As of Thursday morning, members of Starbucks Workers United were on strike in 65 stores across the U.S., a massive escalation in their fight for a first contract. They are asking customers not to buy coffee at any Starbucks location during their strike.

Learn more at nocontractnocoffee.org.

The current moment in the U.S.—marked by billionaire assaults on the working class, the Trump administration’s authoritarian maneuvers, and widespread voter dissatisfaction with both major political parties—presents new challenges and opportunities for the labor movement. 

What can horror movies and fiction teach us about fighting back against the real life horrors of our bad bosses? Tune in to our Hallowepisode to hear about the organizing lessons we saw in the 1988 cult classic from John Carpenter, They Live, and Shirley Jackson’s 1959 pillar in the horror genre, The Haunting of Hill House. Plus, a little Stewards Corner with… Nosferatu (2024) Gulp! But don’t worry, we don’t bite.

Federal Workers organizing with the Federal Unionists Network have been using the shutdown to organize within their unions, and to push the message that workers should collectively stand firm against cuts to vital programs and executive overreach.

Employer-run safety games are not merely instructional or even “fun.” They’re there to trivialize workplace hazards and to pass the buck onto individual workers for their own safety, instead of listening to workers about how to eliminate the dangers they encounter at work every day. 

Workers at Wells Fargo are organizing the first union at a major U.S. bank—in one of the least-organized industries in the country.

Labor Notes Editor Dan DiMaggio, whose story on their organizing efforts is on the cover of our October issue, joins the pod. You can also read his piece,“Wells Fargo Workers Push to Bring A Union to the Banking Industry,” on our website.

Subscribe to the Labor Notes magazine by Tuesday, October 14, to start receiving it from the November issue onwards: labornotes.org/subscribe

Announcing the New Labor Notes Resource: May2028.org

Are you and your co-workers organizing against attacks on our democratic rights as workers?

Are you, like an estimated 250,000 workers so far, committing to heed United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain’s call for a coordinated strike?

Are you already planning other ways to be part of a nationwide show of power less than three years from now?

Visit May2028.org for new Labor Notes guides on organizing with your fellow union members, co-workers, and members of your community.

Labor Notes organizers Luis Feliz Leon and Keith Brower Brown join the pod. 

We're taking a break from the pod this week as our staff meets in person to make plans for the next six months of Labor Notes programming! We'll be back to our regular schedule next week with a new episode on Friday, 10/3.

Last month, workers at some of the Los Angeles and Santa Monica locations of Sugared + Bronzed, a salon chain offering spray tanning and sugaring hair removal services, voted to unionize with Communications Workers Local 9505.

Workers say the job is an arduous balancing act of delivering a comfortable, safe experience providing intimate services to customers, while navigating a breakneck pace of appointments. Inside the fight to build a beauty salon chain union. 

Union members have Weingarten rights, stemming from a Supreme Court ruling in 1975, to ask for a steward at any meeting they believe could lead to discipline. Stewards can do a lot to support members in these meetings, and also organize against patterns of unfair discipline.