Deep Reads features The Washington Post’s best immersive reporting and narrative writing.
BUFFALO — Lexi Rizzo was cleaning dishes in the back of her Starbucks store on March 31 when she noticed that her manager was printing a document, her hands shaking.
“I’m getting fired,” Rizzo, 25, told her co-workers through her store headset.
Her boss called her over a few seconds later. “This is not my favorite day,” the manager began. Rizzo hit record on her phone. Even though she had signed Rizzo’s notice of separation, the manager told Rizzo that she had hoped the company would not dismiss her.
“It honestly kills me,” she told Rizzo.
Story continues below advertisement
Advertisement
For months, Rizzo had clocked in before dawn convinced that the company where she had worked for nearly eight years was determined to fire her. And Rizzo thought she knew why: She was one of 49 baristas from across Buffalo who sent a letter to the company’s chief executive in August 2021 informing him that they were seeking to form a union.
Today there are about 320 unionized Starbucks stores in the United States — a rare bright spot for the shrinking labor movement. But the gains have come at a price, union officials said. Only 13 of the workers who signed the original Buffalo organizing letter are still with the company.
Rizzo, a shift supervisor, had seen the union as a solution to so many of the problems that plagued her family and her...
A post claiming to list all the actions taken by the Home Minister in Kashmir in the last 10 days is going viral on social media. The posts list out 18 points, which include claims regarding citiz...