Starbucks Illegally Refused To Bargain With Union On Zoom – Bloomberg News

According to prosecutors from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Starbucks Corp. broke the law by refusing to fairly bargain with workers at dozens of recently unionized cafes across the nation, Bloomberg News reported on Monday (NLRB).

The general counsel of the NLRB determined that the coffee chain violated labor law by refusing to participate in collective bargaining sessions if some workers were present via video conference, the report said.

A Starbucks’ union leader from California released a statement. The leader named Tyler Keeling said, “Now that it’s clear we have the right to bargain using a virtual component, we hope Starbucks is ready, too”.

The change occurs ahead of Howard Schultz’s testimony before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on March 29. Schultz had previously refused requests to appear and respond to inquiries about Starbucks’ adherence to labor laws.

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Keeling said, “Hearing this days before Howard Schultz is scheduled to testify before the HELP committee is huge, especially since he has personally discussed the fact that Starbucks is refusing to negotiate with us due to the Zoom screen.

A request for comment from Reuters was not immediately answered by Starbucks or the NLRB. Now Reuters also twitted about the happening.

Since 2021, workers at more than 280 of Starbucks’ roughly 9,000 company-operated locations in the U.S. have chosen to join a labor union. The union is seeking better pay and benefits, improved health and safety conditions, and protections against unfair dismissal and discipline. 

Starbucks

Starbucks is once again in the news bulletins. The corporation is an American multinational chain of coffee shops and roasteries based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest chain of coffee shops in the world. The company operated 33,833 stores as of November 2021, of which 15,444 were in the United States.