News & Commentary May 5, 2023

[Omaha Steve]

https://onlabor.org/may-5-2023/

By Julio Colby

Julio Colby is a student at Harvard Law School.

In Today’s News & Commentary: an Administrative Law Judge finds Starbucks illegally fired five of the “Memphis Seven” union activists; the Sixth Circuit hears oral argument in a challenge to the court order reinstating the Memphis Seven; Washington Governor Jay Inslee signs worker productivity quota limits into law.

On Thursday, an Administrative Law Judge ruled that Starbucks illegally fired five union activists in Memphis, Tennessee. The five were part of a group of workers known as the “Memphis Seven” who were fired in February 2022 after filming a television news segment at their store after hours. NLRB prosecutors established that the seven workers engaged in protected activity, Starbucks knew about it, and the company was motivated by anti-union animus. The company was able to show, however, that it would have fired two of the workers regardless of their protected activity for serious violations of company policy that occurred during the ordeal. Starbucks also committed unfair labor practices by temporarily closing the store to stop a union demonstration, hiring more managers and supervising workers more closely, and stripping pro-union materials from a bulletin board. The decision, which Starbucks can challenge before the full Board, is the eleventh against the company so far, while it has prevailed only once.

FULL story at link above.