For the first time in Starbucks workers’ union campaign, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has found that the company has taken illegal moves in its fight against the union, including retaliation against workers for organizing in Phoenix, Arizona.
In response to a petition filed by Starbucks Workers United in January, the NLRB found that the company fired one worker, Alyssa Sanchez, while suspending another Laila Dalton, for their union organizing activity.
The company suspended Dalton and fired Sanchez “to discourage employees from engaging in these or other concerted activities,” NLRB regional director Cornele A. Overstreet wrote, adding that the company’s actions against Dalton shows it “has been interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed” by federal labor laws.
Managers illegally surveilled workers and suspended Dalton for previously unenforced rules, the complaint said. If a judge is able to confirm the labor board’s allegations, then Starbucks will have to hold meetings and post notices informing employees of their legal right to form a union at the Phoenix location. It will also have to reimburse Sanchez for lost wages.
“Today is the first step in holding Starbucks accountable for its unacceptable behavior during the unionizing efforts in our store and stores around the country,” said Bill Whitmire, a barista at Dalton and Sanchez’s location. “Laila and Alyssa were traumatized and their hope is that no other Partner EVER has to go through what they have gone through.”
In spite of the complaint, a leaked video uncovered by More Perfect Union found that Starbucks is still disciplining Dalton, who says that managers are “out to get [her]” because of her role as an organizer.
The complaint came just one day before a huge shake up at the company. CEO Kevin Johnson announced on Wednesday that he’s stepping down and that former CEO Howard Schultz would step in in the interim. In a statement, Johnson said that he had been planning to retire when the pandemic ended.
In an interview on CNBC on Wednesday, Starbucks board chair Mellody Hobson said that Schultz has a “connection with our people” and that he is “singularly capable” of engaging with workers. However, as More Perfect Union has noted, Schultz is vehemently anti-union and wrote in a memoir in the 90s that employees don’t need a union if they have “faith in me and my motives.”
Schultz also traveled to Buffalo, New York, earlier in the workers’ union campaign in order to discourage employees from unionizing. In the speech, thbizarrely compared the company to Holocaust survivors, painting the company as unselfish despite that the workers were unionizing for better working conditions and liveable wages.
“Today, we learned that Kevin Johnson will be stepping down as Starbucks CEO & Howard Schultz will return as interim CEO,” Starbucks Workers United wrote on Twitter. “We encourage Howard Schultz, who has been a leader of Starbucks’ anti-union campaign, to put union-busting behind him and embrace Starbucks’ unionized future.”
Major investors have been urging Hobson and Johnson to take a neutral stance toward the union and have expressed frustration that Starbucks has been allegedly retaliating against workers. Union busting has been a bad look for the company; over the last six months or so, the company’s stock has trended down despite record high revenues.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.