Arnie Alpert spent decades as a community organizer/educator in NH movements for social justice and peace. Officially retired from the American Friends Service Committee since 2020, he keeps his hands (and feet) in the activist world while writing about past and present social movements. You can reach him at arnie.alpert@indepthnh.org. Arnie Alpert
The “Red Cup Rebellion” strike of Starbucks workers reached New Hampshire Thursday, when baristas set up picket lines at stores in Epping, Stratham, and Seabrook. The Stratham store, normally open until 9:00 pm, was closed by 12:30 pm.
“We’re not staffed properly, so we’re overworked, and we don’t get paid enough for the amount of work that we do,” said Scott Lasalette, who was on the picket line outside the Epping store.
Cailyn Heath, a shift supervisor at the Stratham Starbucks, said the strike will go on “as long as it takes.”
“We want better wages. We want better working conditions. We want people to be able to afford rent,” she said, “to be paid enough that they can afford an apartment, that they don’t have to be choosing between groceries and meds.”
Nationwide, the strike launched on November 13, with walkouts at 65 stores in more than 40 cities. Like the UAW’s 2023 Stand Up Strike, Starbucks Workers United is adding more stores each week. Today, the union said, baristas went on strike at 26 additional stores including the three in New Hampshire, bringing the total to more than 145.
The company says “99% of our 17,000 U.S. locations remain open.”
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The union says its strike is focused on hundreds of unresolved unfair labor practice charges, “more labor law violations than any employer in modern history.” The charges include firings of union members and a failure to negotiate over policies such as a controversial dress code.
The union is getting support from the Teamsters Union, whose members have a practice of refusing to cross picket lines. April Richer, a Dover Teamster who was on the picket lines in Epping and Stratham today, said a Teamster delivery driver turned back from the Stratham store this morning.
Lasallette said the Epping store had less than half its normal staffing today due to the strike. “The store can’t operate with those numbers,” he said.
By early afternoon, a sign taped to the door of the Stratham Starbucks said, “We have temporarily closed our in-store café, but our drive-through remains open.” When I arrived at about 1 pm, the café was dark and the drive-through window appeared to be unstaffed. “Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience,” the sign said.
According to a company statement, “Starbucks offers the best job in retail, with pay and benefits averaging $30 per hour for hourly partners.” Lasallette said that as a full-time worker, he has access to benefits, but that many baristas, who work less than 20 hours a week, are out of luck. “The benefits are nearly impossible to get with the current way that the stores are run,” he said.
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According to the company’s own figures, its CEO last year made 6666 times as much as the median worker, a part-time barista earning $14,674 a year.
The union continues to ask potential customers to stay away from all Starbucks stores and products while the strike is on. A union email, sent today, said, “On December 15, we’re asking allies across the country to show up at non-union Starbucks stores to ask customers to stop buying Starbucks. It only takes 1 to 3 people to make a real impact. And if we work together, we can talk to thousands upon thousands of customers at hundreds of stores all on the same day.”
According to the union, more than 200,000 people have signed their “No Contract, No Coffee” pledge. The union has also drawn support from a wide range of organizations, including major unions, Peace Action, the Sunrise Movement, and the Democratic Socialists of America, which is organizing “strike kitchens” in support of union members.
The union and the company each accuse the other of walking away from the bargaining table. “Right now, it’s their move,” Heath said.
Picketing Friday morning will focus on the Starbucks store at Seabrook Crossing. The New Hampshire AFL-CIO emailed an alert to its members encouraging them to be there.
Uncertainty surrounds federal child care subsidies for New Hampshire following a Trump administration announcement that has frozen funding nationwide. On Dec. 30, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill announced on X that the Administration of Children and Families will now “require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence” before it […]
A prelicensed therapist who had been practicing in Bow, N.H., was arrested Monday based on an allegation that he sexually assaulted a patient during an in-office visit, police said.
Daniel Thibeault, who faces two counts of felonious sexual assault and one count of aggravated felonious sexual assault, is being held at the Merrimack County jail pending his arraignment, according to a statement from the Bow Police Department.
Daniel Thibeault, a New Hampshire therapist arrested for alleged sexual assault of a patient.Courtesy of Bow Police Department
Thibeault had been a candidate for licensure who was subject to a supervisory agreement since May 2024, according to state records. His arrest comes after the presiding officer of the New Hampshire Board of Mental Health Practice suspended his privileges to practice in the state in late December, citing the alleged assault.
Bow police had notified the state’s Office of Professional Licensure and Certification in early December that Thibeault was accused of sexually assaulting the patient despite her “audible demands to stop,” according to an order signed by an administrative law judge.
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The incident was reported to Bow police in August, prompting an investigation by Detective Sergeant Tyler Coady that led to a warrant being issued for Thibeault‘s arrest, police said.
Efforts to reach Thibeault for comment were unsuccessful Monday. It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney.
Police said the investigation is considered active and ongoing. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact Coady at 603-223-3956 or tcoady@bownhpd.gov.
Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.
The GameStop store at Fort Eddy Plaza will close this week as the struggling chain closes at least 80 of its stores across the country, including those in Claremont and West Lebanon.
The Concord store will be open Tuesday and Wednesday but will shut after that, the company said in an announcement.
Once the world’s largest retailer of video games with more than 3,200 stores around the world, including more than 2,000 in the United States, GameStop has seen sales fall for years as online gaming has grown. The chain closed some 400 stores last year.
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GameStop gained attention in 2021 for reasons not associated with its core business: It was targeted by short sellers and become one of several high-profile “meme stocks” whose price skyrocketed due to attention from a small number of social media influencers, sometimes through pictorial memes pushing for a “short squeeze” to generate large profits at the expense of short sellers and hedge funds.
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David Brooks can be reached at dbrooks@cmonitor.com. Sign up for his Granite Geek weekly email newsletter at granitegeek.org.
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