In Northampton and the Pioneer Valley town of Westfield, workers at Starbucks are forming a union. Since June 2024, Ari Vaccaro has worked at the Northampton Starbucks that's not inside Stop and Shop. “We get $15.49 an hour,” Vaccaro told the Valley Post in a voice phone interview on February 10. “We can't live in our town on that. The CEO of Starbucks makes $50,000 an hour.”

Vaccaro said, “We're short-staffed so it's stressful. I live in Northampton. I am from here. About 15 or 20 people work in my store. Some of them have been working for Starbucks for 12 to 17 years. They support the union. The NLRB election will hopefully be in the next month. We're excited to join the union. The only way we have power is if we unite.”

The workers have a web site at https://sbworkersunited.org.

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On February 11, the New York Times posted on its web site a news article with the following headline (the Times has since changed the headline): “Gaza Truce May Survive Recent Threats, but Its Future Looks Bleak.” The article is at:

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/11/world/middleeast/trump-israel-gaza-cease-fire...

It's available for free from any library.

In Brattleboro on February 15 at noon there will be a rally to call for the ceasefire in Gaza to be permanent. The rally will be outside the main post office. A group that's promoting the rally has a web page at:

https://grassrootsfund.org/groups/upper-valley-action-affinity-group