Starbucks illegally fired an employee at one of the coffee giant’s shops in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for engaging in union activism, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Friday.
The decision requires Starbucks to offer the worker reinstatement with back pay and to hold a meeting with employees, management, government representatives and the union to clarify workers’ rights and reassert the board’s finding that the company broke the law.
“I would hope that they learn their lesson, that firing people because they want to start a union is not going to solve their problems,” the fired employee, Hannah Whitbeck, told Bloomberg in an interview. “In fact, it’s only going to make it worse.”
The ruling comes amid a series of disputes between the coffee chain and Workers United, a labor group organizing for unionization at Starbucks stores across the country. Starbucks has said that claims of anti-union activity by the company are “categorically false” and has denied wrongdoing in Whitbeck’s case.
In Friday’s ruling, according to Bloomberg, the NLRB judge wrote that the board’s general counsel had demonstrated that Starbucks “acted with animus” when it fired the employee, who had participated in efforts to unionize the store in question. Starbucks has not indicated if it plans to appeal.
The union representing employees, Starbucks Workers United, has accused the company of firing more than 80 employees because of their activism. The Starbucks union has racked up 220 election...
A Walgreens whistleblower who received more than $25 million from a federal fraud settlement must turn to state courts to pursue a share of the pharmacy chain’s separate $4.7 billion opioid settle...