A barista-led labor movement has dealt challenges to coffee shop owners, and not just Howard Schultz. In Milwaukee, two independently owned cafés faced union drives with two very different outcomes.

A barista-led labor movement has dealt challenges to coffee shop owners, and not just Howard Schultz. In Milwaukee, two independently owned cafés faced union drives with two very different outcomes.

Baristas at Starbucks as well as independently owned coffeehouses have driven a surge in union organizing. They see their activism as benefiting not just themselves, but working people broadly.