John Logan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Good news greeted Starbucks workers on May 3, 2022, in the shape of a promise of new pay increases. But there was a catch: Employees at unionized stores – or those planning to unionize – shouldn’t expect to see a dime of this hike.

As far as efforts to discourage workers from supporting union drives go, the move by Starbucks appears pretty blatant. And it comes as the coffee chain sees a massive surge of union activity.

Since its first victory at two stores in Buffalo in December 2021, Starbucks Workers United has now filed for union elections at over 250 stores – comprising over 6,600 employees – in over 30 states, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Moreover, the union has won 54 of the 64 elections conducted to date, many by overwhelming margins.

As a scholar of organized labor, I find the growth of the union movement at Starbucks remarkable. But it has also prompted what I would characterize as a remarkably aggressive stance against unions among executives at the coffee chain. Starbucks management appears intent on halting unionizing momentum among employees – even if that means risking sanction from the federal watchdog. Indeed, on May 6, a regional director of the NLRB issued a complaint against the coffee chain over prior instances of...

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