The Congressional Labor Caucus has called on the Senate to pass a sweeping bill that would strengthen U.S. labor laws in response to Starbucks’s increasingly brazen union-busting tactics over the past weeks.
The House representatives are demanding the passage ofProtecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), a bill championed byThe labor movement that would make it easier to organize and form unions.
“We have had it with corporate spokespeople and lobbyists saying they’re pro-worker when asking for meetings on Capitol Hill, while at the same time using every trick in the book to stop unionizing efforts cold in their tracks,” the caucus said in a statement. “Workers have the right to organize – it’s time they had a level playing field to do so.”
The legislation was approved by the House Last MarchIt could, but it is unlikely to become law due to the opposition of the GOP and several Democratic senators, including Sen. Kyrsten Silena (D-Arizona), who are all opposed to it.
Lawmakers in favor of the PRO Act have lamented the weak state of the country’s labor laws.
“There hasn’t been any real meaningful change in labor law in over half a century,” Labor Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Donald Norcross (D-New Jersey) told Truthout. It comes to union-busting moves, like Starbucks’s mass firing of what the union says was the entire organizing team at a Memphis store, “there is no real recourse in terms of punitive damages,” he went on.
Starbucks Workers United has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over the terminations, calling the firings the company’s “most blatant act of union-busting yet.” Norcross called the company’s move an “amateur error,” especially considering that the company has been working with at least 30 lawyers from one of the country’s most notorious union-busting law firms.
“It’s ridiculous. You know, you’re paying eight bucks for a cup of coffee. The CEO made $20 million last year [the company] won’t even talk to them about organizing to give their employees a voice,” Norcross said. “Stupid is probably the nicest thing I can say about Starbucks right now.”
But even if the NLRB finds that Starbucks violated federal labor laws mandating that companies can’t retaliate against workers for organizing, the punishment for the $100 billion companyIt would be nothing more than a slap on your wrist. The only liability for StarbucksThe only thing they would have do is to pay the fired workers back their wages, which is not more than the cost of operations.
The PRO Act would be put into effect For more severe offenses, see our GuidelinesCompanies that violate labor laws will be subject to additional restrictions. Many of its provisions would directly make Starbucks workers’ union campaign easier – among other things, the bill would outlaw captive anti-union meetings, which Starbucks has been conducting in stores across the country.
Despite the current state of labor laws, however, the company’s attempts to break up organizing efforts may still backfire. The firing is “more empowering than anything for those workers,” Norcross said.
Indeed, workers are still working the day after the terminations. in Oklahoma CityIn their union campaign announcement letter, they stated to CEO Kevin Johnson that firings only fuelled the flames of their movement.
“This termination was blatant retaliation, and while it was meant to discourage the formation of the committee we are announcing today, it has only emboldened us and highlighted the need for this union even more,” the workers wrote. Since the termination, several stores have filed to unionize, bringing the total to ten. to about 80 locations.
The more attention that the union campaign receives, the more support it seems like getting. Four New York City stores will host a union meeting on Thursday. filed to unionize – and with their campaign announcements, 76 New York lawmakersMembers of Congress, including Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez(D), signed a request to Johnson for Johnson to follow the non-interference principles outlined by the union.
