The barista uprising: Coffee shop workers ignite a union renewal

Barista Steph Achter, who led the union campaign at the Milwaukee café now known as Likewise, has worked in different coffee shops for 17 years and wants others to be able to make a career of it as well. (Darren Hauck for NPR)

As the wave of worker organizing at Starbucks took off this year, Steph Achter looked on with joy.

"I think we're all kind of on a similar page ... of just being like, enough is enough!" says Achter, a career barista who led a union campaign at an independently owned café in Milwaukee in 2020. "It's so exciting. I am pumped."