Starbucks illegally withheld raises from union workers, labor board says

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Starbucks illegally withheld raises from union workers, labor board says

The coffee chain has been trying to tamp down a national organizing campaign

By Lauren Kaori Gurley
Updated August 24, 2022 at 11:01 p.m. EDT|Published August 24, 2022 at 8:44 p.m. EDT

Starbucks illegally withheld wages and benefits from thousands of unionized baristas, the National Labor Relations Board alleged in a complaint Wednesday.

The complaint arrives during a campaign by the coffee chain and its interim CEO, Howard Schultz, to tamp down unionization efforts at its stores around the United States. More than 230 locations have voted to join the Starbucks Workers United union since late 2021, driving a surge in unionization nationwide.

The NLRB seeks back payments and benefits for unionized workers since May and to require Schultz to read a statement to workers about their union rights. The board, which is tasked with enforcing labor laws that protect union rights, said Starbucks’s denial of benefits and raises to union workers was intended to discourage union organizing

But Starbucks denied that. “We’ve been clear in that we are following NLRB rules when it comes to unilaterally giving benefits,” Reggie Borges, a Starbucks spokesman, wrote in an email.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/08/24/starbucks-raises-nlrb-complaint/

Non-paywalled link: https://wapo.st/3dVHs3G

[Laffy Kat]

1. I trust what management says about as far as I can throw them.

Stay united and you will win your back pay. I've been there.

[2naSalit]

2. I see a company...

Run by a stingy asshole that probably isn't going to last much longer.