News & Commentary January 3, 2023

[Omaha Steve]

By Travis Lavenski

Travis Lavenski is a student at Harvard Law School.

Welcome back OnLabor readers! In today’s News & Commentary, Starbucks hit with a Board complaint for failure to negotiate with multiple stores; Trader Joe’s workers in Minneapolis walk off the job; Republicans plan to attack Congressional workers’ right to organize; and the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments for the important Glacier Northwest case next week.

Starbucks Coffee continues to make headlines in its response to the unionization wave that has occurred in its stores for just over a year now. The NLRB filed a complaint against the coffee giant for refusing to negotiate with 21 stores in Washington and Oregon. The complaint follows a recent Board ruling that Starbucks has failed to negotiate at a Seattle roastery location. This marks the first time the Board has filed a complaint against the store for failure to bargain with multiple locations, though similar complaints may come soon. Starbucks racked up 50 Board complaints totaling to over 1,000 labor law violations.

Workers at a unionized Trader Joe’s store in Minneapolis walked out on New Year’s Eve. The workers, who unionized this summer, staged a walkout after the company cut hours for union-supporting workers and increased hours for new hires. Workers also demanded the company to bargain fairly and swiftly. This Trader Joe’s location is one of two unionized stores in the country. In response to union organizing drives at multiple locations thus summer, Trader Joe’s hired notorious union-busting law firm Littler Mendelson. MorePerfectUnion released this short video last month detailing workers’ fight for a contract in the workers’ own words.

FULL story here: https://onlabor.org/january-3/

[3Hotdogs]

1. I haven't been in a T,J since their union busting action at their N.Y.C. store.

They closed it down, the day after the employees voted to go union.