Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Just in time for pumpkin spice latte season, Philadelphia City Council<\/a> members are giving up Starbucks<\/a> \u2014 and they want you to do the same.<\/p>\n Council voted unanimously on Thursday to make Philadelphia one of the first cities in the country to explicitly endorse a nationwide boycott of Starbucks amid a unionization drive, and to pledge not to use city funds at the coffee chain until it reaches a contract agreement with its workers.<\/p>\n Also during Council\u2019s session on Thursday: Councilmember Jamie Gauthier<\/a> introduced controversial legislation to approve a contract with a trash incinerator that she doesn\u2019t support. We\u2019ll explain.<\/p>\n What was this week\u2019s highlight?<\/p>\n Council puts Starbucks on ice: The expression of solidarity with Starbucks workers is a ceremonial resolution that does not carry the weight of law and does not require approval from Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a>.<\/p>\n Still, Council\u2019s vote was a formal endorsement of the boycott orchestrated by Starbucks Workers United and targeting the world\u2019s largest coffee chain, which is already reducing its footprint in the city. Starbucks closed six Philadelphia locations last year, and two additional branches \u2014 one at 2201 South St. in Southwest Center City<\/a> and the other at 1018 N. Second St. in Northern Liberties<\/a> \u2014 closed on Sunday.<\/a><\/p>\n The only other city to formally support the unionization effort is St. Louis, where last week the city\u2019s board of aldermen approved a resolution<\/a> to \u201cexpress solidarity with Starbucks Workers United as they call for a boycott of Starbucks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Starbucks is closing three stores in Philly and South Jersey<\/a><\/p>\n Over the last five years, baristas have unionized at hundreds of individual Starbucks locations, but the company has not agreed to a nationwide contract that the union has sought. The union in August called for a nationwide boycott<\/a> to last until an agreement is reached.<\/p>\n Councilmember Nicolas O\u2019Rourke, a member of the progressive Working Families Party<\/a> who represents the city at-large, authored the legislation and said its passage is \u201canother affirmation of Philadelphia being a union town.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am always interested in making sure that businesses in the city of Philadelphia and people are thriving,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said. \u201cBut my first priority is always to make sure that workers and workers\u2019 conditions are right and that they are respected.\u201d<\/p>\n Council is controlled by a supermajority of Democrats<\/a>, and the body is largely supportive of organized labor.<\/p>\n Council President Kenyatta Johnson<\/a> said he backs the Starbucks boycott, even though he is generally not a big coffee drinker.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, they do have a vegan breakfast sandwich,\u201d said Johnson, who follows a plant-based diet. \u201cBut I won\u2019t be having those any time soon.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Starbucks said in a statement Thursday that the company is \u201ccommitted to engaging in productive bargaining.\u201d<\/p>\n What else happened today?<\/p>\n Introducing legislation she doesn\u2019t support: Thursday\u2019s meeting featured another twist in the long-running debate over a Chester trash incinerator<\/a> and how Philadelphia gets rids of its garbage. Gauthier, a progressive Democrat who has advocated for the city to stop burning its trash, introduced legislation that would allow the city to continue doing so.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Philly City Council returns with dueling plans for the city\u2019s trash<\/a><\/p>\n Here\u2019s why: The Parker administration is looking to renew its long-held contract with Reworld, the Chester waste-to-energy facility where the city ships about one-third of its trash to be burned. (The rest of the trash is sent to landfills.)<\/p>\n In order to renew the multiyear contract,<\/a> Council must approve authorizing legislation. Gauthier, who previously floated a bill to ban the city from incinerating trash but did not garner enough support<\/a> to pass it, is asking her fellow lawmakers to vote against the contract renewal.<\/p>\n Although it may seem like a reversal of her position, Gauthier introducing the legislation herself \u2014 even when she does not support it \u2014 will allow her to have some say when a committee holds a hearing on the legislation. She hopes to amend it to strike Reworld from the deal so that the city processes all trash and recycling through landfills.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gives me and my coalition an opportunity to be at the table on something that we fought really hard on for more than a year now,\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cWe\u2019ve been working really hard to make sure that we\u2019re protecting the health of folks in Chester and in Philadelphia, and protecting our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson will decide which committee will hear the bill. He said Thursday that he is still reviewing the legislation.<\/p>\n Mamdani-fication: Create a Philly Medicaid Supplement Program. Expand access to programs that provide transit subsidies to low-income Philadelphians. Use city money to buy properties with expiring federal affordable housing subsidies.<\/p>\n These were some of the recommendations included in the Affordable Philly Now report, which was recently released by the Cost of Living Task Force.<\/p>\n O\u2019Rourke, who convened the task force, held a committee hearing Wednesday examining the report\u2019s findings, and he was not shy about noting that it was partly inspired by another progressive a few miles up I-95<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYou cannot deny the profound impact that \u2026 Mayor Zohran Mamdani has had,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said, praising the New Yorker for \u201cmixing moonshot municipal goals with sewer socialism\u201d and working to build a \u201cprotective hedge\u201d of social safety net programs.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Pa. Democrats have mostly positive view of socialism as progressive candidates secure wins<\/a><\/p>\n Wednesday\u2019s hearing was a meeting of the Committee on Global Opportunities and the Creative\/Innovative Economy, which O\u2019Rourke chairs. As a freshman and a member of a minority party, O\u2019Rourke does not have a high-profile committee leadership post like some of the more senior Democratic lawmakers on Council. His committee was previously led by former GOP Councilmember David Oh<\/a> and does not naturally align with O\u2019Rourke\u2019s progressive politics.<\/p>\n O\u2019Rourke said at the committee hearing Wednesday \u2014 the first time he chaired a Council hearing \u2014 that he was shifting the panel\u2019s work.<\/p>\n \u201cThe prior version of this committee revolved around corporate investment fitting into global value chains and making Philadelphia an international destination,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said. \u201cIn my reflection on the meaning of the committee, I have spent more time focusing on a part of the committee\u2019s mandate that actually seems more in its merit \u2014 that is, to consider all matters related to making Philadelphia a world-class city. \u2026 And in some seasons, world-class cities show themselves by being bold in providing a protective hedge for its people.\u201d<\/p>\n Quote of the week<\/p>\n I had a unique management approach to my staff. It was called management by humiliation. If you made a mistake, I didn\u2019t dock anybody\u2019s pay. I didn\u2019t fire anybody. I didn\u2019t, you know, do a lot of that. I would just tell everybody.<\/p>\n That was former Mayor John F. Street, the erstwhile City Council president, who returned to his old workplace Thursday to speak during public comment. He was testifying in support of a resolution to honor Philadelphia Police Lt. Greg Brown, who was, among other assignments, a member of Street\u2019s security detail and is now retiring.<\/p>\n Street said Brown was one of the few people he never got to humiliate, because Brown \u201calways got it right.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI never had a chance to put him on any list,\u201d Street said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Just in time for pumpkin spice latte season, Philadelphia City Council members are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[122980,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-297903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-city-council-starbucks-boycott","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}