ROCHESTER, N.Y. – A judge ruled the national coffee chain Starbucks violated federal labor law dozens of times.
This comes after a year-long investigation, dozens of charges, hundreds of allegations, and months of trial. News10NBC spoke with a former employee of Starbucks in Rochester who believes he was fired because of Starbucks union-busting. And now with this judge’s decision, Starbucks is required to give him his job back.
According to the judge’s decision, Starbucks violated laws that affected workers who were organizing a union not only here in Rochester but in Buffalo and around the country.
“It’s a good feeling,” said former employee Brian Nuzzo. “That they are forced to recognize, what they did. Even though Howard Schultz continuously says he does not union bust.”
Well, the judge thought differently because Starbucks workers in Buffalo and Rochester are getting their jobs back after being fired in retaliation for unionizing. Starbucks now has to reinstate seven workers illegally terminated in retaliation for their union activity. Nuzzo is none of them.
He was a chef supervisor at the Monroe Avenue Starbucks in Brighton for 4.5 years. He was also the lead union organizer for his store.
“So that involved getting people on board,” said Nuzzo. “Getting interest, handing out the cards, kind of detailing what the union is, what we want to do what we want out of it. And it was very clear that they knew I was an organizer.”
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