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Mental Health Vol. 70 No. 30
JUlY 21 - 27, 2022
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Union vote may be on horizon for Starbucks Jake McAvoy, a shift supervisor and union campaign organizer at the 1143 Wantagh Ave., locaTo unionize or not to union- tion, said that the coronavirus ize? That’s the question facing pandemic had swiftly and draemployees at a Wantagh Star- matically brought to the surface bucks, which became the fifth underlying labor issues that location on Long Island to put plagued Starbucks workers for the question up for some time. “While an employee vote there were problems last month. before,” he said, “the Starbucks workp a n d e m i c re a l ly ers filed a petition brought into focus with the National many of the probL a b o r Re l a t i o n s lems we had encounBoard to unionize tered.” under Starbucks The 27-year-old Wo rke r s U n i t e d , McAvoy, who began which is affiliated working at the store with the Service in November 2018, Employees Internasaid that while he tional Union. The and his co-workers original union vote, were manning the scheduled for this store during the panmonth, will instead demic as front-line be a mail-in ballot workers late last ending Sept. 2. year, regularly putThe move is part ting their health at of a nationwide JAKe McAVoY risk, management workplace tug of pushed them to Starbucks employee often war between Starendure alarming levbucks and its els of workplace employees that is now brewing stress. Employees were often here. By unionizing, employees pressured to come to work even are hoping to have a bigger say when they had been in contact in their working conditions, with others who tested positive including more consistent work for Covid-19, McAvoy said. hours, higher wages, and better He recalled that a co-worker – safeguards of their sick leave referred to as a “partner” in and paid time off. Continued on page 11
By JUAN lAsso jlasso@liherald.com
W
Tim Baker/Herald
THe WANTAgH PreserVATioN Society hosted an Antique Car Show on July 16.
Wantagh Preservation Society puts on a vintage car show By KAriNA KoVAC kkovac@liherald.com
The Wantagh Preservation Society had a jam-packed day on Saturday, hosting its first Antique Car Show and dedicating roughly one-third of an acre of land that it has acquired next to the Wantagh Museum. Tom Watson, the society’s president, said the land used to be a backyard, but the museum can now use it as a “passive park,” which will give the car show room to grow. “Because we got the new piece of land, it gave us a little more elbow room,” Watson said. “Because this was our first show, we weren’t sure how many cars would show up. So we definitely had about 40 cars we were able to fit. If we had gotten 50 or 55 cars that
showed up, we wouldn’t have room. Next year, as the event gets more popular, we’ll probably get more cars in front and cars in back.” Not a car guy necessarily, Watson learned how big the car culture on the South Shore is when he was putting the show together. “Organizing this event, I realized there are a lot of people in Seaford, Massapequa, Wantagh, Bellmore that have old cars,” he said. “I’d say of the 40 here, there are about 30 locals from Wantagh.” Frank Martucci, of Bellmore, was happy to talk to passersby about his “Bugmobile,” a 1958 Oldsmobile Super 88 decked out with plastic bugs and information on critters like the “bug of the week,” something Martucci changes up at each car show he attends. This time, Continued on page 4
hile there were problems before, the pandemic really brought into focus many of the problems we had encountered.