By Farah Stockman
Source: The New York Times
This city is known as a capital of organized labor; a legendary 113-day auto strike here in the 1940s helped make health care coverage and pensions the gold standard for employers nationwide. But this year, a notable strike in Detroit happened in a coffee shop, not a car factory.
For more than 150 days, baristas refused to return to their posts at the Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Company, a popular chain with a main spot in Midtown Detroit where the owners showed their respect for coffee farmers in Brazil and other countries by writing their names on a blackboard near their beans. During an outbreak of Covid in January, the baristas demanded protective gear and tests. In February, they decided to form a union.
