Oct. 4, 2024 2:27 PM PT

In April 2022, a Starbucks barista and union organizer was invited to meet with the company’s upper management in Long Beach. During the meeting, the employee raised several concerns, including charges of unfair labor practices the company faced.

Howard Schultz, who had just begun his third stint as the company’s chief executive, became irritated and shot back: “If you’re not happy at Starbucks, you can go work for another company.”

Now, the National Labor Relations Board has found that Schultz acted unlawfully by inviting an employee to quit after they raised issues related to unionization.

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The board’s decision, issued Oct. 2, ordered Starbucks to cease and desist from implying employees could be fired for engaging in protected activities such as union organizing. The company must also post a notice of employee rights at all of the Long Beach stores from which employees attended the meeting with Schultz.

In its decision, the board wrote that it has “long held unlawful employers’ statements that employees dissatisfied with working conditions should quit rather than try to improve them through union activity.”

Starbucks did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the NLRB’s Long Beach decision, which comes as the coffee chain has changed its stance on unionization efforts.

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Until this year, the company had ardently resisted the campaign to organize its workers, which began in 2021. Federal labor...

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