Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
The nation’s most ubiquitous provider of coffee had a busy Friday. In just one business day, Starbucks was hit with a mass of accusations regarding its labor practices, then made headlines again when it expressed concern that the Biden Administration was showing lopsided favoritism to union activists.
The two events were part of a singular issue: the fight over the unionization of Starbucks workers has grown ugly.
As first reported by CNBC, the National Labor Relations Board’s Buffalo, New York, office filed a complaint in which it accused Starbucks of 29 occurrences of unfair labor practice, as well as more than 200 violations of the National Labor Relations Act.
“The complaint, issued by the NLRB Regional Director in Buffalo, involves important issues,” Starbucks told CNBC through a spokesman. “However, Starbucks does not agree that the claims have merit, and the complaint’s issuance does not constitute a finding by the NLRB. It is the beginning of a litigation process that permits both sides to be heard and to present evidence. We believe the allegations contained in the complaint are false, and we look forward to presenting our evidence when the allegations are adjudicated.”
Much of the complaint stems from what the NLRB called “unprecedented and repeated” efforts by Starbucks brass to prevent workers in Buffalo from unionizing. This included, the report alleges, offers of increased benefits in exchange for voting against unionization, anti-union meetings, and acts of threat and coercion that included closing stores, reducing compensation, and selectively enforcing policies against or firing union workers.
At present, about 50 Starbucks locations have voted to unionize, with hundreds more slated to vote on the matter in the coming weeks and months.
Thursday, President Joe Biden hosted a member of Starbucks Workers United, the group under which the coffee chain’s pro-union employees have organized, as part of the meeting of a task force Biden hopes will facilitate more worker organization efforts.
“President Biden stopped by the discussion and thanked the worker organizers for their leadership in organizing unions, the inspiration they offer to workers across the country who may want to organize, and their contributions to the worker organizing momentum that is growing across the country,” White House statement reads.
Friday, Reuters reported that during this meeting Biden said, “When I ran for president, I made a commitment that I would be the most pro-labor union president in the history of America.”
That effort has yielded much criticism against Biden and the Left, who have been accused of treating the word of union workers as monolithic and reflective of the opinions of all workers.
Thursday, as reported on FISM News, Sen. Lindsey Graham complained that a hearing called by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to address the business practices of Amazon, another major company fighting a union battle, was a subversion of labor laws and procedures.
Starbucks joined the chorus Friday when, as reported by industry outlet Restaurant Business, it sent a letter asking for an equal share of the president’s time.
“We are deeply concerned that Workers United, which is actively engaged in collective bargaining with us and trying to organize our stores and our 240,00 [employees], was invited to the meeting while not inviting official Starbucks representatives to discuss the matter,” the letter reads. “We believe this lack of representation discounts the reality that the majority of our partners oppose being members of a union and the unionization tactics being deployed by Workers United.”
In its letter, Starbucks offered to bring a “diverse, representative group of Starbucks partners from across the country” to the White House.
The effort did not win the company any sympathy from Sanders, who tweeted, “If [Starbucks CEO] Howard Schultz wants a photo-op with the President so badly, maybe, just maybe, he ought to obey the law, end the union busting at Starbucks, stop firing workers for being pro-union and negotiate a first contract with union workers that is fair and that is just.”