Howard Schultz rejoins Starbucks as interim CEO as the company faces multiple challenges, including an unprecedented wave of unionization at stores across the country.

Starbucks workers at 15 additional stores are petitioning for a a union election, pushing to organize cafes across the country. In Buffalo, the first store to unionize is negotiating a contract.

Employees of a Starbucks store in upstate New York who voted to unionize last month walked off the job, saying they lacked the staff and resources to work safely amid surging COVID-19 cases.

Under pressure to improve worker rights, Amazon has reached a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board to allow its employees to freely organize — and without retaliation.

Baristas and other workers from three stores voted whether to unionize. Starbucks fought the plan. Now

Nurses at Kaiser Permanente and cereal workers at Kellogg are among those protesting their companies' proposals for a two-tier wage system under which new hires would earn less for the same work.

Shuler will serve as president of the AFL-CIO until June 2022. The union's No. 2 official replaces longtime labor leader Richard Trumka, who died earlier this month.

With the delta variant spreading, more companies are mandating that employees be vaccinated against the coronavirus, but some are still hoping bonuses will do the trick.

The 12-foot-tall inflatable called "Scabby" has been used for decades as a symbol in union disputes. Last year, the National Labor Relations Board signaled it could outlaw its use in some situations.

A federal labor official found that Amazon's anti-union tactics may have tainted last spring's voting process sufficiently to scrap its results. Workers had rejected unionization more than 2-to-1.

At a convention of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters this week, the union announced plans to create a special division focused on organizing Amazon workers across the country.

Amazon avoided the prospect of a first unionized warehouse in America, where it's now the second-largest private employer. The vote in Alabama had prompted new interest in unions across the country.

Hand counting will continue on Friday. So far, more than two-thirds of the tallied votes are against unionizing.

It's a really large mail-in election. (Yes, this one, too.) The tally of yes and no votes has finally begun.

The results will determine whether Amazon gets its first U.S. warehouse union. It's been dubbed one of the most consequential union elections in recent history.