"I Believe That It Can Be Better Than I Found It": WNC Labor Leaders Reflect On "Partners"
Ryleigh Johnson | Nov. 18, 2025
On Nov. 13, economic equity nonprofit Just Economics hosted a screening of “Partners” at the Dr. Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Community Center in Asheville, N.C., along with a panel discussion about labor organizing in Western North Carolina (WNC).
“Partners” is a short film that follows the 2021 unionization effort of Starbucks workers in Buffalo, N.Y., from its inception to their eventual victory in becoming the first unionized Starbucks shop. Their story begins with organizer Jaz Brisack getting a job at the Elmwood Avenue Starbucks in Buffalo as a “salt.”
“A salt is a worker who gets a job at a company with the goal of unionizing it,” Brisack told the Bay Area Current. “Most salts are volunteers, so the question of ‘Who is a salt?’ is often a question of motive. [Salting] is probably as old as the labor movement.”
Brisack spent months building relationships with their coworkers before proposing the idea of a union to them. While Starbucks employees, called “partners” by the company, were receptive to the idea, Brisack and the burgeoning Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) union found that the company’s leadership had other ideas.
“Partners” details the resulting struggle between SBWU and Starbucks executives, who engaged in a variety of union-busting tactics, including sending then-CEO Howard Schultz in person to Buffalo in an attempt to dissuade workers from unionizing. Ultimately, the film paints a hopeful vision of the labor movement in the United States: young, determined and even sometimes successful.
The film screening was followed by a discussion from a panel of union members and organizers who work in WNC. Panelists included Blake Honeycutt, president of the Western North Carolina Central Labor Council; Lori Hedrick, vice president of the Western North Carolina Central Labor Council and a nurse who helped unionize Mission Hospital; Jared Hooker, member of the Buncombe County Association of Educators and an organizer in the attempted unionization of Moog Music in Asheville and Miranda Escalante, co-chair of Asheville Food and Beverages United (AFB).
The panelists spoke about how the experiences of the organizers in “Partners” mirrored their own, along with sharing the particular challenges and joys of organizing in WNC.
“The one word that really stuck with me is hopeful,” Escalante said. “The reason [AFB is] a city-wide union is so that we can be versatile. We're kind of writing history as we go. We have a lot of people that come to us that want to organize their shop, and a lot of it is insanely hard, and we make mistakes and things don't go our way because people get frustrated and move on. So this movie gave me hope.”
Honeycutt, whose interest in labor rights began after experiencing the benefits of working a unionized UPS job, emphasized how “Partners” reflected the harsh realities of organizing.
“You have to get to believe in yourself; that you're able to lead these people, and you're able to educate these people and show these people what you believe in,” Honeycutt said. “At the same time, it is a process to go through everything. It's not just a snap of your fingers and now you’re union. You also have to believe in the process: it is a slow burn. You have to mentally prepare yourself for that slow burn and be ready for it, and have everybody else ready for that. Because...it could take years.”
Hedrick, who worked alongside the National Nurses United’s National Organizing Committee to unionize nurses at Mission Hospital, shared that much of the hard work of organizing happens after successfully unionizing a workplace.
“Once you’ve unionized, the company is not going to say, ‘Oh, okay, we're going to give you everything you ask for,’” Hedrick said. “First of all, you have to negotiate a contract, and they're not going to agree to everything you want. When you do have your contract, you're going to actually vote to ratify your contract, and at that point [the company is] going to continuously attempt and succeed to violate it.”
Despite these struggles, all of the panelists shared the hopeful tone of the film. Hooker, who participated in the failed 2022 unionization of Moog Music, expressed that “Partners” both reminded him of what could have gone differently at his workplace and of the surprises that his organizing effort brought.
“Be ready to be surprised by your co-workers, both good and bad,” Hooker said. “You will be…There will be people that you'll kind of circle and go, ‘I know that person is going to be down,’ and they might not be. And vice versa might happen. You might take a judgment of somebody and go, ‘I don't think they're going to be really receptive to that.’ They'll end up being a very vocal member of your organizing committee. So be open, be communicative. Try to share rather than convince.”
The panel ended with a reflection prompted by an audience member’s question about how the panelists had started their journeys with the labor movement in the South, where union membership is half of the national average. While the panelists each had a unique story of how their involvement began, all agreed that labor organizing in the South was a difficult but worthwhile effort.
“I lived here my whole life,” Honeycutt said. “I knew nothing about what union was until I got a union job, and the South deserves the same sort of benefits as everybody else.”
Escalante mirrored this sentiment, sharing what seemed to be the rallying cry of all of the panelists: workers deserve better than what they are getting, and the labor rights movement of WNC is dedicated to improving their working conditions.
“I have been involved with AFB for about two and a half years now,” Escalante said. “I think I was drawn to it because I'm an industry person, [it’s] in my bones forever. I've been in the industry for over 20 years, and I just wanted to leave it better than I found it. I believe that it can be better than I found it, and I think those hospitality workers deserve that. That's what makes me put on this union shirt.”