Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Federal judge rules Starbucks committed "egregious" violations battling the union drive in New York, orders extensive remedies

WaPo:

[The judge]’s order requires Starbucks to halt a sweeping list of behaviors that include: retaliating against employees for unionizing; promising improved pay and benefits if workers renounced the union; surveilling union-supporting employees while on-site; refusing to hire prospective employees who back the union; and relocating union organizers to new stores to halt the group’s activity, overstaffing stores ahead of union votes.

Starbucks, the judge said, must reopen stores it closed as union momentum swelled among workers, rescind dozens of disciplinary actions taken against Buffalo-area employees, pay “reasonable consequential damages” and offer to reinstate terminated workers to their jobs.

[The judge]’s order also calls for [Howard] Schultz and ... the company’s senior vice president of U.S. operations, to read a 14-page notice that explains workers’ rights and how the company violated the law.