Courts

Guess Which Major Hot-Bean-Water Seller Brewed Up Union Troubles?

They really out here unionizing them thangs.

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Starbucks by David Lat

Starbucks (photo by David Lat).

Good news! In a series of events totally unrelated to our Court’s bad historicism, Starbucks is in the spotlight! And this time, it has nothing to do with their Pink Starburst Frappuccino. The stars are safe! Unfortunately, Bucks was caught using some illegal union-busting strategies.

In its most recent filing, the NLRB called on the court to order Starbucks to reinstate seven Buffalo workers that the agency contends were illegally fired for trying to form a union. It also wants the court to require Starbucks to negotiate with a store whose union election was harmed by what the panel says were the company’s anti-union efforts.

Starbucks used “an expansive array of illegal tactics,” including using managers to monitor workers and discourage union activity, closing stores with active organizing drives, and firing seven union activists at five different stores over the course of six weeks, the NLRB said in a news release.

“Absent immediate interim relief, Starbucks will achieve its goal, through unlawful means, or irreparably harming the campaign in Buffalo, and sending a clear chilling message to its employees across the country,” Linda Leslie, the NLRB’s regional director in Buffalo, stated.

Leslie issued a consolidated complaint in May containing over 200 allegations of unfair labor practices by Starbucks. A hearing on the complaint before an administrative law judge is set for July 11, 2022.

Damn it! And just when I was getting over the whole Starbucks potentially using slave labor chocolate thing! This week is rough enough with the whole *violent gesticulation toward the Supreme Court.* Which judge’s house do I have to peacefully protest at to get an ethical cup of joe and chocolate square over here? Do better, Mr. Schultz.

 

If you’d like a map of where Starbucks workers are unionizing, I’ve already got that queued up for you here.

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Maybe run on Dunkin in solidarity until Starbucks gets their cumulative shit together.

Starbucks Used “Array Of Illegal Tactics” Against Unionizing Workers, Labor Regulators Say [CBS News]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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