Stock grants offered by Starbucks and other companies to their workers are a scam directed against workers' interests. Instead of demanding more stock grants, workers should demand payment in higher wages. Experience shows clearly that stock grants weaken the fighting capacity of workers.

Not long after Amazon Labor Union’s historic NLRB victory at JFK8, it was met with a defeat at LDJ5, with a vote count of 618 against the union to 380 in favor. For workers everywhere, this loss is just as important as the victory – if not more – as we draw lessons from for the battles to come with Amazon and other employers. Any struggle waged against the capitalist class, no matter if it is a loss or a victory, is a source of knowledge for all workers. It is an opportunity to regroup and assess where things went wrong and, on that basis, prepare for the march ahead, clear-eyed and more unified than before. For this reason, we should not be afraid of struggle and debate within our ranks. What follows is not an appraisal of tactics adopted by ALU, but an attempt at clarifying some more fundamental points.

It was just five months ago when workers at three Starbucks locations in Buffalo cast their votes on whether or not they wanted to be represented by Starbucks Workers United (SWU), an SEIU affiliate. The success of workers at the Elmwood location in December 2021 led to an explosion in union activity at Starbucks stores across the country.

The history of the labor movement holds great lessons for the working class, which is why we must sum up its key episodes in light of our current tasks. The 1912-1913 restaurant strike serves as a high-water mark for labor activity in the restaurant sector even more than a century later. What follows is a sum-up of this key reference point for class-conscious workers in the restaurant industry.