Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), the union leading the massively successful nationwide drive to unionize Starbucks locations, says the company is stonewalling its attempts to bargain contacts in stores that have voted to unionize.
Of the 220 Starbucks stores where workers have chosen SBWU to represent them, only three have had even initial bargaining sessions, the union says.
After workers vote to be represented by a union, the newly recognized union must then negotiate a contract with the employer before workers can get most of the benefits of union membership. Many employers, faced with a new union, will try to draw out first-contract negotiations, hoping that workers will become disillusioned and quit, allowing the employer to replace them with new, anti-union people.
That's exactly the tactic Starbucks is using, SBWU says, in addition to closing unionized stores and firing union activists.
Such tactics, while common, are a violation of federal law. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, known as the Wagner Act, requires — among other things — that both parties in labor negotiations bargain "in good faith." Good-faith bargaining means that both parties make sincere efforts to reach an agreement, and not draw out negotiations in hopes that the other side will give up in frustration.
Starbucks corporate headquarters has not commented on the union's charges but did issue statements accusing the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) — the federal agency charged with overseeing union elections — of rigging elections in the workers' favor.
Starbucks has made this claim several times, including an accusation that the election at the company's flagship Seattle Roastery was improperly conducted by the NLRB. But in its latest statements, Starbucks claims it has evidence from an NLRB employee that the NLRB actively interfered in a union election in Kansas City in an effort to get SBWU to win.
According to a letter from Starbucks sent to the NLRB chair and general counsel, NLRB personnel allegedly "engaged in highly improper, systematic misconduct," including:
The remedy recommended by Starbucks is to suspend all votes on unionization everywhere in the country, pending an investigation.
The union charges that this is just one more tactic to stall its union drive and prevent Starbucks workers from exercising their right to form a union.
The NLRB said it would not comment on "open cases" and would address Starbucks' charges through "established channels."
To date the NLRB is processing 286 unfair labor practices complaints related to Starbucks across 28 states — 284 against Starbucks and 2 against Workers United, which represents the individual store unions.
Nine complaints were filed in Kansas City, where the company claims officials acted improperly. Two were in Seattle.