In a recent decision, the Supreme Court has increased the difficulty for the federal government to obtain court orders against companies that are suspected of disrupting unionization campaigns. This ruling arose from a labor dispute involving Starbucks.
The federal court has revised the criteria for issuing an order that safeguards the employment of workers during a union’s organizing campaign. The justices have made the standards stricter, ensuring that the court only issues orders in situations where it is deemed necessary.
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In a unanimous decision, the court dismissed a rule that certain courts had been utilizing for orders requested by the National Labor Relations Board. Starbucks had been pushing for a stricter threshold to be implemented, one that is typically required for most other cases involving court orders or injunctions.
According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the National Labor Relations Act which governs the agency has permitted courts to issue temporary injunctions for over 75 years if they determine that the requests are “just and proper.” The agency maintained that it is not obliged to establish additional factors and that the law was created to restrict the jurisdiction of the courts.
Starbucks responded to the decision by emphasizing the significance of federal standards in guaranteeing that employees are aware of their rights and that uniform labor practices are maintained, regardless of their location within the country.
According to Lynne Fox, who is the president of the union representing the workers, Starbucks should have abandoned the case as a gesture of goodwill towards union organizing efforts. Fox expressed her disappointment, stating that working people have very few resources to safeguard and defend themselves when their employers violate the law. She further added that the Supreme Court’s ruling today was especially reprehensible. Fox is the president of Workers United.
In February 2022, seven workers at a Tennessee Starbucks store were fired for attempting to unionize. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) intervened and ordered the company to rehire the workers while the case goes through the agency’s administrative proceedings. These proceedings can take up to two years.
In August 2022, the NLRB’s decision was upheld by a district court judge who ordered Starbucks to rehire the workers. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld the ruling, prompting Starbucks to appeal to the Supreme Court.
According to Workers United, the union that organized Starbucks workers, five out of the seven employees at the Memphis store are still working there, while the other two are still actively involved in the organizing effort. It’s worth noting that the Memphis store voted in favor of unionizing in June 2022.
In February, Workers United and Starbucks announced that they would resume talks with the goal of reaching contract agreements this year. After nearly a year, they held their first bargaining session in late April, and as the case progressed, the hostility between them began to diminish.
Since late 2021, the NLRB has reported that workers in 437 company-owned Starbucks stores in the U.S. have voted to unionize. However, despite these efforts, none of these stores have been able to secure a labor agreement with Starbucks.
Starbucks has set a goal of achieving ratified contracts for those stores this year, according to the company.
