Judge says Starbucks violated labor laws during union fight
Starbucks committed “hundreds of unfair labor practices” during unionization efforts at stores in the Buffalo, New York, area, a National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled.
In his more than 200-page order detailing Starbucks’ violations of labor laws, NLRB Administrative Law Judge Michael Rosas cited the company’s “egregious and widespread misconduct demonstrating a general disregard for the employees’ fundamental rights.”
The ruling late Wednesday consolidated 35 unfair labor practice complaints at 21 stores – 20 in or around Buffalo and one in Rochester – filed by Starbucks Workers United, the labor union organizing Starbucks’ stores, from 2021 to 2022.
Rosas determined Starbucks illegally disciplined and fired employees “in response to union activity.” He also found the company threatened workers, spied on them and enforced dress codes and other polices “more stringently against union supporters.”
The judge ordered Starbucks to reinstate seven workers who were fired for union activity and “make them whole for any loss of earnings and other benefits.”
Rosas also ordered Starbucks to provide financial restitution for 27 additional employees, reopen a store that was closed amid union activity, and bargain with the union at multiple other locations.
In addition, the order requires Starbucks to post a 13-page notice listing its labor violations in all U.S. stores and electronically distribute the notice to all U.S. employees. Starbucks’ interim CEO, Howard Schultz, and senior vice president of operations, Denise Nelson, must read or be present at a reading of the notice and an explanation of employee rights – and distribute a recording to all U.S. Starbucks employees.
The parties in the case have until March 28 to file an appeal to the labor relations board.
In a statement sent to USA TODAY on Thursday, a Starbucks spokesman said the company believes the judge’s order is “inappropriate given the record in this matter” – adding that Starbucks is considering “all options to obtain further legal review.”
The company also said the employees in the case were fired for violations of the company’s policies and not because of union activities.
Starbucks Workers United celebrated Rosas’ decision. Union organizers noted that the order will strengthen their campaign as workers seek improved working conditions, better pay, more consistent schedules and more.
“This is truly a historic ruling,” Gary Bonadonna Jr., manager of the Rochester Regional Joint Board of Workers United, SEIU, said in release sent to USA TODAY. “We will not rest until every Starbucks worker wins the right to organize.”
In late 2021, Eisen’s store voted to unionize – the first Starbucks to take that step in decades. At least 289 of Starbucks’ 9,000 U.S. stores have voted to unionize since then.