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The National Labor Relations Board affirmed that Schultz telling a union supporting employee to ‘go work for another company’ is an implicit threat

A National Labor Relations Board panel affirmed on Wednesday a previous ruling that former CEO Howard Schultz had violated labor laws by telling a union-supporting employee, “if you’re not happy at Starbucks, you can go work for another company,” stating that it was an “implicit threat.”

“We emphasize that the board has long held unlawful employers’ statements that employees dissatisfied with working conditions should quit rather than try to improve them through union activity,” the National Labor Relations Board panel said in its decision. “For decades, the board has recognized that employer suggestions, in response to employees’ union or protected concerted activity, that if the employees are unhappy they should seek employment elsewhere reasonably tend to coerce employees from exercising their rights under the NLRA.”

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The case was brought to the NLRB by Starbucks Workers United following the comments made by Schultz toward

a Starbucks store employee in 2022, during his time as interim CEO of the company, and when tensions between the Seattle coffee chain and its union were at their peak.

Administrative Law Judge Brian Gee initially ruled last October that Schultz’s comments were an illegal threat. At the time, Starbucks did not comment directly on the...

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