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Good piece here Ashley. One aspect that bears emphasis: the Biden administration and the current/outgoing Democrat-controlled Congress have empowered Starbucks' brazen union-busting by declining to forcefully and publicly take Schultz & co. to task for it over the past year. In addition to being the right thing to do, and the minimum requirement of any party calling itself "pro-labor," that was also a huge missed opportunity politically—as you note, unions are more popular now than they have been in our lifetime, and workers are voters. Just more political malpractice and cowardice from the Democratic establishment. (See also: the shit contract Biden, Pelosi, et al. are trying to ram down the throats of railworkers who voted against it.)

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You're 100% right! Starbucks is emboldened by weak political leaders and folks claiming to be "pro-labor" but doing virtually nothing to admonish corporations — of course, this is especially salient with the railroad strikes and I appreciate you bringing more context into this — we need to know who we're dealing with and who claims to care and isn't doing anything.

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