rohlf says.
In many ways, Rohlf and his colleagues were the proverbial canaries in a coal mine, giving the nation notice of a burgeoning worker movement that is building steam.
There have been strikes by the Writers Guild of America — which won massive concessions — and the Screen Actors Guild-AFTRA. The United Auto Workers, including those at the Wentzville GM plant, went on strike and, like the writers, won important concessions. It didn’t hurt that President Joe Biden in a picket line in Michigan, a first in history that helped solidify this as the Year of the Union.
Nurses are standing up for better pay and conditions. Janitors at Anheuser-Busch are seeking to form a union. Workers in the tech industry are seeking the collective power of a union.
There’s something powerful about seeing the workers who are part of our everyday lives — at coffee shops, hospitals, schools, libraries — and those in white-collar office buildings realize it’s time to tilt the playing field back in their favor.
It’s a big deal, says Jon Gamache. He’s the son and grandson of a Teamster, and he has been a key cog in the unionization of Starbucks stores in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region.
“My union did a solidarity picket with (the actors guild) and Starbucks baristas got to hang out with Jack Black on a picket line,†Gamache told me. “That sentence wouldn’t have made sense five years ago, right? You’re seeing actors and writers and auto workers and health care workers and baristas strike. You’re seeing new union filings at everywhere from Marvel VFX to Ben and Jerry’s to local board game stores. That kind of seemingly unanimous, cross-industry union wave is what we’ve needed for a long time, and what is actually capable of changing things at work, in your life and in America.â€
The momentum builds with decisions like the one in Rohlf’s case. Not long after one judge ruled in his favor, another one ruled against Starbucks in a national case, making clear that the company’s union-busting activities, such as offering higher pay at non-union stores, were “flagrant†and “egregious†violations of labor law. The multiple decisions in favor of workers will make it easy for more stores to join the union, Gamache believes.
“Labor movement begets labor movement,†Gamache says. “It’s our job to redefine what people think is possible. And once organizing a couple of Starbucks became possible, you’ve seen a ton of similar chains, especially ones that pretend to be progressive, organize too.â€
Rohlf doesn’t have his job back yet. His case still has to go through a final process at the National Labor Relations Board. In the meantime, he’s doing odd jobs.
One of the reasons he liked working at Starbucks is that — at least before being punished for union organizing — the job gave him the flexibility to pursue other passions, such as the nonprofit theater company he helps run.
He thinks the nation is finally at a tipping point, with workers being shut out from prosperity for too long as CEO pay and income inequality rise to record highs. Now, the pendulum is swinging. And workers are winning.
“It’s really energizing to see all types of workers from different sorts of industries join the movement,†Rohlf says. “The labor movement in America is absolutely in a renaissance.â€