Baristas at one of Tampa Bay’s only unionized Starbucks locations in Clearwater joined a national strike this week to secure a fair union contract.

Workers at dozens of other locations across the country, unionized with Starbucks Workers United, have gradually joined the strike that began Nov. 13, leveraging an escalation strategy used by the United Auto Workers union during their “Stand Up” strike against automakers Ford, General Motors and Stellantis in 2023.

Starbucks workers at the 433 Cleveland St. location joined the strike Thursday, which has now spread across 180 locations in 34 cities, including two unionized Starbucks locations in West Palm Beach—the first in Florida to join the strike last week—and Oviedo, near Orlando. 

Ethan Best, a 28-year-old barista of two-and-a-half years at the unionized Starbucks in Clearwater, said he and about a dozen coworkers were primarily motivated to join the strike over the union’s fight for higher wages and a guaranteed number of hours on the job. Workers at his store first voted nearly unanimously to unionize last summer.

“Starbucks likes to tell people they offer the best benefits in the industry, but you actually need to work 20 hours a week to be eligible for those benefits,” Best explained to CL. 

Yet, Best estimated that the average barista these days gets just 19 hours a week scheduled—a shortfall he believes is very telling. “I think when people hear that, they can recognize that’s not acceptable,” he said.

According to Starbucks Workers United, nearly 4,000 unionized Starbucks workers are now on strike, as part of the union’s latest expansion of the work stoppage. Workers are asking customers and their communities to boycott Starbucks for as long as they’re on strike—meaning no gift cards, no coffee and no holiday merch.

Best and his coworkers were joined on the picket line Thursday by allies with the Pinellas Democratic Socialists of America, who rallied members to join them in solidarity. They also received honks of support from drivers passing by. 

Unlike one-day strikes organized by Starbucks baristas in the past—a rarity in an industry where so few workers are actually unionized—this national strike by union members is open-ended, meaning the end date for their work stoppage is yet to be determined. 

Best said that although an open-ended strike is a “bigger sacrifice” for him and his coworkers, especially going into holiday season, he said he’s confident that this is the right move. 

“I feel like the community does support us,” he said. “And, you know, all my coworkers, all of us have accurate information. We know what the risks are by doing this.”

An organizer with the West Central Florida Labor Council set up a GoFundMe to cover lost income for the striking Clearwater workers. Proceeds from official Starbucks Workers United merch, including shirts with messages like “Be Gay and Organize” and “Trans Rights Are Labor Rights,” are also currently benefiting workers’ strike funds.

‘No Contract, No Coffee’

More than 650 Starbucks locations across the U.S.—still just a fraction of the coffee giant’s total number of U.S. stores—have voted to unionize since 2021. For baristas across the nation, many of whom were drawn to Starbucks because of its progressive branding, this fight for a first union contract has been years in the making.

“Baristas like me shouldn’t be worrying about making rent or whether we’ll qualify for healthcare coverage, especially in the holiday season,” said Zarian Antonio Pouncy, a barista of 12 years from Las Vegas, in a statement. “We need Starbucks to end the illegal union busting, and we need a fair contract with fair pay, reliable hours, and on-the-job protections. Until then, the message from baristas and our allies across the U.S. and beyond is clear: No Contract, No Coffee!”

Despite its branding as a top employer in retail and service jobs, Starbucks has been accused of hundreds of labor law violations since 2021, when baristas in Buffalo, New York, unionized the first corporate-owned location in the United States. Allegations against Starbucks—some of which have been substantiated by federal labor prosecutors—range from Starbucks illegally firing workers for their union activity to cutting the hours of and otherwise retaliating against baristas who are organizing at their store.

“We’re trying to get, what we call, ‘guaranteed hours,’ which would essentially mean, if we want to work 20 hours a week, Starbucks gives us those 20 hours a week. If we want to work 30 hours a week, Starbucks gives us those hours,” Best explained. “That’s one of the most important issues to us.”

Earlier this month, Starbucks also reached a $38 million settlement with New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, according to The City NYC, over Starbucks “arbitrarily” cutting workers’ hours, in violation of the city’s “fair workweek” law. Fair workweek laws, which guarantee predictability in workers’ schedules, were banned by Florida lawmakers through legislation approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year.

Clay Blastic, a shift supervisor at a Starbucks near Orlando who also joined the national strike yesterday, said that meeting baristas’ economic demands in a union contract—the primary sticking point in ongoing negotiations—would cost Starbucks less than just one average day of sales. Other union leaders have argued the same. 

“It’s just a question of priorities,” Blastic said. 

Starbucks, for instance, found the money to gift its new CEO Brian Niccol, the former head of Chipotle, a nearly $100 million compensation package last year. According to an annual report from the AFL-CIO, Niccol made 6,666 times the pay of the average Starbucks barista in 2024.

“They call us ‘partners,’ but I’d like to see them put their money where their mouth is when it comes to that,” Blastic said. While critics might argue that barista jobs are meant to be entry-level jobs for younger workers, Blastic argued, “All jobs deserve dignity.”

The union last year sought a $20 minimum wage in its contract with Starbucks, plus annual 5% raises and cost-of-living adjustments. Starbucks, instead, offered a contract delivering no immediate pay raises—a deal soundly rejected by union baristas earlier this year.

Best said he currently makes $15.80 an hour in Clearwater, just a little above the coffee giant’s minimum wage. According to MIT’s living wage calculator, a living wage in the Tampa Bay metro—capable of covering basic living expenses, such as housing and transportation—is $23.81 an hour if you’re a single, childless adult. You’ll need to make more to make ends meet if you have kids or are the only working adult in a household of two or more.

Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson, in response to the strike, told our sibling publication Orlando Weekly that 99%of its 17,000 U.S. locations are still open and welcoming customers, “including many the union publicly stated would strike but never closed or have since reopened.”

Anderson added that, accounting for both pay and benefits, Starbucks jobs average $30 per hour for hourly positions. “Regardless of the union’s plans, we do not anticipate any meaningful disruption,” she said. “When the union is ready to return to the bargaining table, we’re ready to talk.”

Politicians like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, and U.S. Congressman Maxwell Frost (a former Starbucks barista) have shared support for the striking Starbucks workers—with Sanders and Mamdani joining a picket line with workers in Brooklyn.

“Right now, Starbucks workers are on strike,” Congressman Frost, a Democrat from Orlando, shared in a Nov. 25 social media reel. “As a former Starbucks barista myself, I’m proud of @sbworkersunited for organizing nationwide. They need our support and solidarity.”

A map of Starbucks Workers United public picket lines can be found at NoContractNoCoffee.org.

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Tampa’s might be getting a little bit freakier thanks to driverless taxi company Waymo.

TechCrunch said the Bay area is among three new cities on its radar (Minneapolis and New Orleans are the others). The company—owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet—already has plans to expand to Orlando in early-2026, according to Orlando Weekly.

Tampa city officials told WTSP that Waymo “is coming at no cost to the city and will be funded and implemented by private enterprise,” adding that it could be a year before Tampa residents will actually be able to ride in a driver-free taxi.

Waymo vehicles, powered by artificial intelligence technology, are fully self-driving, so don’t expect to see a driver or human supervisor behind the steering wheel of one of these suckers. Waymo’s  so-called “robotaxis” are already in operation in Atlanta, Austin, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

Waymo safety concerns

Waymo has received criticism elsewhere for risks to public safety and for its potential to undermine publicly owned and operated transit systems (despite incentives Waymo has offered for people to use both).

Labor unions such as the Teamsters and Transport Workers Union, both of which represent professionals in the trucking and transportation industries, have similarly called out Waymo for threatening their members’ jobs.

“New Yorkers be warned, Waymo will turn pedestrians into cannon fodder and will block streets for emergency responders,” said Transport Workers Union president John Samuelsen in a recent statement on Waymo’s expansion to New York City. “Waymo isn’t ready for NYC’s streets and the end goal is to replace rideshare drivers, taxi drivers, and transit workers with robots.”

Waymo, just one of several companies that have rolled out autonomous vehicles, has faced protests from drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft in cities such as in Seattle, where Waymo has also looked to expand.

A Teamsters local in Boston last month joined a labor coalition in support of a city ordinance there that would regulate and study the potential impact of autonomous vehicles. “I regularly transport patients to Boston hospitals, and if robotaxis block us, freeze in place, or don’t know how to yield, they could kill people,” said Abby O’Brien, a Teamster and paramedic for a local ambulance company.

Waymo for its part has pushed back on critical assessments of its safety and its potential impact on the transportation workforce. “Transportation is a team sport, and we believe autonomous vehicles, professional drivers, and the wider ecosystem will thrive together as we increase transportation options for everyone,” Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher told Axios in a statement.  Driving and trucking is one of the most common occupations among young men without a college degree, a 2024 analysis from the Pew Research Center found.

As far as safety, Waymo has faced its fair share of concerns — even recalling some 1,200 of its vehicles last year after “minor collisions” — yet has continued to defend the safety and integrity of its software. The company recently released the results of an independent safety audit that determined Waymo’s procedures for determining the safety of their vehicles met industry standards. 

A probe by the federal government, launched last May to investigate a “series of minor collisions and unexpected behavior” from Waymo vehicles, concluded this past July with federal safety regulators reportedly opting not to take any further action.

However, as of last month, the company is once again under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over reports that its vehicles may not be complying with traffic safety rules around stopped school buses. A Waymo spokesperson told news service Reuters that they had “already developed and implemented improvements related to stopping for school buses and will land additional software updates in our next software release.”

An independent analysis of federal crash data by the Substack publication Understanding AI found that, from February to August of this year, most of the 41 crashes that reportedly involved Waymo’s robotaxis weren’t the fault of Waymo’s software itself, but rather actions by other drivers or — as The Atlantic put it — “seemingly an act of God.”

Waymo has argued that its robotaxis are actually safer than vehicles with human drivers, stating their “Driver” (unlike actual humans) is “always alert, follows speed limits, promotes seat belt use, and operates some of the safest vehicles on the road.”

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Florida Rep. Michelle Salzman, a Republican from Pensacola, has filed a bill for consideration in 2026 that would aim to help curb drug overdose deaths by decriminalizing drug-checking equipment.

Drug-checking or testing equipment, such as test strips, can be used to help detect the presence of potentially dangerous substances in a batch of drugs. Under Florida law, however, most testing equipment technically falls under the definition of “drug paraphernalia,” which is unlawful to use or possess with the intent to use. 

Salzman’s bill, filed Wednesday, would build on a law passed by Florida lawmakers in 2023 that decriminalized the use of fentanyl test strips only. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid roughly 50 times more potent than heroin, has driven a surge in drug overdose deaths in recent years, both alone and in combination with other drugs. According to the CDC, fentanyl was involved in nearly 50,000 overdose deaths nationwide in 2024, down from 76,282 deaths in 2023.

“The Legislature recognizes that drug-testing products, including test strips, reagent kits, and related products, are evidence-based harm reduction strategies that do not encourage drug use, but, instead, prevent overdose and death by allowing individuals and communities to identify the presence of dangerous controlled substances and adulterants,” Salzman’s bill reads.

While overdose deaths, including fentanyl-involved deaths, declined in Florida and nationwide last year, other risky substances such as xylazine — a non-opioid tranquilizer also known as “tranq” — have also entered the illicit drug market. As a central nervous system depressant, xylazine can exacerbate the life-threatening effects of other depressants, such as fentanyl.

A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration report notes that xylazine has been involved in a growing number of drug overdose deaths, and is most often found laced (unbeknownst to the user) into drugs sold as fentanyl, cocaine and heroin. Xylazine use has also been linked to effects such as dizziness, low heart rate and necrotic skin wounds severe enough to require amputation.

Expanding legal protections for harm reduction

Under Florida law, only drug testing equipment capable of detecting fentanyl is currently lawful to possess, distribute and use. That is, the decriminalization of fentanyl test strips by lawmakers in 2023 didn’t apply to drug-checking tools capable of detecting non-fentanyl substances like xylazine. 

Salzman’s proposal would amend Florida law to change that by clarifying that unlawful “drug paraphernalia” does not apply to “test strips, reagent kits, or any other narcotic-drug-testing products” used solely to detect whether a drug contains fentanyl, fentanyl analogues (e.g. carfentanil), xylazine, cocaine, amphetamines, cathinones, “or any other controlled substance or adulterant.”

If approved, Florida would join at least 30 states that have already legalized the possession of drug-checking equipment broadly, according to the Network for Public Health Law. An additional 11 states, including Florida, explicitly allow for the use of fentanyl drug-checking equipment only.

Under Florida law, the possession or advertisement of drug paraphernalia is a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Giving drug paraphernalia to a minor under 18 is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000 or both.

Why was this unlawful in the first place?

Almost as a default, most states passed anti-drug paraphernalia laws decades ago based on a model created by the DEA in 1979. That model included drug testing equipment in its definition of unlawful drug paraphernalia.

A growing number of states, however, have moved to amend those paraphernalia laws in recent years in response to the U.S. overdose crisis and a recognition that the use of drug-checking equipment can be a safe and cost-effective way to save lives.

What’s next

The bill from Salzman — a pro-gun Republican who has demonstrated markedly less concern for deaths by firearm or those caused by Israeli troops overseas — has been filed for consideration by the Florida Legislature during the 2026 state legislative session. Next year’s legislative session begins Jan. 13, 2026, and is scheduled to last 60 days, through March 13.

The bill will have to be approved by a majority of members in smaller legislative committees, then receive majority approval from both the Florida House and Senate. The bill would take effect July 1, 2026, if approved.

This post first appeared at our sibling publication Orlando Weekly.

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Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani last Tuesday scored an upset victory in New York City’s high-profile mayoral campaign, securing more than one million votes in an election that featured the highest voter turnout for any NYC mayoral race since 1969.

While Tampa Bay has just one democratic socialist currently in local elected office, several other electeds and mayoral candidates told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay they nonetheless found validation in Mamdani’s victory, which progressives nationwide have latched onto as an undeniable repudiation of President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old member of the Democratic Socialists of America, will become New York City’s first Muslim mayor and the first of South Asian descent. His campaign, powered by more than 100,000 volunteers and social media savvy, centered a working-class agenda with proposals such as making public buses free (in a city that relies on public transportation), establishing city-owned grocery stores, freezing rent to prevent unaffordable hikes, and creating free, universal childcare—one of the costs that eats the most of families’ budgets.

“For as long as we can remember, the working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands,” Mamdani shared in his victory speech.

“Fingers bruised from lifting boxes on the warehouse floor, palms calloused from delivery bike handlebars, knuckles scarred with kitchen burns these are not hands that have been allowed to hold power,” the mayor-elect noted. “And yet over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater. Tonight, against all odds, we have grasped it. The future is in our hands.”

Mamdani, who said he was at one point polling at just 1% with the catch-all “someone else,” handily beat former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, a former Democratic establishment darling who was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women and resigned from his gubernatorial office in disgrace in 2021.

Suffice it to say—God knows Florida’s MAGA Republicans won’t let anyone forget it—Florida is not New York. And it is certainly not New York City. Despite being ruby-red, the Sunshine State, like the Big Apple, is nonetheless home to one of the country’s largest populations of immigrants, many of whom toil in the state’s largely low-wage hospitality, service, construction, and agricultural industries. Florida, like NYC, is also a tourism hotspot, home to the so-called Happiest Place on Earth. 

It’s also home to at least one openly-socialist local elected official: St. Pete City Council member Richie Floyd.

“I think, you know, you’ll see people say, ‘Oh, it’s New York, it can’t happen here’— things like that,” Floyd told CL the day after Mamdani’s win. “But I’ve always believed that, in general, as people see that politics that actually cares about working people and doesn’t bend the knee to the billionaire class comes to power in different places, they’ll gravitate towards it. And over time, it’ll change things.”

Floyd’s place at the dais is living proof that a candidate who openly runs for local office as a democratic socialist  (albeit, for a seat that’s officially nonpartisan) is possible in a red state—if you have a solid agenda and can demonstrate that you’re not just all talk. 

Congressman Greg Casar of Austin, Texas—a former city councilman who has filed bills aiming to strengthen workers’ rights, enhance Social Security benefits, and prevent price-gouging at grocery stores—also won his seat openly campaigning as a democratic socialist. So did Kelsea Bond, a nonbinary DSA member, community organizer, and union activist who more recently won their bid for Atlanta City Council last Tuesday night, dispelling the notion that the “socialist” label will inherently crush any political campaign in the deep South.

“An agenda and a program that speaks to the needs of regular people is going to be popular,” argued Floyd, who will be up for re-election himself next fall. Floyd, like Mamdani, is a member of DSA. 

Notably, neither of them sprung out of nowhere as the odd socialist vying for a seat at the dais. Both had a history of community-based advocacy—Floyd, as a local schoolteacher, union activist, and community organizer; and Mamdani, as a former housing counselor, state assemblyman, and rapper (for what it’s worth) from Queens who earned the backing of NYC taxi drivers and nurses during his mayoral campaign by showing up for them years ago in their own fights for fairer pay and better working conditions. 

Both have embraced a populist, affordability-driven agenda. And other Central Florida candidates for local office, who don’t identify as socialists, acknowledge the appeal of that pitch. 

Alan Henderson, for instance, a 24-year-old candidate for Tampa mayor who identified himself to CL as “socially to the left, fiscally to the right,” said affordability has been a pillar of his platform since he first announced his mayoral campaign in January.

“Affordability was a top issue for me even before I learned about Mamdani’s campaign. And so, you know, [it] definitely was validating to hear that people are excited about that as a message,” Henderson told CL over the phone last Thursday. 

In recent polling of Florida voters by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Lab, the issue of housing costs topped all others as the “most important problem facing Florida today” among respondents, at 14%. Behind that was property insurance at 12%, followed by property taxes, the economy, and jobs. U.S. layoffs last month reportedly hit a two-decade high, with tech jobs, and retail and service sectors being the hardest hit.

“I think that his [Mamdani’s] core approach to just connecting with the community and not listening to the same establishment voices that have [run] politics for so long in that city is also a great thing to take into our own politics here and implement,” Henderson, a political newcomer, added. “A sort of bottom-up approach to building as opposed to top-down.”

Orlando-area state representative Anna V. Eskamani, a 35-year-old Democrat running for Orlando mayor in 2027, similarly believes that Mamdani’s passion and dedication to economic concerns of the average working person is “refreshing” for voters. 

“The issues of housing affordability, universal childcare, public transportation, are not partisan issues,” Eskamani told CL. “It’s not left versus right, it’s the bottom trying to get to the top.” 

Like New Yorkers, Eskamani said folks she’s talked to on the ground in Central Florida are looking for politicians who aren’t beholden to corporate interests.“People are looking for elected officials who are willing to challenge utility companies, challenge developers, [and] challenge the tourism industry,” she said.

“Democrats need to show that we know how to fix things,” she said, instead of just offering constant negativity. That’s why she believes it’s “exciting” to see someone like Mamdani (who took the time to listen to Trump voters) in an executive position. “It’s going to show people that, like, young leaders are not just strong speakers or charismatic leaders, right? Like, we also know how to solve problems.”

Former Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn, a 67-year-old Democrat who’s reportedly considering a bid to return to his old office, similarly acknowledged the importance of affordability as a campaign pillar when contacted by CL. Still, he also emphasized that it would be “very hard” to draw conclusions from a “uniquely NY election” and apply that to the political landscape in Tampa.

“Affordability however is affecting Americans across the board and to the extent that a Mayor can impact it in a meaningful way should be a part of any campaign,” Buckhorn told CL in a text message.

Tampa City Council member Lynn Hurtak, a former teacher and union member who’s considered something of a progressive, said she found Mamdani’s victory “validating,” as someone who also makes an effort to listen to constituents across the aisle. Although she hasn’t made up her mind yet on what’s next for her own political future, she admitted she’s been getting “a lot more calls” since Mamdani’s race was called.

“I’m championing what people are asking me to champion,” she said, noting that the No. 1 issue her constituents have asked her to focus on is affordable housing. “To see someone win on a stage where they’re just talking about what they want to do for people, and having people buy in…It’s heartening to see that other people are doing the same thing and getting the same response.”

Is socialism a campaign killer?

Republicans in Florida have routinely disparaged any Democrat or policy they don’t like by describing it as “communist” or “socialist,” almost literally banking on the fact that the use of that term alone will be considered synonymous by voters with Satan (unless you’re like, literally a Satanist and that’s your vibe). 

“They’re going to try to label you, attack you, and throw you into boxes, and all you can do is just be your authentic self,” said Eskamani, an Iranian-American progressive who’s faced death threats and was recently dubbed a “communist bitch” by a critic on Facebook.

Even so, Florida hasn’t always shied away from socialism. According to Robert Steven Griffin, author of a historical paper titled “Workers of the Sunshine State Unite!” more Floridians voted for socialist U.S. presidential candidate Eugene Debs in 1912 than for either William Taft or Theodore Roosevelt. The city of Gulfport had a socialist mayor, E. E. Wintersgill, who was elected to office in 1910 with 75% of the vote.

“Rising out of the turmoil of Florida’s manufacturing boom of the early twentieth century, the Florida Socialist Party provided an outlet for Floridians’ discontent with the growing economic disparities that characterized the state’s rapid commercialization,” Griffin wrote.

Ruskin, a suburb of Tampa, was actually inspired by and named after socialist English philosopher John Ruskin when first established by George and Adeline Miller in the “wilderness of central Florida” in 1908. Considered a social reformer and critic of Victorian capitalism, Ruskin ironically viewed America with contempt. 

“Though I have kind invitations enough to visit America,” he reportedly wrote in 1871, “I could not, even for a couple of months, live in a country so miserable as to possess no castles.” (Since he’s long gone by now, it’s unclear whether Tampa’s infamous goth nightclub, formerly a union hall, would have counted.)

Several local politicians CL spoke to, including Floyd, Eskamani, and Henderson, all agreed that labels (including ‘socialist’) don’t matter as much as what you’re fighting for. “It’s less about labels and more about values,” said Eskamani, who doesn’t identify as a socialist herself.

“I don’t think it’s a campaign killer, per se,” agreed Henderson, who also doesn’t affiliate himself with socialism. “I do think that it is a loud signal that when we’re in uncharted times and uncharted territories, unconventional solutions are definitely up for consideration… The labels end up mattering a lot less than the actual character and platform the person is running on.”

Asked before the election to wring his hands over what it means to be a democratic socialist, Mamdani told The New Yorker that a core tenet of democratic socialism is about dignity. Voters, he explained, should not be priced out of the things that they need.

Using rent-stabilization as an example, he said that “housing is a human right,” should be less of a pullquote and more of an ideal that a candidate is willing to fight for. 

“There are many people who will say housing is a human right. And yet it oftentimes seems as if it is relegated simply to the use of it as a slogan, as opposed to it being something, as a framework,” Mamdani said. “What separates [democratic socialism] from other styles of ideology or politics or theory, to me, in practice, has been a separation also of whether you are willing to reckon with the broken nature of the system we have around us and taking on the entrenched interest necessary to deliver these kinds of ideals in practice.”

A movement beyond Election Night

Nobody with a bare-bones familiarity with Mamdani’s campaign is of the belief that Mamdani’s ambitious policy agenda will come to fruition single-handedly without collaboration with other elected officials, or without challenges from those who oppose his ideas.

“It will be a rocky road going forward, because, like, the billionaire class and Donald Trump himself are going to be throwing everything they can at him to make sure he’s not successful,” said city council member Floyd.

Pundits have warned that NYC’s wealthy elite would flee to the so-called “free state of Florida” if Mamdani were elected (although there’s evidence to suggest this won’t be the case). Florida Republicans, for their part, have offered refuge. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has reportedly joked that Mamdani would become Florida’s “realtor of the year,” while Republican state Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia called Mamdani’s victory on Tuesday “a sad day for NYC.”

DeSantis on Tuesday night told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he believed NYC voters were “shooting themselves in the foot” by voting for Mamdani.

“I mean, this is a guy who has embraced Marxist economics, he claims he’s going to lower everyone’s costs by having the government run grocery stores,” the governor scoffed, “And the only people who would think that would work are people who have never studied a lick of history.”

Mamdani has been smeared by critics as idealistic, anti-Semitic due to his support for Palestinian people, as well as anti-cop.

“The $5k recruitment bonus we give to new officers will be utilized by a number of these NYPD officers,” DeSantis quipped on social media. “There is no reason to risk your life serving when the mayor hates you and believes your department shouldn’t even exist.”

Mamdani, regardless of the alienating characteristic assigned to him by his critics, has moved to embrace Big Apple residents of all backgrounds as mayor-elect, even those who voted against him. “To every New Yorker, whether you voted for me, for one of my opponents, or felt too disappointed by politics to vote at all, thank you for the opportunity to prove myself worthy of your trust,” he said in his victory speech. 

Floyd, for his part, believes this isn’t the end of conversations around socialism in politics, especially with Mamdani’s success as a candidate openly embracing it.

“Socialism is here, it’s part of American politics,” he added. “And in my opinion, it’s only going to get bigger and bigger, as long as people learn more about what we’re about and who we really stand for.”

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Millions of low-income Floridians who receive food stamp benefits through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), including veterans and the elderly, could see their benefits for November delayed if the U.S. government shutdown stretches into next month—and Florida Democrats are calling on Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to take action.

“Nearly 3 million Floridians who rely on SNAP benefits are at risk of going hungry on November 1, including 1.5 million children”, Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried said in a statement. 

“Governor DeSantis can stop this, especially as the holidays approach. For the price of shutting down Alligator Alcatraz, he can ensure that Florida families have food on the table this Thanksgiving,” she added, referring to an immigrant detention camp in the Everglades that has faced harsh rebuke and legal challenges from environmental groups and immigrant rights advocates.

Florida is one of at least 25 states across the United States that have warned of upcoming delays or missing payments to SNAP beneficiaries if Congress doesn’t agree on a federal budget, Politico reported.

“If the federal government shutdown continues into November, SNAP benefits for the month of November will not be issued until federal funding is restored,” the Florida Department of Children and Families, the state’s administration of the SNAP program, warns on its website.“You may receive notices about your eligible benefit amount, but you will not receive any benefits deposited to your EBT card during this time.”

Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani, a progressive Democrat from Orlando, said it’s “easily” within the power of DeSantis to take action. “If you are governor, you could easily call for a state of emergency on hunger, on food insecurity, and then allocate your emergency dollars like he’s been doing for immigration,” Dr. Eskamani told Orlando Weekly in a phone call. “It really just comes down to, you know, prioritization.”

Under Florida statutes, a state of emergency “must be declared by executive order or proclamation of the Governor if she or he finds an emergency has occurred or that the occurrence or the threat thereof is imminent.” 

DeSantis most recently expanded a state of emergency order pertaining to hurricane preparedness to immigration in order to build the immigrant detention camp in the Florida Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”

Eskamani said that DCF could also request emergency state funding from the Florida Legislature in order to fill the federal funding gap and, consequently, the bellies of low-income adults and families who benefit from the program.

“I would argue that with the type of money that Florida has already spent on immigration enforcement, we absolutely—if we wanted, if state government wanted to cover the gap—we absolutely could,” she said.

U.S. Congressman Maxwell Frost, D-FL, similarly penned a letter to Gov. DeSantis Thursday, as well as Florida House speaker Daniel Perez and Senate president Ben Albritton, urging them to call for a special legislative session to come up with legislation that would fund SNAP benefits for Florida families.

“I am calling on the Trump Administration to continue to provide Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits during the government shutdown. But our residents deserve a plan in the case that President Trump lacks the willingness to deliver,” Frost wrote.

“With the Republican Congress and Republican President sentencing the nearly 42 million Americans in need of SNAP to food insecurity, it is necessary that Florida’s state government does not second this indifference to the suffering and slow violence of that food insecurity,” he added.

‘A precarious position’

Florida DCF is the state administrator of SNAP, a welfare program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that is meant to help low-income families afford food. Critics of welfare have disparaged the program as a costly “handout,” while welfare advocates have, on the flipside, argued that the benefits are insufficient, since they’ve failed to keep up with rising food costs.

The federal government shutdown began Oct.1 over disagreement between Republicans and Congress on a federal budget. Democrats are demanding Republicans agree to extend enhanced tax credits that have made health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace more affordable for millions of Americans, while Republicans have denied requests to negotiate until the government reopens.

Without the extension of the ACA subsidies, monthly healthcare premiums for Americans—those who don’t receive insurance through an employer or other government program—could more than double.  Practically speaking, that could amount to hundreds, or even thousands of dollars more for health insurance per year, according to a KFF analysis.

Yet, if the government shutdown continues, the ability of more than 40 million Americans, including 2.8 million Floridians, to buy food through SNAP is also at risk. “We know supports like food stamps and housing subsidies help many low-wage working families to maintain housing stability,” said Martha Are, CEO of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, based out of Orlando.

“Families that are facing the loss of one or both of these benefits will absolutely be at greater risk of becoming homeless,” she said. 

Qualifying households for SNAP include individuals and families earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level—equal to $31,300 for an individual or $64,300 for a family of four. In Florida, most SNAP recipients are also subject to stringent work requirements, with the exception of people with disabilities, students, and parents or guardians who care for young children.

“The folks that we serve are not just sitting home doing nothing,” said Thomas Mantz, CEO of Feeding Tampa Bay, an affiliate of the national hunger relief organization Feeding America. “They are also folks that are trying to make sure that they survive economically.”

Feeding Tampa Bay helps Floridians navigate the application process for SNAP benefits, including many working people on the lower end of the wage scale in the construction, hospitality, leisure, and entertainment industries. “When you think about SNAP recipients, you’re thinking about folks that are a large part of our community who are struggling to make ends meet.”

Formerly known as food stamps, SNAP can serve as a lifeline for low-income adults and families who can’t afford to buy groceries (remember the peak cost of eggs?) otherwise. The program’s delay in distributing benefits could force families into difficult spending decisions. Do I pay my rent this next month, or do I keep my child’s belly full?

Are, with the Homeless Services Network, said SNAP beneficiaries who are already homeless “will be left in the precarious position of trying to access food pantries and soup kitchens to avoid going hungry — time they could have spent looking for work or housing.”

Will the governor act?

The office of Gov. Ron DeSantis, when asked about the possibility of a state of emergency over the issue, told Orlando Weekly that staff had forwarded our questions to DCF. Florida DCF did not respond to our request for comment on whether they planned to request emergency state funding in time  for publication.

The SNAP program works by delivering benefits electronically to recipients onto an EBT card. Florida DCF notes that there “are no anticipated impacts” to October benefits, so those should be coming as scheduled.

The department will also continue to process and accept new applications, even if the government shutdown — the second-longest in U.S. history so far — continues.

At least 750,000 of the federal government’s 2.1 million workers, meanwhile, have been furloughed without pay, as hundreds of thousands of others — save for a few Trump-favored exceptions — have been forced to continue working, also unpaid. In Central Florida, tens of thousands of federal workers are impacted.

“The Trump Administration wants every federal worker to be paid — that’s why we have repeatedly urged the Democrats to reopen the government and stop hurting the American people,” a White House spokesperson told the Washington Post, in response to criticism over Trump authorizing funding to pay some, but not all, federal employees during the shutdown.

“The Trump Administration is working day and night to mitigate the pain Democrats are causing — including by paying the troops and funding food assistance for women and children.”

Where to get help

Feeding Tampa Bay (which welcomes volunteers willing to dedicate their time to help) offers resources for people who need free food/groceries on their website and on social media.

Go to their website feedingtampabay.org, click on ‘Find Food,’ and scroll down to find free grocery distribution sites. You can put in your county of residence or your zip code to find the site closest to you or your family.

Feeding Tampa partners with 400-plus food pantries across 10 counties. Enter your city and state or zip code to find the pantry closest to you to find a hot meal and/or a box of groceries.

Today, St. Petersburg Free Clinic (SPFC) offered free, fresh groceries to Pinellas residents, who can also get free groceries on Nov. 20 and Dec. 18.

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An independent arbitrator has stopped what would have been a history-making labor strike, had it happened, by food service workers at Disney World’s Epcot in Orlando, thereby forcing workers to take a different approach to leverage their demands for a new union contract.

Restaurant workers at Epcot’s Italy Pavilion, represented by Unite Here Local 737, are employed by the Patina Group, a third-party company that leases property from Disney. The union — which represents 70 workers at Tutto Italia, Via Napoli and Tutto Gusto — has been in talks with Patina for a new union contract since earlier this year. Their last contract expired Sept. 30. 

But after talks remained unsuccessful, union leaders announced in August that workers would vote on whether to authorize union leaders to call for a strike — the first ever by food-service workers on Disney World property — if the company failed to meet their demands for higher pay and stronger benefits.

According to Jeremy Haicken, president of Unite Here Local 737, Disney didn’t like this threat.

The multinational entertainment giant, which has its own contract with labor unions, caught wind of this strike threat and asked an independent arbitrator to intervene. This neutral party then ruled, in favor of Disney, that a strike by any workers on Disney World property — even if not directly employed by Disney itself — would constitute a violation of their current contract with Local 737 and five other unions that make up the Services Trade Council Union. 

Under that five-year contract, last negotiated in 2023, the STCU “shall not sanction, aid or abet, encourage or condone a work stoppage, strike or disruptive activity at the Walt Disney World Resort.”

Matt Hollis, who serves as president of the STCU, confirmed that Disney had the right to intervene in this case, and had exercised its right under their contract with STCU to do so. “Under our collective bargaining agreement, either party can file a grievance and move the matter to arbitration,” Hollis told Orlando Weekly in a phone call. “Disney did that in this case, and the arbitrator found that Disney was correct and that the union had violated the collective bargaining agreement.”

Haicken himself confirmed this development at a press conference Tuesday. “The arbitrator ruled that Patina Group employees cannot strike,” he said. Meaning, a strike will not be happening at Disney Epcot’s Italy Pavilion.

“We encourage guests to dine at Patina restaurants and tell the company you support the workers when you eat there,” Haicken continued. “The fight,” he said, “is moving forward.”

The Walt Disney Company did not respond to a request for comment from Orlando Weekly on their decision to interfere with the Patina Group workers’ strike threat. The Patina Group argues they’ve made attempts to bargain with the union in good faith and that they maintain “strong labor relationships nationwide.”

Unionized workers at the Italy Pavilion are fighting for an $8 raise over three years, a pension plan so older employees can retire with dignity, affordable health insurance, and a 20 percent auto gratuity on customer checks. Under their last union contract, workers at the Italy Pavilion restaurants currently earn anywhere from $18.50 to $26.48 per hour. That maxes out at about $55,000 per year working full-time, depending on an employee’s job classification and seniority.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, workers in the Orlando metro area in 2025 need to be able to earn at least $33 an hour to be able to comfortably afford the average one-bedroom apartment, or $37.65 to splurge on a two-bedroom unit. 

“Living paycheck to paycheck is my reality,” said Jennifer Quiñones, who’s worked at Tutto Italia for 11 years. She moved back into her grandmother’s house, but said her cost of living has still “skyrocketed.”

“All of us experience the same thing: Our bills are too high. Patina needs to do more,” she said.

Local 737 is also involved in an organizing effort among Patina Group workers at five Disney Springs restaurants: Morimoto Asia, Maria & Enzo’s, Enzo’s Hideaway, Pizza Ponte and The Edison. The Patina Group, a subsidiary of the multibillion-dollar company Delaware North, operates more than 40 restaurants across several states.

Garrett Stephens, a server at The Edison in Disney Springs — a non-union Patina Group restaurant — said he hasn’t been to a doctor in 10 years because he can’t afford health insurance. “I need to go to a doctor, and honestly, I’m scared,” he said. “But that’s also why I feel so determined. Because me and my co-workers deserve better.”

“We’re demanding a fair process from Patina for us to organize a union,” Stephens said. He also wants Patina to be held accountable for allegations of sexual harassment made by two women at Pizza Ponte.

At least one of those women, Julie Ruiz, was fired last fall in part after she publicly spoke out against the harassment (allegedly perpetrated by a supervisor). She also has had a prominent role in organizing a union at her restaurant. The official reason Ruiz was given for her firing was for wearing an earbud as she clocked into work, but union leaders have cast doubt on that justification.

“I’m here because I’m still fighting,” Ruiz, a young Latina, said Tuesday, standing alongside fellow Patina Group workers and Local 737 union members at Local 737’s union hall. “Not just for myself,” she added. “Sexual harassment should not be tolerated. We all deserve higher standards at work.”

According to Disney’s own supplier chain code of conduct, the company believes its “suppliers (defined as “any person or entity engaged in the production or provision of materials, components, products, or services that Disney acquires, authorizes or licenses”) should be held to bare minimum labor standards, too.

Under the company’s code of conduct, suppliers “must treat each worker with dignity and respect and not use corporal punishment, threats of violence, or other forms of physical, sexual, psychological, or verbal harassment or abuse.” Special attention, it reads, “should be paid to vulnerable groups, including, but not limited to, women, younger workers, migrants, and Indigenous peoples.”

Haicken said that the union is calling on the Patina Group to adhere to Disney’s code of conduct for suppliers and has demanded that Disney investigate the Patina Group for potential violations of the code, including alleged violations of workers’ collective bargaining rights.

“This year, a National Labor Relations Board Regional Director issued a complaint against Patina that includes six allegations of illegal surveillance by management, one allegation of a coercive threat and one allegation that a general manager illegally prohibited employee speech about protected organizing activity,” Haicken said.

Union members and allies, including Ruiz, staged a flyering event to raise awareness of these allegations earlier this year during the high-profile “Ramen Rumble” event at Morimoto Asia, a Japanese restaurant on Disney Springs property operated by Patina.

“Workers and their union are calling on Patina Group to live up to Disney’s standards outlined in the Disney Supply Chain Code of Conduct, which sets high expectations for all companies that provide services authorized by Disney,” Haicken said. 

A union rep for Local 737 confirmed that, while unionized Patina Group workers at Epcot will not be striking, the union will continue bargaining with the Patina Group for a new union contract covering the Italy Pavilion employees.

A strike can provide critical leverage for organized labor during union contract negotiations, so without that, the workers will have an uphill battle ahead to get their demands met without major concessions.

“We are committed to fighting,” said Quiñones, the Tutto Italia worker. “We are never backing down.”

Update added 10/16/25: A representative of the Patina Group reached out after the initial publication of our story and shared the following statement with Orlando Weekly, in response to allegations brought forward against their company and the current state of bargaining with Local 737:

“Patina Group values its team members and the exceptional service they provide to our guests. We have been bargaining in good faith with UNITE HERE Local 737 regarding the 72 unionized employees at EPCOT. Unfortunately, the union has not reciprocated. Despite multiple sessions, UNITE HERE Local 737 has yet to offer any economic counterproposals — an approach that does not serve our team members well.

“Patina Group is in full compliance with the Disney Supply Chain Code of Conduct. We are disappointed that UNITE HERE Local 737 is attempting to discredit Patina Group through untruthful allegations. We are confident these claims will be disproved through the appropriate process at the National Labor Relations Board.

“We recognize that Disney and UNITE HERE Local 737 have a direct collective bargaining agreement that includes negotiated language regarding team members’ ability to engage in certain concerted activity, including the ability to strike. This language was recently reviewed and upheld by a neutral arbitrator.

“Patina Group and its parent company Delaware North maintain strong labor relationships nationwide and will continue to honor our agreements, support the grievance process and treat employees with dignity. We remain committed to continuing negotiations in good faith and are hopeful that an agreement can be reached.”

This post first appeared at our sister publication, Orlando Weekly.

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Tens of thousands of federal employees in Florida are either working without pay or have been furloughed as the federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1 continues, sparking affordability concerns from advocates.

According to the Florida AFL-CIO, the state’s largest federation of labor unions, there are nearly 100,000 federal employees in Florida who aren’t getting a paycheck during the shutdown, including Floridians employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, TSA officers at Florida airports, and thousands of civilian employees in the U.S. military, among other agencies. An additional 750,000 federal employees across the country, meanwhile, have been furloughed — or essentially locked out of their job.

“Once again, we are told our work is ‘essential,’ but our livelihoods are treated as expendable,” said Candise Isla, a TSA officer and member of the American Federal of Government Employees union who’s worked at Orlando International Airport for more than a decade. Isla, a member of AFGE Local 556, said she’s worked at MCO through four government shutdowns since 2013, and admits, “each one takes a heavier toll on officers like me and our families.”

“During a shutdown, TSA officers are required to keep reporting for duty. We keep checkpoints running, screen bags, and ensure flights are safe, all while paychecks are withheld,” she explained. Although federal government workers are entitled by law to backpay once a funding agreement is reached, in the meantime, those who are furloughed or are instructed to continue work as usual are left unpaid.

“The truth is, missing even a single paycheck is devastating. Many TSA officers live paycheck to paycheck,” Isla pointed out. “Rent, childcare, and grocery bills don’t pause just because Congress can’t agree. After a while, some officers will struggle to afford gas to get to the airport, while others will start relying on food banks or second jobs just to get by.”

Rachel Villand, who serves as co-chair of the Veterans and Military Family Council of the Democratic National Committee, said she’s concerned that with the U.S. House in recess until next Monday, “it is very likely that military members will not receive their mid-month pay, which is critical.”

“Friends of mine, as well as contacts I have, [say] there’s a mad scramble to figure out what to do, how they’re going to get money, and so they’re having to rely on aid organizations — which I think is a tragedy for our all volunteer forces in the greatest and most capable military in the world,” Villand shared in a virtual press conference Monday, organized by the Florida Democratic Party. “This is just a shame.”

The federal government shutdown has largely resulted from disagreement between Republicans and Democrats in U.S. Congress over funding for healthcare programs. 

This includes federal subsidies that help offset the cost of insurance premiums for a significant number of Americans — including an estimated 2 million or so Floridians — who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. 

Those enhanced health insurance tax credits, first made available through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 under the Biden administration, are set to expire by the end of 2025 unless Congress extends them. If the subsidies do expire, health policy advocates warn that insurance premiums for those who previously qualified for them could see their monthly premiums more than double — potentially costing low- and moderate-income earners hundreds or even thousands of dollars more per year.

“The fact that the Republicans are playing games with the healthcare of tens of millions of Americans shows what their priorities are,” said Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried, who joined the press call Monday. 

Although some Republicans and Democrats in Congress have pushed for a short-term deal to end the shutdown, and return to renegotiate at a later date, Fried is skeptical of the idea. “We can’t trust that come December, they’re going to come back to the table,” she said. “We’ve got to take an opportunity to renegotiate the situation.”

Most Democrats in the U.S. Senate have rejected efforts to reach a short-term deal, according to CNN, as they work to force Republicans — who currently have majority control over both the House and Senate — to agree to extend the ACA health insurance subsidies. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, meanwhile sent House members home this week, arguing Monday, “There’s nothing for us to negotiate” and “the ball is in the court of the Senate Democrats.”

Recent national polling found that 78 percent of the public say they want Congress to extend the ACA tax credits ahead of their expiration, including 59 percent of Republicans and 57 of self-identified “Make America Great Again” supporters polled. A greater share of adults polled said President Donald Trump or Republicans (39 percent and 37 percent, respectively) would deserve the blame for the failure of Congress to extend the subsidies, compared to 22 percent of adults who said Democrats deserve the blame.

U.S. Congressman Maxwell Frost, representing Orlando, told Politico his office estimates roughly 200,000 people in his district alone will pay more for health insurance coverage unless Congress intervenes to extend the subsidies. 

Meanwhile, federal workers — 80 percent of whom live and work outside of Washington, D.C. — are facing a broader threat of mass firings if the shutdown continues. While furloughing employees during a shutdown is typical, permanent firings are not. 

“We now have the White House saying they’re going to do mass firings — they’re not going to honor the law, they’re not going to honor [union] contracts,” Florida AFL-CIO political director Rich Templin told Orlando Weekly. “So this is a lot more uncertain for folks than it’s ever been,” he added, when asked to compare this shutdown to previous ones. “We’ve never had a White House just say, I’m going to break the law.”

Labor unions representing government employees, including the AFGE and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, have filed a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s threats to fire federal workers, and filed a temporary restraining order over the weekend.

“We’re facing a health care crisis with millions of Americans about to see their health insurance payments skyrocket, and instead of working across the aisle to solve it, the administration is threatening to use its orchestrated shutdown as an excuse to fire federal workers who perform critical services that Americans rely on,” said AFSCME president Lee Saunders in a statement.

“The threatened mass firings are unlawful. Public service work is vital to our communities, and we will do everything in our power to defend it.” 

According to Axios, the Social Security administration has already lost 20 percent of its staff in 2025 since the Trump administration took over. Even before that, in 2023, Social Security was already at its lowest staffing level in 25 years, according to the AFGE, despite steady increases in the number of people relying on Social Security benefits. 

Under Trump — who has explicitly admitted aims to target “Democrat agencies” — at least 150,000 federal workers have already left the federal government voluntarily, amid low morale and uncertain job security, choosing to accept an earlier buyout offer from the Trump administration. That’s in addition to job cuts advanced by the Trump administration’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” an initiative initially led by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

The New York Times estimates that one in eight federal workers — equal to approximately 300,000 employees — will have left the government by the end of December.

This post first appeared at our sibling publication, Orlando Weekly.

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Florida workers earning minimum wage should see extra money in their paychecks moving forward, as Florida’s minimum wage rises Tuesday from $13 an hour to $14 an hour.

Effective Sept. 30, Florida’s minimum wage is now $14 an hour for nontipped workers, and $10.98 for workers who receive tips. It’s now the highest state minimum wage in the geographic South and nearly double the federal minimum wage of just $7.25 an hour. This is the latest increase in a series of minimum wage hikes approved by Florida voters in 2020 through the passage of Amendment 2.

Under that constitutional amendment, approved by approximately 61 percent of voters, Florida’s minimum wage rose to $10 on Sept. 30, 2021, and has increased $1 each year after. It is set to reach $15 an hour on Sept. 30, 2026 and increase after based on inflation. 

Florida’s Amendment 2 in 2020 to raise the minimum wage, proved more popular that election than either presidential candidate who ran for office that year, garnering 700,000 more votes in Florida than Republican Donald Trump and more than 1 million votes more than Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, Florida is one of 30 states, plus D.C., that have adopted a state minimum wage above the federal minimum wage. The latter hasn’t changed since 2009. Florida was the first state in the South to get on track towards a $15 minimum wage in 2020, despite opposition from chambers of commerce and a deep-pocketed campaign organized by business groups, such as the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, to defeat Amendment 2. Opponents argued raising the minimum wage would kill jobs and hike prices for consumers.

However, the new $14 wage floor in Florida still rests below what’s considered a “living wage” in Florida —  that is, the minimum wage you need to earn working full-time to support yourself or a family — according to a calculator from MIT.

A “living wage,” according to MIT, is defined as “what one full-time worker must earn on an hourly basis to help cover the cost of their family’s minimum basic needs where they live while still being self-sufficient.” This calculation includes the cost of housing, food, healthcare, transportation and expenses like childcare for households with children.

According to a recent report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Floridians need to earn $37.27 an hour minimum to afford the average two-bedroom apartment without spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs alone. Paying more than that percentage on housing is considered a cost burden.

The Florida Policy Institute estimates that more than 1.1 million working people in Florida earn less than $15 an hour, including 113,400 workers in Orange County — representing roughly 13 percent of the county’s total workforce. “While Amendment 2 was a historic and promising step forward, this wage does not go far enough in today’s economic climate,” the progressive nonprofit research and policy organization notes.

Who is eligible to receive minimum wage in Florida?

Florida’s minimum wage requirements apply to all workers who are eligible to receive minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act. This generally applies to most employees, with certain exceptions. Those exceptions include, but are not limited to commissioned sales employees, farmworkers, certain workers with disabilities, incarcerated workers and independent contractors.

What happens if my employer pays me less than minimum wage?

Florida’s minimum wage, under Florida statutes, is singularly enforced by the state Attorney General’s Office, or any other official designated by the state legislature (there are currently no others). If you are eligible for minimum wage but believe your boss is short-changing you, you can file a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office online or by mail.

Fair warning: Public records obtained by journalists and labor advocates over the years have found there is little evidence that Florida’s Attorney General has ever taken any action to enforce Florida’s minimum wage. And under Florida Statutes, Florida’s AG is the only state official currently authorized to actually take action on this front (ICYMI: former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush abolished the state department that previously had the responsibility of enforcing Florida’s wage and hour laws).

Florida Democrat and workers rights lawyer Jose Javier Rodriguez, who’s running for the position of state Attorney General in 2026, told Orlando Weekly he’d beef up enforcement of Florida’s minimum wage if elected.

So … is there another option?

Yes. You can also contact a private employment lawyer if you believe your boss is illegally paying you less than minimum wage. They may be able to help you — although the acceptance rate for minimum wage violation cases tends to be low.

You can also file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor online or by calling 1-866-487-9243. However, because this federal department is only authorized to enforce the federal minimum wage, the U.S. DOL can only recover up to $7.25 an hour in cases of minimum wage violations.

Lastly, the following counties in Florida have actually implemented their own wage recovery programs for victims of wage theft (in the absence of a statewide wage recovery program). So, if you live in one of the following counties, their government program may be able to assist you:

• Hillsborough County
• Pinellas County
• Miami-Dade County
• Osceola County
• Alachua County
• Broward County

This post first appeared at our sibling publication, Orlando Weekly.

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The post Florida’s minimum wage rises to $14 an hour appeared first on Creative Loafing Tampa.

Florida will see its minimum wage rise to $14 per hour on Sept. 30, thanks to a ballot initiative approved by Florida voters in 2020. 

And yet, the state has no state agency or division authorized to actually enforce Florida’s wage laws — meaning, if a worker believes their boss is failing to pay them all of what they’re owed, or is stealing their tips, they have very few options for recourse. 

Since 2005, the year Florida first established its own state minimum wage in the first place, just one state official has had the authority to hold employers accountable for ensuring workers are paid at least minimum wage: Florida’s Attorney General.

Under Florida statutes, the state Attorney General has the power to impose a fine of $1,000 per violation, payable to the state, for any employer found to have willfully violated minimum wage requirements.

As Orlando Weekly has reported before, however, there is no evidence that the Attorney General’s office has ever done this in the 20 years they’ve had the authority to do so.  A report from the Economic Policy Institute found that Florida has the highest minimum wage violation rate of the 10 most populous states in the country, and research indicates that as the minimum wage goes up, so too do employer violations. 

An analysis by the Florida Policy Institute and Rutgers University’s Center for Innovation in Worker Organization found that, after Florida’s minimum wage increased in 2005, the state’s minimum wage violation rate more than doubled to 17 percent by the end of 2007, disproportionately affecting workers in agriculture, real estate and the service industry.

Establishing a strong enforcement mechanism for catching minimum wage violations, and holding violators accountable for cheating workers of their hard-earned wages, however, hasn’t been a priority of the state Attorney General’s Office. The office, currently led by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ally James Uthmeier, doesn’t even mention on its website that it is the only state agency that is able to do so.

Jose Javier Rodriguez, a workers’ rights lawyer and former Democratic state senator who’s running in 2026 to replace Uthmeier, wants to change that. 

“For decades, the Attorney General’s Office has functioned to prop up the powerful and corrupt and not to look out for the people,” Rodriguez told Orlando Weekly in an interview. “State attorneys general routinely enforce state labor laws, including state minimum wages, routinely bringing actions on behalf of defrauded workers — except in Florida,” he said.

The wild west of labor law

According to the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers and Northwestern University, U.S. workers lose tens of billions of dollars each year from being paid less than their state’s minimum wage. And Florida, a state with a workforce of more than 11 million, including roughly 1 million workers earning minimum wage, is uniquely vulnerable. 

Former Gov. Jeb Bush dismantled Florida’s state department of labor more than 20 years ago, abolishing the only state agency tasked with enforcing the state’s wage and hour laws. No replacement for the former state agency has been established in Florida since, despite repeated efforts by Democratic state lawmakers who are in the minority in the Florida Legislature.

“The minimum wage has largely been unenforced for, really, as long as Florida’s had a minimum wage,” Alexis Tsoukalas, a policy analyst for the Florida Policy Institute who’s co-authored reports on the issue, previously told Orlando Weekly. 

Indeed, the Nation reported back in 2016 that then-state AG Pam Bondi — currently serving as U.S. Attorney General under President Donald Trump — took no action to hold employers responsible for violating the minimum wage in Florida for years. Records obtained by the Weekly show her successor Ashley Moody didn’t do much to hold employers responsible for this either.

In 2023, for instance, her office helped just one person — a Hungry Howie’s pizza delivery driver — recover about $500 after the assistant attorney general from Moody’s office sent an ominous warning to his employer. Still, the office didn’t take any official enforcement action to get the spooked employer to pay up. Nor did his employer, a franchisee in Hudson, face any penalty for violating Florida’s minimum wage law in the first place.

“I recommend that you make private efforts to remedy any other employees whose wages were similarly underpaid to avoid further complaints being levied against you,” then-Assistant Attorney General Rebecca Snyder wrote in an email to the Hungry Howie’s franchisee, obtained by Orlando Weekly through a public records request.

It’s unclear whether Florida’s current AG, Uthmeier, has a firm position on the issue himself. Uthmeier,  a 37 year-old Republican who formerly served as DeSantis’ chief of staff, was appointed by DeSantis to become Attorney General in February to fill a vacancy left by Moody, who was similarly appointed to fill former Sen. Marco Rubio’s seat in the U.S. Senate. 

Orlando Weekly requested records from the state Attorney General’s Office in June, under Uthmeier’s leadership, asking for minimum wage complaints their office has received over the last year and any actions they’ve taken to address them. Despite an initial acknowledgement of our request, and multiple follow-ups, the office has failed to produce any records responsive to our request as yet.

As Rodriguez pointed out in our interview, it’s not unusual for state attorneys general and other state officials elsewhere to take on the responsibility of cracking down on wage theft. 

In Rhode Island, a state with a workforce roughly 20 times smaller than Florida’s, the Attorney General’s Office received more than 300 “actionable” cases of wage theft last year, and recovered nearly $1 million in owed wages. The small, Democratic-led northeastern state actually has its own state labor department, unlike Florida, and recently moved to make willfully committing wage theft a felony offense, up from a misdemeanor. 

Over a two-year period, Massachusetts’ Attorney General secured over $2.8 million in back pay for more than 3,000 workers in the construction industry alone, in addition to $1.7 million in penalties from employers, payable to the state.

New York State Attorney Letitia James has similarly taken an aggressive approach to the issue — for instance, reaching a $16.75 million settlement with DoorDash for wage theft earlier this year. She’s also recovered unpaid wages and tips for nail salon workers, bar employees, and Uber and Lyft drivers, among others.

The state of New Jersey — albeit, independently of its Attorney General’s office — even has a digital wall of shame (“Workplace Accountability in Labor List”) for employers who commit wage theft and other violations.

Trouble on the horizon

The idea that employers can illegally cheat workers of their lawfully earned wages in Florida without facing repercussions is a thought that is especially troubling, with Florida’s minimum wage set to go up at the end of the month. 

Under a ballot initiative approved by nearly 61 percent of Florida voters in 2020, Florida’s minimum wage is on a gradual path to reach $15 next Sept. 30. It’s currently $13 for non-tipped workers, and $9.98 for workers who earn tips. On Sept. 30, 2025, that minimum hourly rate will rise to $14 for non-tipped workers and $10.98 for tipped employees.

State Attorney General candidate Rodriguez, who most recently served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor under President Joe Biden, is keenly aware of the lack of attention in Florida to the issue of wage theft. A longtime employment lawyer, Rodriguez joined other worker advocates roughly 20 years ago as they sought transparency on minimum wage enforcement from the state Attorney General’s Office. 

“I will tell you the very first time I engaged with the Attorney General’s office back then, it probably would have been in 2006 or 2007, I distinctly remember them not knowing what I was talking about, that they denied having the authority to enforce the minimum wage,” Rodriguez recalled.

A decade later, the work continued. “The attorney general’s office is simply not enforcing the minimum wage in the way that other states do,” Rodriguez told ABC News affiliate WTXL in 2015. “We basically have it in the constitution and we have it in the books, but as far as any state enforcement … that is it.”

Floridians first voted to establish a state minimum wage, separate from the federal minimum wage, in 2004. At the time, the federal minimum wage was $5.15 an hour. 

Although federal investigators in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division are authorized to investigate complaints of wage theft in Florida (including but not limited to minimum wage violations), they are only authorized to recover wages up to the federal minimum wage — which currently sits at just $7.25 an hour.

Plus, the federal Wage and Hour Division is understaffed and overburdened. As of May, the division had fewer than half the number of investigators it had at its peak in 1978, according to a recent analysis, despite the fact that it’s today tasked with protecting the rights of three times as many workers.

In the absence of help from the state government in combating wage theft, some community organizations — including the Farmworker Association of Florida — have stepped up to help fill gaps. In addition, at least a half-dozen local municipalities in Florida, including Osceola County, have established their own local wage theft programs.

Rodriguez was part of the effort to create Florida’s first local wage recovery program in Miami-Dade County back in 2010, as part of a coalition of groups in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. In just the first year alone, the program resulted in more than 600 prosecutions and $1.7 million recovered in stolen pay, the New York Times reported at the time.

“The county didn’t have a big budget,” Rodriguez recalled. “So the design that I came up with for these groups was sort of based on almost like code enforcement, right? It’s a self-enforcement thing. You get a hearing officer, you get an order that then can be turned into a court order, but you don’t need a lawyer. What you get is you get an opportunity to come in and prove your case in front of a hearing examiner, and then you can go ahead and enforce it,” he explained.

Since employment lawyers have a low acceptance rate for wage theft cases as it is — especially instances of wage theft that only involve a few hundred or thousand dollars — the importance of having an alternative program is important.

“Our acceptance rates on the wage and hour cases are below 10 percent,” Morgan & Morgan attorney Ryan Morgan previously told Orlando Weekly, adding that this is in line with acceptance rates of other firms. 

“Even we just don’t have enough manpower and hours of the day to handle every case. And so when you’re looking at it, you do have to make difficult choices at times,” Morgan added. “And quite frankly, it sucks.” 

Vying to become Florida’s next chief legal officer

Florida’s Attorney General is an elected official who serves as the state’s chief legal officer, responsible for protecting Floridians from fraud, enforcing antitrust laws, defending the state in civil litigation cases, and going after criminal activity such as drug trafficking and identity theft.

The AG is typically elected by Florida voters every four years. Uthmeier, a Republican, was appointed by DeSantis to fill the remainder of former AG Moody’s term earlier this year following her own appointment to the U.S. Senate. His current term ends in January 2027.

Rodriguez, based in the Miami area, faces an uphill battle to defeat Uthmeier. As the incumbent — who routinely finds himself in headlines for his enforcement of the state’s harsh immigration policies — Uthmeier has name recognition. He’s a Republican, backed by his party in a state where the GOP currently has a more than 1 million edge over Democrats in voter registration.

Rodriguez, who’s running on an anti-corruption platform, was first elected to the Florida House in 2012 before running for the state Senate in 2016, where he served for four years. Rodriguez in 2020 narrowly lost his bid for re-election to the Florida Senate by just 40 votes to Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia, after corporate interests reportedly paid a “ghost” candidate with the same last name as his to run as a no-party candidate against him.

“It came out that [Florida Power & Light] was the funder of that, and the reason why they were so upset with me is because there was nobody else in state government standing up for their customers and against them than me,” said Rodriguez, who had filed legislation in 2019 that FPL opposed. “They wanted to take me out,” he continued. “And I think that, you know, if voters want any proof that they’re going to have a fighter in the Attorney General’s office, I think that’s it.”

This post first appeared at our sibling publication Orlando Weekly.

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The post If elected as attorney general, José Rodriguez vows to actually enforce Florida minimum wage law appeared first on Creative Loafing Tampa.

The rainbow-colored crosswalk outside Pulse nightclub was painted over Wednesday night, without any prior notice or warning, according to Orlando officials.

The Florida Department of Transportation—a state agency that has ordered the removal of rainbow crosswalks in other Florida cities in recent weeks—is believed to be the culprit. The agency has not confirmed that it was behind the action, as of publication.

“We are devastated to learn that overnight the state painted over the Pulse Memorial crosswalk on Orange Avenue,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said in a statement. “This callous action of hastily removing part of a memorial to what was at the time our nation’s largest mass shooting, without any supporting safety data or discussion, is a cruel, political act.”

The rainbow crosswalk, first installed in 2017, served as both a safety measure and a memorial, according to city officials. The crosswalk was painted outside the property of the former gay nightclub Pulse, the site of a mass shooting in 2016 that killed 49 people, many of whom were young, LGBTQ+ people of color.

This afternoon, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that it’s possible FDOT could also erase St. Pete’s crosswalk without city permission.

“The covert removal of the Pulse tribute art by FDOT is deeply disappointing, even if it falls within the state’s authority,” Welch said.

“Communities across Florida, including ours, should be prepared for similar actions. Despite these challenges, St. Pete remains steadfast in our commitment to expressing our values of inclusion, creativity, and resilience. Together with our community, we will continue to find meaningful ways to honor these principles—in every space and through every medium available to us.”

Florida Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a gay state legislator representing parts of Orlando, described the removal of the crosswalk Thursday as a “terrible insult” and a “hostile act.”

“The reality is that this crosswalk was painted not only to remember the 49 people who were murdered here in cold blood, but it was also intended to keep pedestrians and visitors safe who have come here year after year to pay their respects,” Smith told Orlando Weekly, standing outside the Pulse property Thursday morning.  His expression bore a combination of both anger and sadness, rivaling the fury of city commissioner Patty Sheehan, whose district includes Pulse.

“Fascism is knocking on our door,” Smith added.

Sheehan, speaking to reporters Thursday, similarly described the action as “government overreach,” cruel, and inefficient.

Smith said it’s also notable considering the fact that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently approved nearly $400,000 in requested state funds to help support the construction of a permanent memorial at Pulse. While an interim memorial has been set up outside of the property for years, a permanent memorial by the city to commemorate the 2016 massacre and honor the 49 victims killed, their families, and shooting survivors, is currently in the works.

“We are better than this. Our Governor is better than this. Our Legislature is better than this. Democrats and Republicans are better than this,” Viera, who is running for state house, wrote. “We are all better than this crass and insensitive move.”

St. Pete LGBTQ+ bar Cocktail also posted in solidarity with Orlando, saying it will have new rainbow graphics across its building-front in light of Trump and DeSantis’ anti-LGBTQ agenda.

“We will not stand by and be erased,” Cocktail’s post reads. “We are proud and will not fight quietly.

“While the state works to erase the memory of the victims of the Pulse tragedy by painting over the crosswalk, our community’s commitment to honoring the 49, and completing the memorial, will never waver,” said Dyer, who’s come under fire by some survivors and family members of the Pulse tragedy himself.

The LGBTQ+ community has faced other, more tangible attacks under the Trump administration, including efforts to restrict gender-affirming care for transgender young adults (something Floridians are already subjected to under state law) and the rescission of federal regulations prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Still, local LGBTQ+ advocates like Smith remain resolved.

“I’m feeling betrayed, but we will not be erased,” said Smith. “If the state gets their way and has the final say over this rainbow crosswalk, there will be a rainbow that shows up somewhere else, nearby that’s going to be even bigger, even gayer and even more colorful.”

State Rep. Anna Eskamani, who’s in the running for Orlando mayor following the conclusion of Dyer’s current term, similarly condemned the overnight action.

“The reality is, Governor DeSantis has no real plan to solve actual problems our community faces, like housing affordability or property insurance—so all he can do is divide us and attack vulnerable communities,” she shared in a statement. “It’s distraction, deflection, and destruction.”

By early Thursday afternoon, Eskamani shared a photo on Facebook depicting the crosswalk already crayoned in with rainbow colors. Sen. Smith similarly shared crayon-wielding volunteers in a post published to X.

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The post Orlando’s Pulse rainbow crosswalk was painted over. St. Pete mayor says his city’s Pride crosswalk mural could be next appeared first on Creative Loafing Tampa.