WEST ALLIS, Wis. — A new coffee shop in Wisconsin is on a mission to employ as many people with disabilities as possible to give them job training and normalize those who have differences.

Kindly Coffee employs three people with mental disabilities and has three other employees that act as peer mentors. Plus, there are three other people with disabilities who didn't want to be employees, but instead are volunteering at the coffee shop.

"There’s not enough opportunities. There's not enough people that want to employ people with disabilities, and I don’t think that’s okay, because I think people with disabilities can do just as much, or even more as people without disabilities, especially in the workplace," Sydney Tucker, the co-founder and CEO of Kindly Coffee said.

James Groh

She was inspired to open the coffee shop after her own experiences with her sister Emma. Tucker said that her sister died when she was 16, but cognitively she was about 4 years old. Tucker believes that all people should have the chance to work and gain job experience regardless of their abilities.

"But I don’t want to ignore the fact that they have disabilities. When people say I don’t see color or I don’t see disability, well, why not? Because people have disabilities. People have differences, and if you’re going to ignore it, you’re kind of just ignoring a big part of who they are as a person," Tucker said.

It's all about normalizing people with differences.

For 25-year-old Kacey Briggs, she was just excited to start her first job. She has a mental disability and having this opportunity meant a lot to her.

"I was so happy," she said.

Plus, her family was proud for what she had accomplished.

"(My sister) say she was so proud of me, and I gave her some drinks," Briggs said.

James Groh

She gets individualized training from Tucker, as well as her teenage peers who don't have disabilities. It's a way for both peers and mentors to learn something new.

"Getting to meet them. Getting to talk to them. It's like I don’t see a lot of people with disabilities, so it's like you get a different experience working with them, and seeing them, and talking to them, and it's actually really nice. They’re just like us," 16-year-old Corey Smith said.

Kindly Coffee is a small step in the right direction, Tucker said. Her ultimate goal is that hotels, restaurants, and other businesses follow the same model.

"I figured I can’t change the whole world, but I can take this little part of my world, and change just this part, and hopefully we can just expand and do better," she said.

She's not the first person to open a cafe like this or employ people with disabilities with a similar goal. However, it's not about being first. It's about contributing to change.

"Kindly Coffee is not the only place that can do this. There are other coffee shops that are doing this. You don’t have to be a coffee shop either."

On top of the cafe's mission to employ people with disabilities, Tucker is also hoping to spread a religious message too.

Kindly Coffee is also a Christian cafe. For Tucker, that means putting bible verses on the wall, having bibles for people to read in the cafe, and also having children's books about Jesus. But she doesn't want to overwhelm people with religion either.

"But it's not going to be like, 'Oh do you know Jesus?' Because that's weird, and that's not getting anyone anywhere."

It's more so about exposing people to other ideas. Just like she wants to get people more familiar and comfortable to those with disabilities.

This story was first reported by James Groh at TMJ4 in Milwaukee, Wis.

Millions of Americans quit their jobs during the great resignation, and now some companies are billing former workers for training they got on the job.

Government agencies have received several complaints about it, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is looking into it.

Legal experts say a bill like this can make sense if a company paid for you to get a certain license or the training was something you needed to qualify for other jobs. But it can be questionable beyond that.

“And if an employer is imposing on an employee, an obligation to undergo training that's really of no use to them anywhere else and expecting them to pay, then there are questions about transparency and the obligation,” said Laura Lawless, an attorney at Squire Patton Boggs.

One woman told Reuters a salon charged her $1,900 after she quit even though she was experienced and had all her licensing when she was hired.

She also argues that the training she got was poor quality and specific to the shop. Government action in cases like this could have a big impact on the job market.

“I think we should expect to see an overall government enforcement from a variety of different agencies on unfair labor practices,” Lawless said. “This continues a trend on the consumer side of things that we saw started when the Federal Trade Commission was looking into the gig economy and potential abuses of workers.”

“I think there's also going to be more information provided to employees, especially if they're in connection with unions, or you need organizing efforts to file complaints,” Lawless added.

Employees at Walmart who are vaccinated are no longer required to wear a mask at work.

Walmart updated its COVID-19 policy for associates Friday.

In a memo obtained by CNN, the company announced that vaccinated workers will only need to wear a mask if it is required by the state or local government.

Workers who are not vaccinated and those who work in clinical care settings, including pharmacies, will be required to continue wearing face masks.

In addition to these policies, Walmart is also making changes to its sick pay policy.

Previously, associates received extra paid time off beyond sick leave if they tested positive for COVID-19.

Walmart is getting rid of this policy in March, except in places where it is required by the state or local government.

In addition, the retailer will no longer conduct daily health screenings in most places.

Screenings will continue in California, New York and Virginia, where they are required.

Policy changes at Walmart are now in effect.

More New York state Starbucks locations are now set to vote to decide if workers there want to unionize. Many see the effort as having the ability to possibly pick up steam in other parts of the country.

As Bloomberg reported, Nancy Wilson, an acting regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ordered ballots be sent out to Starbucks employees by Jan. 31, and be returned by Feb. 22. Employees at the three additional stores will vote to decide if they would like to join Workers United which is affiliated with Service Employees International Union which won elections recently at two other Starbucks sites in Buffalo.

So far, only two out of 9,000 of Starbuck's corporate-run locations are unionized, which comprises over 230,000 employees, the New York Times reported.

Reggie Borges, a spokesperson for Starbucks was quoted in the Times using a little different language, saying that the company was not anti-union, but instead was “pro-partner,” with its employees. Borges says that the company has historically listened to its workers' feedback and made changes that make unionizing unnecessary.

In early January, unionized Starbucks employees in upstate New York staged a walkout citing fears over COVID-19 safety amid a surge of virus cases. As the Associated Press reported, six of those employees formed a picket line outside of one of the stores in Buffalo causing it to decide to close for the day, after around a third of the staff did not report to work because of safety fears.

Borges said that Starbucks had met and exceeded CDC and expert guidelines and offered vaccine and isolation pay to employees.

“Over and above that, all leaders are empowered to make whatever changes make sense for their neighborhood, which includes shortening store hours or moving to 100% takeout only, which is the case in Buffalo,” Borges said.

Starbucks workers at various cities across the U.S., in cities including Knoxville, Tenn., Tallahassee, Fla., Seattle, Chicago, Boston and Denver, have reportedly been seeking to follow the model of Buffalo in seeking to vote to organize unions, according to the New York Times.

In a 2006 statement on Starbucks' corporate website, the company addresses its long-held perspective on unionizing writing, "While Starbucks respects the free choice of our partners, we firmly believe that our work environment, coupled with our outstanding compensation and benefits, make unions unnecessary at Starbucks. We respect our partners’ right to organize, but believe that they would not find it necessary given our pro-partner environment." 

John Logan, a labor studies professor at San Francisco State University told the New York Times that unionizing has traditionally been effective when aimed at companies with a small number of large workplaces, as striking at one of less than 20 large factories can cause a disruption. But, striking at one or a few out of 9,000 Starbucks stores across the country would likely make little to no difference to the profits of a company as massive as Starbucks.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — When racial justice protests swept across the country last year, hope sprang that the change pushed for on the streets might spill over into the workplace, too.

“Increasingly, the world is getting to be more diverse,” Sandra Timmons, executive director of The Steve Fund, said last year. “This is the future workforce; these are the future leaders.”

However, experts on diversity say that hasn't quite come to fruition at work.

“While we do believe that certainly there's been a lot of good that's been done on by ‘diversity first’ consultancies, that change has not been as sustainable as it should be,” said Lauren Tucker, founder of “Do What Matters,” a consulting firm that helps businesses navigate inclusion in the workplace.

A recent report on diversity in the workplace, from the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative, surveyed more than 1,500 working women across the country—more than two-thirds of them were women of color.

It found that 97% of those surveyed feel their employers need to establish better ways to investigate and address discrimination at work.

Among the other findings: 57% of women of color say they hear damaging stereotypes, based on their backgrounds, while they are at work. In addition, 58% say there are no senior leaders of color in their workplace.

Tucker said that’s where so-called, “activist employees” might be able to make their mark.

“Activist employees, in particular, are those who are leaning forward articulating to management what the expectations are,” Tucker said, “and I think we need to understand that those expectations are not just about getting a paycheck.”

It’s also about creating an inclusive environment, where ideas can be freely shared by everyone. Tucker said that starts in company meetings, though, it doesn’t always happen that way as she saw for herself two weeks ago.

“I actually timed how much men talked versus women, and 90% of the talking that was done in that meeting was done by men,” she said.

So, how can all employees help to start a change? Some suggestions include sharing your workplace knowledge with informal networks at work and including a diverse array of co-workers.

As for formal networks, Tucker said employees should get involved in a company’s employee resource group that addresses inclusion. If a company doesn’t have one, she said, employees should consider starting one of their own.

“They have a choice to stay in and lean forward, and a lot of them have activated these groups on their own,” Tucker said. “I mean, it isn't necessarily the employer that's created these groups.”

It’s a focus on diversity that Tucker believes companies should expect to keep seeing.

“What we're seeing is the growth of activism period, both by employees and by consumers,” she said. “And I will say that company leaders who dismiss this activism, company leaders that do not take advantage of listening to these employees, they do so at their peril.”

It is a risk that includes paying a potentially high price to their bottom line.

BATH, Maine —

Josh "Chevy" Chevalier is a third-generation shipbuilder who hasn't missed a day of work during the pandemic in his job as a welder constructing Navy warships on the Maine coast.

But he's ready to walk away from his job because of an impending mandate from President Joe Biden that federal contractors and all U.S. businesses with 100 or more workers be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

"People are fighting for their constitutional rights — the way they think their life should be," said Chevalier, one of hundreds of employees at Bath Iron Works threatening to leave.

Related video above: Dozens of workers against vaccine mandate rally outside 3M plant.

Chevalier is among a small but significant number of American workers deciding whether to quit their jobs and careers in defiance of what they consider intrusive edicts that affect their freedoms.

The Biden administration, public health officials and many business leaders agree that vaccine requirements are legal, prudent actions necessary to help the world emerge from a pandemic that has killed more than 700,000 Americans and nearly 5 million people worldwide.

The defiant workers make up a small fraction of the overall workforce, with many cities, states and businesses reporting that more than 9 out of 10 of their workers are complying with mandates.

But they have the potential to create disruptions in a tight labor market and have become the latest roadblock in overcoming the vaccine hesitancy that allowed the COVID-19 crisis to take a devastating turn over the summer. In many cases, the reasons for the objections are rooted in misinformation.

The refusers come from all types of occupations — defense industry workers, police officers, firefighters, educators and health care workers. In Seattle, a group of city firefighters turned in their boots at City Hall on Tuesday to protest a vaccination requirement.

Thousands of people have sought religious or medical exemptions that were rejected; others won’t stand to be told what to do and have quit or been fired.

Nick Rolovich, the football coach at Washington State University, was let go from his $3.2 million-a-year job on Monday, along with four assistants. Rolovich, the first major college coach to lose his job over vaccination status, claimed a religious exemption but has declined to elaborate. He is suing.

The conflict over mandates is likely to grow in the coming weeks. The Biden administration is expected to move forward any day with the mandate that employers with 100 or more workers require all employees be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing, though enforcement likely won't start for several weeks. The rule for federal contractors goes into effect in December, with no testing option, but many businesses, governments and schools are already implementing mandates.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups that represent large employers have warned workers might simply migrate to jobs at smaller businesses where they don't face vaccination requirements. That could create challenges for large retailers going into the holiday season, among other disruptions, the chamber warned.

Individuals who've left their jobs and are seeking work that doesn’t require vaccinations are sharing information on social media. Small employers looking for workers are turning to online job boards such as RedBalloon, where employers sign a pledge that they won't make vaccines a condition for hiring.

Andrew Crapuchettes, RedBalloon’s founder and chief executive, said he started the online job board more than two months ago for people "who just want to work and don’t want to get into politics in the office." More than 800 companies have posted, and more than 250,000 people have visited the site, he said.

Some states, including Texas, Montana and Florida, are gearing up to fight or undercut the Biden mandates. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Monday barring any entity from requiring vaccines.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he will call a special session to pass legislation to combat vaccine mandates, saying that, "in Florida, your right to earn a living is not contingent upon whatever choices you’re making in terms of these injections."

Melissa Alfieri-Collins, a 44-year-old mother of two, said she resigned from her job as a nurse at Jersey Shore Medical Center in Neptune, New Jersey, rather than undergo regular COVID-19 testing.

She said the hospital recognized her request for a medical exemption, but she objected to the requirement that only unvaccinated people get tested, arguing that even vaccinated people can spread disease.

"My family and I, we had a long talk, and I basically don’t want to compromise my values any more," said Alfieri-Collins, who hopes to become a nurse practitioner and pursue her own holistic practice.

"I am very sad because I am the type of nurse that loves my patients and my patients love me," she said.

Anthony Polenski, director of strategic partnerships for tech recruiting company Jobfuture.ai, said he’s seeing candidates who want to know, "Will this company force me to take a jab?" Polenski said they are often leaving previous employers because of a vaccine mandate.

"They don’t want their vaccination status attached to their employment," he said.

At the shipyard in Maine, frustration is rising among union members.

On Friday, some 100 shipbuilders gathered outside the shipyard during their lunch break to protest being forced to get vaccinated. They marched down the street, holding signs decrying the mandate and using choice four-letter words that made clear what they think of the president and his vaccine mandates.

The union fears it could lose more than 1,000 workers, or 30% of its membership, over the federal contractor mandate.

Dean Grazioso, a 33-year Bath Iron Works employee, said he's not anti-vaccine but that he knows vaccinated coworkers, friends and family members who’ve contracted breakthrough COVID-19 infections.

The 53-year-old is still deciding whether to get the shot.

"I’m still up in the air," he said. "But I’ve got a huge decision to make."

____

Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey, and Dazio reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed to this report.

About 10,000 members of the United Auto Workers union went on strike against farm and construction equipment maker John Deere early Thursday morning.

The UAW had reached a tentative agreement on a new six-year contact with the company two weeks ago, only to see 90% of the rank-and-file members of the union reject it in a ratification vote that concluded this past Sunday. Union and management negotiators talked into the night Wednesday trying to reach a new deal but were unable to do so.

This is the nation's largest private-sector strike since the UAW waged a costly six-week strike against General Motors two years ago. And it continues a recent trend of workers flexing more muscle as the dynamics of the labor market tip more toward them and away from employers. Businesses have been struggling to find the workers they need to fill a recent record number of job openings. There has also been a record high number of workers quitting jobs.

Last week, 1,400 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike against Kellogg, shutting plants where cereal brands such as Rice Krispies, Raisin Bran, Froot Loops, Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes are made.

And earlier Wednesday, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees — which represents technicians, artisans and craftspersons in the entertainment industry — announced it had set a strike deadline for early Monday morning if they could not reach a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for 60,000 film and television workers. The union said that 98.6% of members had voted to authorize a strike if there is no new deal by then.

Video below: Kellogg addresses strike in new vide

However, the U.S. Labor Department reports that the number of strikes so far this year is actually down compared to the same period of 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic riled labor markets.

Overall wages are up, as it appears that employers — both unionized and nonunion — are more willing to give workers what they want to keep them on the job.

Good times at Deere

The strike at Deere & Co., the formal name of the company popularly known as John Deere, shuts operations at 11 factories in Illinois, Iowa and Kansas, and three distribution centers in Georgia, Illinois and Colorado. The company makes both agricultural and construction equipment. Demand for its products has been strong.

The company said in August that it sees growing orders through the rest of this fiscal year that runs through Nov. 1, and into the first fiscal quarter of next year.

The rejected contract for UAW members at John Deere would have given them immediate raises in their base pay of 5% to 6%, and additional wage increases later in the contract that could have increased average pay by about 20% over the six years of the rejected deal. It also eliminated a second lower tier of pay for some more recent hires of the company, bringing them up to the pay of other UAW members.

The average production worker at Deere made about $60,000 last year, and could end this contract earning about $72,000.

Among the features of the rejected contract was the return of a cost of living adjustment — once a common feature of union contracts that has become rare in recent years. But it could have been lucrative at a time that inflation is running at levels not seen for decades. It also included improvements in benefits, including an enhanced retirement bonus of up to $50,000.

But unlike the last two UAW contracts at Deere, which were negotiated during difficult times for the company, these negotiations took place at an especially good time for the company.

That might have made reaching an agreement that membership would embrace more difficult. The current financial success at Deere may have led some of the union members to believe they deserved an even better package than the one that was rejected, especially after less lucrative deals in the past.

Revenue for the first three quarters of Deere's fiscal year rose to $32.7 billion, up 11% from the same period of 2019 ahead of the pandemic. Net income soared to a record $4.7 billion, up 84% on the same basis. The company was able to do so while dealing with many of the supply chain issues dogging the auto industry, and it was able to raise its outlook for full-year profits to as much as $5.9 billion.

The company has been hiring during the last year as well, as union-represented jobs at Deere climbed 19% since Nov. 1 of 2020.

Shares of Deere are up 23% year-to-date, although Wednesday's close was off 16% from where shares stood in early September.

The White House took sweeping actions on Thursday regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. President Joe Biden announced a new vaccine mandate for federal employees, those in health care, and any company with 100 or more workers.

Richard Dreitzer, a specialist in labor and employment matters, says the decision was due to employers’ sense of urgency to keep employees safe.

RELATED: Biden lays out 6-pronged plan to combat COVID this fall

“Vaccines are proven by the FDA, they are safe and effective – that’s why they were proven for wide use – and there haven’t been any bad outcomes with people or very few of them, so people have more confidence that this is going to help them,” said Dreitzer.

President Biden also announced that the Department of Labor is developing an emergency rule to require all employers with 100 or more employees to get vaccinated. When it comes to potential mandates like this, Dreitzer says, it can get tricky at the state level.

“I think the federal government cannot do that. In our country it is sort of an instance of a federalism thing, because the federal government has to defer to the authority of the states on certain matters, and regulating the health and safety of the public usually falls on the states first and the federal government second,” Dreitzer said.

Dreitzer says the federal government does have the power to require vaccination for federal employees. He says certain employees are running out of options. You either get vaccinated or leave your job.

“Vaccines are safe, they are effective, they work," said Dreitzer. "The history of them is good. In terms of bad outcomes, it is minimal, so it is harder and harder for them to say without any credibility, 'I don’t trust these vaccines because they make me sick.'”

Dreitzer says people will not receive unemployment benefits if they get fired for not being vaccinated.

“No, because that is a direct order from an employer that has a legitimate interest in keeping their workplace safe. And they come up to you and present that to you as an employee, and you say, 'You know what? I don’t want to,'” said Dreitzer.

While businesses across the country are trying to incentivize people back to work, one Louisville restaurant decided to show its appreciation for its employees by sending them on vacation.

Ramen House Louisville, on Bardstown Road, posted Tuesday that it would be closing its doors temporarily not because of a shortage of workers, but because all of them will be in Las Vegas for the week.

According to the Facebook post, the restaurant closed for the week to fly the employees to Vegas to show them thanks for working "hard and diligently through all the crazy times" over the past year and a half.

"They deserve a break," the restaurant posted along with a photo of the employees at the airport.

In a message to WLKY, the owners of the Louisville restaurant that serves up ramen and rice bowls said 10 of their employees were flown out to Vegas. The trip also included having their lodging and some food and activities paid for.

Much like other restaurants and businesses in the metro, Ramen House was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, the restaurant completely shut down, reopening later with restrictions in place.

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The Vegas trip isn't the first time the restaurant owners have gone out of their way to show appreciation for their employees. In April, the restaurant posted a photo of the group on a kayaking trip.

Check out the Ramen House Facebook page here.

Federal Labor Department statistics show there were over 4 million more job openings this May compared to last year. That's good news for people who are looking to change jobs or switch careers. And there are a lot of them.

Experts predict a huge wave will leave their employer in the months ahead. 

Jessica Brooks, from Chicago, switched careers mid-pandemic.

"The transition was because I felt kind of stuck in the place that I was in career-wise," Brooks said.

One in four workers plans to look for a job at a different company once the pandemic subsidies, according to a survey by Prudential Financial. And one in five workers switched careers over the past year.

Geleen Antonio left a health care consultant position she's held for six years.

"What's really important for me now is really location independence, the freedom to be able to work out of any city, any country, maybe a coffee shop, even that I didn't have before," Antonio said.

A different survey from LinkedIn this past April found the reason people are switching is that they’re looking for more job flexibility, be it flexible work locations or work hours.

Another top reason? Work-life balance.

Career expert Colleen Sauer says the pandemic has helped us re-prioritize what's important to us.

"COVID put everything into perspective for people," said Sauer. "And what they're overwhelmingly asking for is flexibility. Many employers didn't approach the pandemic in the best way possible for a lot of different reasons. Employees are burnt by that." 

Entrepreneurship is also on the rise. More than half of professionals surveyed by LinkedIn (51%) see themselves either starting a business or freelancing. That includes Andrew Dvorscak — who decided to open a coffee company in Denver. 

 "The pandemic — it was definitely something that pushed me to do it. If I didn't get laid off, I probably would still just be sitting on my hands. Just, oh, it'd be so cool to own a coffee business someday," said Dvorscak.

Haluthai Inhmathong quit her 9-5 marketing job to start her own food pop-up Basil Babe. She says, "working from home kind of puts pressure on a lot of things and you're left alone with your own thoughts. I knew I was unhappy; a job should never make you cry." 

The people Newsy spoke to say, whether it's a career switch or starting a new business, the pandemic sped things up.

Inhmathong says, "if there was no pandemic it was leading up to it. But with the lockdown, it definitely was faster."

This story originally reported by Cat Sandoval on Newsy.com.

While businesses across the country are trying to incentivize people back to work, one restaurant decided to show its appreciation for its employees by sending them on vacation.

Ramen House Louisville posted Tuesday that it would be closing its doors temporarily not because of a shortage of workers, but because all of them will be in Las Vegas for the week.

According to the Facebook post, the restaurant closed for the week to fly the employees to Vegas to show them thanks for working "hard and diligently through all the crazy times" over the past year and a half.

"They deserve a break," the restaurant posted along with a photo of the employees at the airport.

In a message to sister station WLKY, the owners of the Louisville restaurant that serves up ramen and rice bowls said 10 of their employees were flown out to Vegas. The trip also included having their lodging and some food and activities paid for.

Related video before: Customer leaves $16,000 tip at New Hampshire bar

Much like other restaurants and businesses across the country, Ramen House was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, the restaurant completely shut down, reopening later with restrictions in place.

This content is imported from Facebook.
You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

The Vegas trip isn't the first time the restaurant owners have gone out of their way to show appreciation for their employees. In April, the restaurant posted a photo of the group on a kayaking trip.