🚨🚨🚨 IN A HISTORIC DECISION Administrative Law Judge Michael A. Rosas of the National Labor Relations Board issued his 204 page decision, finding Starbucks violated federal labor law HUNDREDS of times in Buffalo, NY alone. washingtonpost.com/business/2023/…
The decision comes after nearly a year-long investigation, dozens of charges, hundreds of allegations, and months of trial, making this one of the biggest union-busting cases in the history of the National Labor Relations Board.
In this sweeping decision, Judge Rosas ordered several rare remedies reserved for the most extreme cases, including:
Reopening a Buffalo store Starbucks closed in retaliation for union activity;
Ordering Starbucks to bargain with the Union at its Camp Road location, even though the Union lost the election there, due to the irredeemable nature of Starbucks’ violations;
Reinstating seven workers that Starbucks illegally terminated in retaliation for their union activity: Cassie Fleischer, Angel Krempa, Kellen Higgins, Edwin Park, Daniel Rojas Jr., Brian Nuzzo, and Nathan Tarnowski;
Requiring Starbucks to post a 13-page notice of Starbucks’ violations in all of its stores in the United States for the duration of the national organizing campaign;
Requiring Starbucks to post the same notice on all platforms it communicates with its employees across the country, including text message, email, and its own intranet platforms;
Requiring Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to be present for a notice reading of the company’s violations in its Buffalo-area stores, and distributing a recording of the notice reading to all Starbucks employees in the United States;
Paying dozens of Buffalo-area workers back-pay and consequential damages for Starbucks’ retaliatory actions, including cutting their hours, withholding promotions, denying transfer requests, amongst a laundry list of other violations.
"The news of this win is single handedly the most exciting thing that's happened in this campaign thus far,” said Michael Sanabria, a barista from the Transit Commons location in Buffalo, NY.
“This decision results from months of tireless organizing by workers in cafes across the country demanding better working conditions in the face of historical, monumental, and now deemed illegal union-busting," said Michelle Eisen, a barista from the Elmwood location in Buffalo.
This decision comes the same week that Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is holding a vote to subpoena Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) to testify on the Coffee Giant’s union-busting campaign.
Notably, Judge Rosas’s Decision holds that Schultz himself violated federal labor law when he came to Buffalo in November 2021 to thwart early organizing efforts.
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We can't thank these courageous Support Partners from Starbucks HQ enough for speaking out, calling on executives to reverse the Return to Office mandate and to respect the right to organize and sign the Fair Election Principles. #tobeapartner 🧵
"We are all one Starbucks; we are all partners. We believe in Starbucks, we believe in its core values, and we call for a return to those values. When all partners are included, as trusted partners with a voice, we know that Starbucks can truly be a different kind of company."
🚨 🚨 🚨UNION WINS THREAD ALERT: Less than a year ago, there were ZERO unionized Starbucks stores in the US. Today, there are 258! Let’s take a look at some of the incredible things workers have fought for and WON over the past year…
One of our first public demands was fighting for seniority pay for baristas. How did Starbucks respond? By implementing the first seniority pay in the company’s 50 year history.
Union workers raised the issue of inadequate and failing equipment. What were we able to pressure the company into doing? Store renovations ACROSS the country, including new ovens.
Today's partner spotlight features James Schenk, a fired worker who successfully organized the first store in the Capital District of NY, the Latham Plaza store, and has gone on to help 9 out of 9 stores win their union in his region! #undefeated 🧵
James says, "Starbucks tells us when we get hired that we are there to create a third place, a welcoming and inclusive environment. How much better can the customer experience get than a Starbucks full of baristas that are excited to come into work and serve our customers?!"
James can often be found sipping on a grande brown sugar shaken espresso, extra shot, two pumps of white mocha (or toasted white mocha or pumpkin!) and reading the Lord of the Rings! He is a self-described "homebody" who has spent 4 years waiting impatiently for GoW: Ragnarok!
In five years with the company, Alyssa’s won “partner of the quarter” three times. Her community board artwork is regularly praised by corporate; some is still up in the store today!
She’s a model employee, but Starbucks is blinded by its anti-union hatred.
A month ago today, Alyssa led a walkout after the store experienced hour cuts, and their manager forced partners to work while sick. Walking out is unambiguously protected concerted activity.
BARGAINING THREAD 🚨 🧵: Over 250 Starbucks stores have won their union election, and only 3 have had their first bargaining sessions. Why? Starbucks delay tactics. This thread will explain where we’re at and how we got here.
Starbucks workers have been filing for union elections – and winning – since Dec, 2021. After workers win a union election, companies are legally required to come to the bargaining table and negotiate a contract with workers.
Yet, Starbucks is doing everything in its power to delay the bargaining process. The company is spreading misinformation about the bargaining process while attempting to confuse & frustrate. So here are the facts:
Starbucks workers are organizing across the country and we have no intention of slowing down. Now that we’ve reached 100 union Starbucks stores nation-wide, we thought we’d do a thread explaining how this happened, the union-busting we’ve faced, and what comes next. 🧵
In Aug of 2021, 50 baristas across Buffalo, NY decided we wanted to unionize for a voice on the job & better working conditions. After working through a pandemic, seeing our wages stagnate while corporate profits soared, and feeling overworked & undervalued, we began organizing.
We wrote a letter to former @Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson announcing our intention to organize & asking Johnson to sign the Fair Election Principles, which asks the company to respect things like equal time for meetings and for the company to refrain from bribes, threats, etc.