Starbucks asks labour board to halt union votes temporarily

Starbucks asked the National Labour Relations Board Monday to suspend all U.S. union elections. The request was based on allegations by a board employee that regional NLRB officers had improperly coordinated with union organizers.

Starbucks sent a letter to its board chairman and other officials. said The activity was reported by the company by an unnamed career NLRB employee. It took place in St. Louis in spring, while the board was overseeing a union election at a Starbucks in Overland Park.

This store is one 314 Starbucks U.S. locations where workers have petitioned NLRB for union elections since last year. Over 220 stores have voted for unionization. The company is against the unionization effort.

According to Seattle’s coffee giant, St. Louis labour board officials made arrangements for union workers to vote in person at their office. This was despite the fact that Starbucks and the union had previously agreed that store elections would be conducted by mail-in ballot.

Starbucks refers to memos that the regional offices sent to workers confirming that they were allowed to vote in person. This was after the union informed Starbucks that it had not received the ballots by mail. Referring to “board protocol”, the memos said According to Starbucks, workers voted by themselves in an empty office.

Starbucks’ letter stated that “Because observers weren’t present, no one can verify who appeared to vote”, whether NLRB personnel made inappropriate communications with voters, instructed them on how to vote, or engaged in any other undisclosed conduct.

Starbucks said Officials from regional boards also provided confidential information to the union. This included the details of which workers’ ballots were in the mail and how they would be counted.

Starbucks Workers United, a group trying to unionize U.S. Starbucks, said that the company tried to “distract our attention from their unprecedented anti union campaign, including firing over 75 union officials across the country while simultaneously trying halt all union election.”

The group stated that “this is Starbucks’ latest attempt at manipulating the legal system for their own purposes and to prevent workers exercising their fundamental rights to organize.” said In a statement

The spokesperson for the NLRB said Monday, the agency won’t comment on any open cases.

Kayla Blado is the Press secretary said Any challenges Starbucks raises through established channels will be “carefully and objectively” considered by the NLRB. Blado can also expedite the review of the case. said.

Workers at the Overland Park location petitioned the NLRB in February to hold a vote. The workers voted 6-1 in favor of unionization in April. But seven additional ballots were challenged and withdrawn by Starbucks or the union.

Tuesday was the date for the hearing. Starbucks requested that the hearing be delayed. However, as of Monday afternoon, it was not.

Risa L. Lieberwitz is a Cornell University professor of labour law and the academic director of Cornell University’s Worker Institute. said It was interesting to see Starbucks push for delay in the hearing. Lieberwitz said The hearing is the perfect place for Starbucks to give evidence on the Overland Park election, and to ask the board to investigate.

Lieberwitz stated, “This seems to be a tactic in order to shift attention away Starbucks’ own conduct to try to put negative connotations and allegations against the board.” said.

Starbucks’ letter contains the following: said This case also shows evidence of misconduct in other locations. The company asks the NLRB for an investigation into other Starbucks union elections and to publish its findings. The company said The board should also establish safeguards to stop regional officials from coordinating with one party.

Starbucks requested the NLRB to issue a directive requiring all elections to take place in person, with observers from both sides.

Starbucks has been opposed to unionization since the time Howard Schultz, the CEO of the company, bought it in the late 1980s. Both sides have been accused and sued in the current unionization efforts.

According to the labour board, Starbucks Workers United filed 284 charges of unfair labour practice with the NLRB against Starbucks and one of its employees. Workers United was the subject of two charges by Starbucks.

Starbucks was cleared by the labour board earlier this month of one of its charges. They claimed that the company did not prove that union workers had blocked store entrances or intimidated customers at a spring rally.

The NLRB requested that a western New York federal court order Starbucks to cease interfering in unionization efforts at its U.S. locations.

Starbucks’ actions by the NLRB have not been without failure. A federal judge in Phoenix ruled that Starbucks did not have to rehire three workers who claimed that they were being retaliated against for organizing a union.

Under President Joe Biden’s leadership, unionization efforts at Starbucks and Amazon are gaining momentum.

Bill Gould is a former chairman of the NLRB and teaches at Stanford Law School. said Biden’s decisions to the NLRB were not much different from those made under Republican presidents.

Gould said, “Starbucks does not like the message that workers give them, pretty uniformly across the country.” said. “So they’re trying eliminate the messenger.”

Starbucks isn’t the only company that is facing a unionization campaign that attacks the voting process.

Amazon also made allegations of inappropriate conduct against Brooklyn’s regional office of the NLRB in an attempt to re-do a historic labor win at a Warehouse on Staten Island. Amazon is also accused of improper conduct. said The agency sought to reinstate a fired Amazon worker during the weeks leading up the March election. This was a tampering of the voting process.

The agency’s attorneys have responded. In the next few weeks, a regional director at Phoenix’s NLRB office is expected to make a decision on this case.

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This report was contributed by Haleluya Hadero, Associated Press Business Writer in New York.