Starbucks Charged with Threatening to Withhold Benefits if Workers Unionize

​The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently concluded that Starbucks unlawfully threatened to withhold benefits if employees in Wisconsin voted to join a union.

On Oct. 17, an NLRB administrative law judge ruled that the Seattle-based coffee chain violated federal law by:

• Telling employees at a West Allis, Wis., store that they would lose planned benefit increases, including an abortion travel reimbursement, if they voted to unionize.
• Threatening that unionization could bring negative changes to the West Allis store.
• Soliciting employees' grievances and promising to remedy them if employees refrained from union activity.
  
• Telling employees that they were aggressive after they challenged a supervisor's claim about the effects of unionization on planned benefit increases.
• Telling employees that their union activity caused a negative environment at the West Allis store.
  

The violations occurred in 2022 after managers learned that employees had initiated an organizing campaign with a union called the Chicago & Midwest Regional Joint Board of Workers United/Service Employees International Union.

Starbucks emphasized that it did not take away benefits from any employees and that it trains managers that workers should not be disciplined or threatened for engaging in lawful union activity.

We've gathered articles on the news from SHRM Online and other trusted sources.

Loss of Promised Benefits

Starbucks managers threatened workers with the loss of abortion travel benefits in July 2022 meetings held at the Wisconsin store to discuss a union petition that they had filed a month earlier, the NLRB concluded. The Wisconsin workers ultimately didn't vote on union representation. They withdrew their NLRB petition about two months after filing it.

Starbucks announced its abortion travel benefit in May 2022, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

The latest ruling is the 31st time an NLRB administrative law judge has held that Starbucks violated federal labor law in its efforts to repel unionization drives.

(Bloomberg Law)

Litany of Charges

Starbucks has been hit with a litany of labor-related complaints as its workers across the country have unionized. The Starbucks Workers Union now represents more than 360 stores, per the union's website.

A Starbucks spokesperson said the company is reviewing the latest NLRB decision and evaluating potential next steps. "To ensure compliance with company policies and the complex patchwork of U.S. labor and employment law, Starbucks launched a comprehensive management training program and established a dedicated labor relations team last fall," the spokesperson said.

(HR Dive)

Keeping Wage and Benefit Increases from Unionized Workers

Starbucks violated federal labor law when it increased wages and offered new benefits only for nonunion employees last year, the NLRB concluded in a separate decision on Sept. 28.

When announcing the new wage hike, Howard Schultz, then interim CEO of the company, said that '"we do not have the same freedom to make these improvements at locations that have a union or where union organizing is underway," because federal law "prohibits us from promising new wages and benefits at stores involved in union organizing."

(CNN)

Union Effort in Memphis

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Aug. 8 denied Starbucks' challenge to a lower court ruling requiring it to reinstate seven fired workers, called the Memphis Seven. The circuit court noted the coffee retailer's firing of the seven workers in Memphis, Tenn., was an act of retaliation for their unionizing efforts.

Likewise, earlier this year, the NLRB ordered the company to reinstate seven workers at its Buffalo, N.Y., location, who were fired for their union activity.

In April 2022, the NLRB asked a court to compel Starbucks to reinstate three workers who had been fired for union activity in Phoenix. However, a federal judge denied the NLRB's request.

(SHRM Online)

Closing Stores in New York

The NLRB on July 6 ordered Starbucks to reopen one of the three stores it closed in Ithaca, N.Y., and reinstate employees with back pay. It found the coffee retail chain engaged in unfair labor practices by closing unionized stores.

An administrative law judge found the company violated federal labor law on numerous occasions, most of which were related to the treatment of employees at the company's three unionized store locations in Ithaca.

(SHRM Online)