A customer makes a purchase at a Starbucks coffee shop.
Matt Rourke / AP
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Matt Rourke / AP
A customer makes a purchase at a Starbucks coffee shop.
Matt Rourke / AP
A federal judge in Tennessee has ordered Starbucks to recommend the reinstatement of seven bartenders fired following a unionization incident at a Memphis store.
The staff, known as Memphis Seven, was fired after an in-store media interview about the store’s organizational efforts earlier this year. Starbucks said this violated company policy, but the union, Starbucks Workers United, claimed all this was in retaliation for a union push.
Officials with the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency responsible for enforcing U.S. labor laws, saw it as retaliation and took the coffee giant to court.
U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman on Thursday agreed, saying Starbucks had failed to demonstrate that it enforces similar company policies elsewhere and in similar situations.
Lipman said under his orders that the NLRB “provides evidence consistent with the theory that Starbucks applied its policies discriminatoryly to Memphis Seven upon termination of them.”
Mr. Lipman asked Starbucks to give these workers their jobs back within five days. The company must also remove the employee’s disciplinary actions and stop and eliminate any other anti-union behavior.
This file photo shows pro-union pins sitting on a table during a watch party for a Starbucks employee union election.
Joshua Bessex / AP
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Joshua Bessex / AP
This file photo shows pro-union pins sitting on a table during a watch party for a Starbucks employee union election.
Joshua Bessex / AP
Starbucks said in a statement Thursday that it plans to appeal the decision and asked to keep the order pending the appeal.
“We completely disagree with the judge’s decision in this case. These individuals violated multiple policies and failed to maintain a safe work environment and safety standards,” the company said. said. “The interest in the alliance does not exempt partners from following the policies in place to protect our partners, our customers, and the communities we serve.”
Memphis Starbucks employees voted for union representation by United Workers earlier this summer, and the NLRB certified the election on June 15.
Starbucks has resisted efforts to consolidate its stores. In the first day of this month, Retail giant charges NLRB employees coordinated with union organizers in an election in Overland Park, Kansas, earlier this year.
The first Starbucks union was formed in Buffalo, New York, a year ago, launching a campaign that has become a nationwide campaign in the largest coffee chain in the country.
NLRB claims in court in June that Starbucks illegally fired seven other employees at its Buffalo stores and engaged in illegal anti-union activities to prevent workers from organizing.
Starbucks United says more than 200 of its stores in the US are now linked together.
