A judge at the U.S. National Labor Relations Board ordered Starbucks and CEO Howard Schultz to agree—on camera—not to prevent union activity, after ruling the coffee company illegally tried to suppress labor unions at its Buffalo store.
On Wednesday, Michael Rosas, a judge at the NLRB, ruled that Starbucks has displayed “egregious and widespread misconduct that shows a disregard for the basic rights of employees,” and issued an order forcing the coffee company to take action nationwide.
Rosas agreed with the labor committee that Starbucks violated labor laws because it tried to stop the union in the Buffalo store, including sending high-ranking officials to “make repeated and unprecedented visits to the store in order to monitor, supervise or create the impression that employees” trade union activities are monitored.”
The judge’s order included a 13-page notice affirming the right of Starbucks employees to join a union, and a long list of pledges from the coffee company to stop activities deemed to hinder union organizing.
Schultz must read the notice, or have an NLRB representative read the notice, at Starbucks’ Buffalo-area stores. The company must also record and distribute a video of the meeting, as well as post paper copies of the notice in stores across the country.
The judge also ordered Starbucks to compensate workers it deemed to have been wrongfully punished for their union activism. In addition, Rosas concluded that Starbucks has tainted the failed union vote in one store in Buffalo, and ordered the company to negotiate with the union.
“This is truly a historic decision,” Gary Bonadonna Jr., regional head of Workers United, which helped Starbucks employees unionize, said in a statement.
Starbucks did not immediately respond luck’s request for comment. The coffee company said it was “considering all options to take a further legal review” in a statement New York Times. Rosas’ order could be appealed to the entire NLRB, then to federal court.
Even if the appeal upholds Rosas’ order, Schultz may no longer be around to read the news. Laxman Narasimhan will replace Howard Schultz as Starbucks CEO in April, ending Schultz’s third stint as Starbucks CEO.
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent US government agency that oversees union elections and investigates allegations of unfair labor practices. The NLRB has previously ruled that Starbucks violated labor laws by retaliating against union activists.
Employees at a Starbucks store in Buffalo were the first employees of the coffee company to join a union in December 2021. Since then, employees at hundreds of Starbucks stores have chosen to join the union.
An open letter
Also on Wednesday, several dozen Starbucks employees and managers signed an open letter complaining about anti-union activities, as well as a mandate to return to work. In January, Schultz ordered company employees to return to the office at least three days a week.
“We love Starbucks, but this action is fracturing confidence in the leadership of Starbucks,” said the letter.
But Schultz believes the union’s drive is caused by a lack of leadership—specifically, his leadership. “The union came about because Starbucks was not leading in a way that was consistent with its history of being a value-based company, and I came back to restore those values,” he said in an interview with CNN last week.
Schultz also said that unions at companies like Starbucks and Apple point to deeper social problems. “I was shocked, shocked to hear the silence, the anxiety, the broken trust in government, the broken trust in companies, the broken trust in families, the lack of hope about opportunity” among Starbucks employees, he told CNN.
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