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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
On Monday, New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Vermont independent Senator Bernie Sanders joined striking workers on a picket line outside a Starbucks in Brooklyn. The rally came shortly after New York City announced Starbucks had agreed to pay more than $35 million to some 15,000 workers in what’s been called the largest worker protection settlement in New York City history.
This is Zohran Mamdani, who will be sworn in as mayor January 1st.
MAYOR–ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI: Good afternoon, everyone.
CROWD: Good afternoon!
MAYOR–ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI: It is a pleasure to be here at a picket with Starbucks workers like the ones on my right and the ones on my left, workers who are braving the December cold and the much deeper chill of unfair labor practices in this city and across this country, and the fear that has come with that of union busting, while they demand the better working conditions that they deserve, like so many working people across this city. These are not demands of greed. These are demands for decency. These are workers who are simply being asked to be treated with the respect that they deserve. They’re being asked that their labor be repaid in a manner that allows them to build a dignified life. And I join them because I want to do everything that I can to show my solidarity, but also because I know that far too often the voices of everyday working people are not amplified with the volume that management so easily receives.
So, I want to share a few numbers with you here this afternoon, numbers that I hope will place this struggle into some sense of perspective. Thirty-six-point-two billion. That is the amount of money that Starbucks made in revenue just last year. Ninety-five-point-eight million. That’s the compensation package that Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol earned for four months of work last year. Six thousand six hundred and sixty-six. That is how much times larger Niccol’s pay was than the average Starbucks barista’s salary. Four hundred. That is how many labor law violations the NLRB has found that Starbucks has committed.
CROWD: Shame!
MAYOR–ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI: One hundred and twenty. That’s the amount of stores that are on strike, and 85, the number of cities that they are taking place in.
Now, what these numbers show us are a two-pronged picture: on one side, corporate greed and self-enrichment at the cost of its own workers, and on the other, remarkable solidarity by those workers who have been exploited and mistreated time and time again.
Solidarity, as much as we speak of it, we have to remember, is not an abstract concept. It is measured in picket lines stood on in the rain and in the sleet. It is measured in rent payments that workers do not know if they will be able to meet, child care bills they do not know whether they will be able to afford. And it is measured in strangers, who have never met one another, linking arms to fight for a shared goal and a fair future.
And I’m proud to stand here alongside incredible elected officials at the city level, at the state level and also, to my left, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, because all of us are united in the belief that we must build a New York where every worker can live a life of decency. We must build a New York where our words do not ring hollow as we say that this is a union town. And we must build a New York where the workers who power it are able to afford to live in it. Thank you so much. And now Senator Bernie Sanders.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: Well, it is an honor for my wife and me to be here with you to stand with striking Starbucks workers who are telling this company they are sick and tired of corporate greed and sick and tired of union busting.
What the mayor-elect just pointed out is that what is happening here on this picket line is happening all over this country. We are living in an economy where the people on top have never, ever had it so good. You’ve got one man owning more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households.
CROWD: Shame! Shame!
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: And while the CEOs make unbelievable salaries, 60% of our people, in Vermont, in New York City, all over this country, are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to pay the rent, struggling to pay for healthcare, struggling to put food on the table. And what Zohran and I are dedicated to is creating a nation and an economy which works for all of us, not just the 1%.
So, I just want to thank the Starbucks workers for their courage here and around this country. We are going to prevail. Thank you very much.
MAYOR–ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI: You know, as I was walking in, Bernadette was asking me: When am I going to stop attending protests and be the mayor? And I said, “Technically, January 1st, I will be the mayor.” But I also — I also want to make a point, which is that when I become the mayor of this city, I’m going to continue to stand on picket lines with workers across the five boroughs.
And I have said this to many of the unions that are here today, many of the rank and file, which is that we want to build an administration that is characterized by being there for workers every single step of the way. And sometimes in the fight for decency and dignity that workers are waging, their voices are drowned out. And when you are the mayor of New York City, you have with that a platform, a platform where you can speak about the hundreds of times that Starbucks has violated labor laws, a platform where you can speak about the fact that, yes, we celebrate what DCWP was able to accomplish in the largest-ever settlement that has been won in this city, $28 million, and also that we will continue to commit funding, both of a fiscal kind and also of our own sustained commitment in terms of the political will necessary, to ensure that we hold these kinds of corporations accountable.
Just before we take a question, since I know we have some friends here with us, if we can first have a round of applause for the Starbucks workers themselves?
CROWD: [cheering]
MAYOR–ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI: We have Kai Fritz on my left, Noor Hayat on my right, and we have so many workers who have inspired us every single day. And I just want to say thank you, before we even start the Q&A portion of this.
AMY GOODMAN: Zohran, can I ask a question about — many of the workers in this city are immigrants. When you met with President Trump, did you get a concession from him around ICE raids and not moving into this city? And then I have a question for Bernie Sanders. And that question is: Do you think if you succeed with your fight club, and other senators —
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: With our what?
AMY GOODMAN: — if you succeed with the fight club, and other senators who support your mission to unseat the Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, it will open up space for progressive candidates that represent what the two of you stand for today?
MAYOR–ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI: When I met with the president, I made very clear that these kinds of raids are cruel and inhumane, that they are raids that do nothing to serve the interests of public safety, and that my responsibility is to be the mayor to each and every person that calls this city their home, and that includes millions of immigrants, of which I am one. And I am proud that I will be the first immigrant mayor of the city in generations, and prouder still for the fact that I will live up to the statue that we have in our harbor and the ideals which we have long proclaimed as being those of the city, but which have too often been ones we do not actually enforce and celebrate on a daily basis. And that is who I will be as the mayor of this city.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: In terms of what we’re trying to do in the Senate, I think it is no great secret there are differences of opinion in the Democratic caucus in the Senate. I’m an independent, and I caucus with the Democrats. And the difference is really manifested right here in New York City, in the mayor’s race that just took place.
In my view, Zohran Mamdani ran one of the great campaigns in the modern history of this country. He started off at 1%, and he won. And how did he win? He won because he put together tens and tens of thousands of volunteers, who knocked on doors. He won because he had the guts to talk about the oligarchs and saying that when he was going to become mayor, and when he will become mayor, he’s going to stand with the workers here at Starbucks and workers all over this city.
And what we are seeing in America right now, in congressional races, in Senate races, you are seeing more and more candidates standing up exactly the same way that Zohran did. And they are standing up and saying that we need an economy that works for all; we’re not going to let the billionaires get tax breaks while people lose their health insurance. We’re going to raise the minimum wage to a living wage rather than a starvation wage. We’re not going to be the only major country on Earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right, etc., etc. So, you’re seeing that evolve, and I think it’s a good thing. And I think we have the grassroots of America behind us. What Zohran did inspired people all over this country, all over the world, and we’re going to keep going forward in that direction.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speaking Monday as they joined striking Starbucks workers on a picket line in Brooklyn. At the rally, I questioned them, but also talked to workers and organizers on the picket line.
GABRIEL PIERRE: So, my name is Gabriel Pierre. I am a shift supervisor in Bellmore, Long Island. At Starbucks, I am usually running the floor and making sure that customers and my co-workers are all set. We are out here today to fight the company’s unfair labor practices, as well as get them back to the bargaining table for a fair contract.
AMY GOODMAN: And what would that look like?
GABRIEL PIERRE: So, what that would look like, them ending their unfair labor practices. Right now we have 400 open lawsuits for labor practices, as well as 650 pending, including, but not limited to, the unguaranteed scheduling, the mistreatment of co-workers, trans and gay, and the unfair wage, hourly wages, as well as, like, not guaranteed hours. Starbucks has not recognized any union in any shop in the four years that we have been organizing. So, it’s pretty scary not to have that done, and we’re hopefully expecting that this is what gets them to come back to the table.
MELANIE KRUVELIS: My name is Melanie Kruvelis. I’m an organizer with New York City DSA. And, you know, I think it’s really powerful to have the mayor out here today. Just today, city workers recovered tens of millions of dollars to Starbucks workers who have been denied fair pay. And I think in a moment where people are really struggling to put food on the table, to buy presents for the holidays, it means a lot to recognize that people are putting, you know, their lives on the line every day. They’re working every day, and they’re not getting what they deserve.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you see that same 104,000 volunteers continuing to work and organize? And what would they do?
MELANIE KRUVELIS: Absolutely. I’m hopeful that — you know, there’s a strong movement that got Zohran into office in November, and I’m hopeful that we’re going to keep that movement going. You know, I think it matters a lot that we had such a full house out here today in front of Starbucks. And he’s activated tons of folks across the city and people across the country. So, I think it’s, you know, generating a lot of hope for folks who haven’t had a lot of that this year.
GABRIEL PIERRE: I think having Zoran Mamdani definitely gives our chances a lot better. He has been very forward-thinking, and I’m excited to see what he does when his first day of, like, being the actual mayor starts.
AMY GOODMAN: Stabucks workers and organizers on the picket line in Brooklyn Monday, where they were joined by Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Special thanks to Sam Alcoff. On Thursday, there is a major protest planned in front of the Empire State Building from 1:00 to 3:00. The motto of the group is “no contract, no Starbucks.”
When we come back, President Trump cancels World AIDS Day commemorations while gutting AIDS healthcare across the globe. We’ll go to Uganda. Stay with us.
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AMY GOODMAN: “Snake Hoop” by Mariee Siou, performing at the Brooklyn Folk Festival in November.
