In a rare decision, a labor official has filed an order to force Starbucks to recognize a union in the first store to lose its union election, potentially undoing one of the company’s only wins in the roughly nine months of its workers’ union campaign.
Linda Leslie (Buffalo-based regional director for the National Labor Relations Board, NLRB), argued that a union at the Camp Road location in Buffalo should be recognized and that the company should begin the bargaining process with the store’s workers, just as it has in unionized locations. Leslie is seeking a bargaining agreement. uncommonMove that the board uses only the most serious cases of union busting.
A bargaining order is one the most powerful moves the NLRB has against an anti-union firm. It stands out from the other weak remedies the board can pursue. The fact that the NLRB is seeking such a rare order is a show of the ferocity and recklessness with which Starbucks has been responding to the workers’ union campaign.
The filing states that “serious and substantial” misconduct “is such that there is only a slight possibility of traditional remedies erasing [the violations’]Effects and conducting a fair electoral election. Therefore, on balance, the employees’ sentiments regarding representation, having been expressed through authorization cards, would be protected better by issuance of a bargaining order for the Camp Road store.”
Workers believed that the order could provide them with the union they desired. “When we filed for an election last fall, we had 85 percent support in our store,” said Williams Westlake, a Camp Road barista, in a statement. “Starbucks, in their pursuit of making sure not a single one of their 9000 locations would exercise its right to unionize, destroyed the democratic process.”
It would be a huge win to the union if a judge approves the order in a hearing on July 11. In which the labor official lists more than 200 violations of labor laws, it will be a big win for them. Camp Road was One of the three first storesto have its December election ballots tallied. The store continued to be closed for several months after it lost its union election. The onlyStarbucks Workers United lost; even now, over 80 unionized storesAnd over 250Union filings, only roughly 10 other storesI voted against unionizing
According to the order, the company has retaliated against organizers and workers of unions by closing down stores, cutting hours and firing workers. The company denies all of the allegationsIn the filing
Pro-union workers celebrated the filing, saying that they hope it will provide much-needed relief after the company’s harsh union busting.
“The NLRB choosing to pursue a bargaining order at Camp Road is nothing short of exceptional. The partners at this location have been subjected to some of the most aggressive union-busting seen in recent years,” said Gianna Reeve, a shift supervisor in the Camp Road store. “This is the first step for partners at my store to finally receive justice for what they have gone through.”
