Sunday, August 07, 2022

Labor board rejects Starbucks' accusations against union workers, this week in the war on workers


Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor
Daily Kos Staff
Saturday August 06, 2022 ·


Howard Schultz
Laura Clawson
Daily Kos Labor


Amid Starbucks’ vicious union-busting campaign, which has involved the firing of at least 70 pro-union workers—more than 50 of them since April, in what’s clearly an escalating effort—the company tried to convince the National Labor Relations Board that union activists in Phoenix, Arizona, violated labor law by “threatening and coercing employees and the public.” Starbucks claimed workers surrounded a store and pounded on the windows during an action. The NLRB investigated and found that no such thing happened. (And since there were news cameras there for the protest, there’s an actual video of the peaceful picket.)

Meanwhile, Starbucks continues announcing pay raises and new benefits only to workers at stores that have not unionized—a practice that NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo told Steven Greenhouse was (in principle, without naming Starbucks) is an unfair labor practice, “unlawful, absent compelling business justification.”



Starbucks management is absolutely committed to fighting its workers, often in direct violation of the law. But so far, at least, its lawlessness and cruelty has not stopped the momentum of its workers coming together to form unions.

Workers at a veterinary hospital in Orchard Park, New York, voted to unionize.

OSHA fines Family Dollar $1.2 million for safety violations at two Ohio stores.

A PetSmart dog groomer quit her job. They billed her thousands of dollars for training, Dave Jamieson reports. Thousands of dollars in training for a job that paid $15 an hour? In California? Something is out of whack there, and the cause of that something is corporate greed and abuse of power.

Amy's Kitchen closes San Jose facility after workers seek to form a union, Prism’s Alexandra Martinez reports.





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