Starbucks workers at Central Florida’s only unionized store, in Oviedo, joined a national strike action on Saturday, along with roughly 1,000 workers at over 100 Starbucks locations elsewhere in the U.S.

Starbucks Workers United has dubbed it the “Double-Down Strike.” After kicking off Friday, it’s set to last three days for some stores — Oviedo workers are just joining for Saturday — in what the union says is the longest collective action the union has organized since the campaign first kicked off last year.

It comes just one month after workers held another national action, dubbed the “Red Cup Rebellion,” in which more than 1,000 baristas at more than 110 Starbucks locations participated.

“They’re doubling down on their union-busting, so we’re doubling down, too,” Michelle Eisen, a barista and union leader at the New York Starbucks that was the first in the U.S. to unionize, said in a statement. “We’re demanding fair staffing, an end to store closures, and that Starbucks bargain with us in good faith.”

More than 264 of Starbucks’ 9,000 corporate-owned stores in the United States have voted to unionize since last December, including one that’s local. Starbucks workers at the East Mitchell Hammock & City Plaza location voted to unionize in August, becoming the first in Central Florida to do so.

But, according to shift supervisor Clay Blastic, who works at the Oviedo store, Starbucks management has yet to come to the bargaining table with workers to negotiate a first contract.

“We were supposed to have an initial bargaining session, I believe, in early November,” said Blastic. But then, he said, that began to fall apart nationwide, including at most or all of the unionized stores in the South.

Blastic said Starbucks finally began to roll out a credit card tipping option at his location in mid-November, which can add about $2 to $3 an hour to someone’s pay, per his estimate.

But, he says, last week Starbucks management rolled that back, just in time for the holiday season. “Going into the three busiest weeks of the year, that’s just like, a vastly severe pay cut,” said Blastic, who said workers’ base pay at his store ranges from $15 to $17 an hour for baristas, and $19 to $20 for shift supervisors like himself.

This isn’t a surprise, necessarily — just disappointing for union workers.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has been criticized for his potentially illegal move of guaranteeing job benefits and perks to workers at specifically non-union stores, in potential violation of federal labor law.

Starbucks has also been on the hot seat with the feds for retaliatory tactics since the unionization campaign began — which include but are not limited to firing union leaders, cutting workers’ hours, and shutting down stores where workers have voted to unionize.

According to Starbucks Workers United, the National Labor Relations Board has issued over 45 unfair labor practice complaints encompassing over 900 alleged violations of federal labor law.

Blastic, who’s worked for Starbucks at different locations for roughly nine years, said he and others at his store have also had their hours cut since voting to unionize. And that’s unusual, he said, for this time of the  year.

On the phone with Orlando Weekly, another worker shouted from the picket line that they’ve recently had their hours cut from 30 to 20 hours a week.

Some workers are fighting to pick up more shifts, said Blastic, “And other ones are just like, hey, I can’t — I gotta go find somewhere else.”

Saturday’s strike at the Oviedo Starbucks began at 7 a.m., and Blastic expects they’ll be out there into the late afternoon. According to him, members of the Orlando Democratic Socialists of American and the Democratic Progressive Caucus have made it out to the picket line in solidarity.

New Congressman Maxwell Frost — who made it out to the store during their organizing campaign to show support — was also contacted about the action.Orlando Weekly texted Frost to confirm whether or not he’d be attending Saturday, but he did not respond to our request for comment in time for publication.

Blastic said that workers out on strike today at his Starbucks location in Oviedo want the credit-card tipping option that non-union stores have been guaranteed to be put back in place at his store.

They’re also hoping for Starbucks to come to the bargaining table with them to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement — aka, a union contract — to address issues such as scheduling.

In a statement to the Associated Press about the national strike action, the company said, “We remain focused on working together and engaging meaningfully and directly with the union to make Starbucks a company that works for everyone, and we urge Workers United to uphold their promises to partners by moving the bargaining process forward.”

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The owners of the Orlando Free Fall are fighting the quarter million dollars worth of fines levied against them by the state of Florida following the death of 14-year-old Tyre Sampson.

Sampson, who was visiting Orlando from St. Louis, fell from the Icon Park ride after slipping loose of his restraints. He later died of his injuries.

The horrific incident was captured by bystanders and the video of the incident quickly spread. In the months since, Florida officials have investigated the incident and found that the ride's restraints were adjusted to allow the ride to operate outside of manufacturer supplied limits in height and weight.

"We are seeking an administrative fine exceeding $250,000 — one of the largest administrative fines the department has ever sought — and a permanent revocation of the ride's operation permit in the state of Florida," said Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried.



The ride operators have countered that story, requesting a hearing on the fines, saying that stories of weight restrictions and sensor manipulation are inaccurate.

"We also promptly provided this information to all investigating parties. In order to ensure further safety improvements were made, we brought in two outside firms to improve our training, maintenance, and safety practices," an attorney for the operators told WKMG.

A 19-year-old Georgia man is in custody after allegedly going on a shooting spree at several Orlando resorts.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office arrested Jailen Rasheed Houston on Thursday morning. Houston is believed to have been the man who fired on people at two Orlando resorts. Houston allegedly shot a young woman at the  Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa on Turkey Lake Road and later went to the Marriott Vacation Club Cypress Harbor Villas and shot a security guard. OCSO deputies believe Houston fired into apartments on Integra Cove Boulevard. Houston admitted to the shootings when questioned by police and said he had purchased the weapon and ammunition earlier in the day after believing he was scammed by the first resort.

"He advised that he was frustrated with the Westgate Lakes Resort after believing he was scammed earlier in the evening when he tried to check in," authorities say.

Houston was remorseless about the shootings while speaking with cops.

"When asked how he felt about the shootings, he stated he felt good while shooting at people, and it provided him a sense of relief. When asked if he would conduct similar shootings in the future he acknowledged that he would," an affidavit says.

Houston has been charged with one count of attempted murder.

Shortly after Elon Musk removed his flight-tracking bots from Twitter, University of Central Florida student Jack Sweeney had his personal account removed from the platform.

Musk went on to say that a car carrying his child was followed in Los Angeles yesterday and threatened legal action against Sweeney on a platform he can no longer use.

"Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood," he wrote. "Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family."


A video shared by Musk to support these claims showed none of the climbing or stopping of the vehicle, merely a conversation between two people who are filming each other.

Musk has battled with Sweeney for months, asking the aviation fanatic to remove a bot account that automatically posts the flights of Musk's private jets using readily available information from aviation authorities. Sweeney created a series of bots to track other flights from notable figures. Musk offered the UCF student several thousand dollars to remove the bot account prior to his purchase of Twitter. When Sweeney countered by asking for more money, a Tesla or an internship, Musk stopped responding.


The widespread ban of Sweeney and his accounts comes after a change to Twitter's terms of service. The vague change bars any real-time location info of another individual, a restriction broad enough to bar bots but also figures like sports reporters who share when athletes have arrived at training facilities.  Of course, the incident in question had nothing to do with flight-tracking and the move does little to keep people in the know from following Elon Musk's car through the streets should they recognize it. 

Bodycam footage from the Tavares Police Department is the latest addition to the nationwide fentanyl panic that has turned police departments across the country into collections of fainting goats.

Though you cannot overdose on fentanyl by touching it, Tavares Police Officer Courtney Bannick suffered some distressing symptoms after a traffic stop on Tuesday night. She was treated by her fellow officers after they heard choking sounds coming from her radio. They administered Narcan on the officer three times before she came back to her senses.

Other police at the scene say they believe Bannick came in contact with fentanyl while handling dollar bills that had the opioid on it. They noted that she was wearing gloves while handling the bills and hypothesized that some of the fentanyl got into her system on — and this is serious here — a gust of wind.

As we have said many times before, the danger of fentanyl lies in the way it kills people who use drugs. Its propensity for turning up in other drugs that are frequently taken at much higher doses and its relative potency compared to other opioids make it a dangerous drug to ingest.

Passive fentanyl exposure is extremely unlikely to cause an overdose. If you need proof, look outside your front door. The entire country is suffering through an opioid crisis exacerbated by fentanyl's spread. Yet only cops manage to fall out from being in the room with the drug. If "fentanyl exposure" were a true risk, you would hear more about it from regular people (and medical professionals who administer the opioid in professional settings). In Tavares, as elsewhere, what we are witnessing is a panic attack brought on by fears of fentanyl that the cops have helped create.

If you want an infinitely more provable story out of the Tavares Police Department, why not take a look at the bodycam footage of one of their officers using a taser on a man inside his own home? And take a second to consider the ways that the news cycle and SEO can push one story out of discussion.