Starbucks Taking Unionbusting to New Heights
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Starbucks is trying the tactic of closing unionized stores:
Starbucks has informed workers at two locations that their stores will be closing, a move that the coffee chain’s union says is retaliation for organizing efforts.
The company said the union activity isn’t the reason for the closures. It said a Kansas City, Missouri, location, where vote results are pending, is closing due to safety issues. It said a Seattle location, where workers voted to organize in April, will close and reopen, operated as a licensed location by a neighboring grocery store. Starbucks will engage in bargaining with the union to seek an agreement that gives workers there the opportunity to transfer to other stores.
Ah, the ol’ franchising trick.
About 200 of Starbucks’ roughly 9,000 locations in the U.S. have voted to unionize.
Under interim CEO Howard Schultz, Starbucks has been focusing on the company’s reinvention and emphasizing priorities including store safety and advancement opportunities for workers. As part of the push, Starbucks closed more than a dozen stores over safety concerns, most of them on the West Coast. A letter sent to employees last month cited personal safety and mental health issues and drug use at some of the locations.
What’s happening here is that workers are complaining about safety, using the company’;s indifference to unionize, and then the company claims safety is the reason it is closing the stores.
Meanwhile, the NLRB is starting to act against Starbucks:
The National Labor Relations Board says Starbucks is violating U.S. labor law by withholding pay hikes and other benefits from stores that have voted to unionize.
The labor board’s Seattle office filed the complaint late Wednesday against Starbucks. The complaint is based on charges filed by Workers United, the union trying to organize Starbucks’ 9,000 company-owned U.S. stores.
The complaint adds to an already lengthy paper trail in the acrimonious relationship between Starbucks — which opposes unionization — and Workers United. More than 220 U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since late last year.
The complain is one of at least 20 that NLRB regional offices have filed against Starbucks alleging unfair labor practices. Starbucks has also filed complaints against the board and the union. Last week, the company asked the NLRB to halt union elections entirely, saying it has evidence that a regional office improperly coordinated with union officials. A decision in that case is pending.
In the case filed Wednesday, the NLRB said Starbucks violated labor law by offering raises and benefits — including increased training, career development opportunities, expanded tipping and even looser dress code policies — only to non-union stores.
Starbucks is clearly going all-in with the far right on the NLRB, basically looking to eviscerate it if it does anything to even the playing field between workers and companies. The company is proving more classic evil every day.