In her unceasing quest to cultivate further unionization across the business spectrum, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo announced her latest efforts last week on Twitter. Abruzzo, who formerly worked for SEIU, advised the Board in a brief filed in a pending case (Cemex Construction Materials v International Brotherhood of Teamsters) that…
Read More »With 6 more upstate New York stores and a shop in Kansa voting to unionize last week, only to be followed by 2 Boston area stores doing so UNANIMOUSLY this week, Starbucks will be pursuing a different strategy moving forward under interim CEO Howard Schultz (also the founder and twice previously President and CEO). In…
Read More »National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo yesterday issued a memorandum advising regional NLRB offices that she will be asking the Board to find that mandatory employee meetings held by some companies to persuade their workers to reject unionizing is a violation of federal labor law. In her 3-page memorandum, Abruzzo contends that…
Read More »With almost three years remaining in the term of President Biden, the self-proclaimed “most pro-union president ever”, organized labor is indeed making strides. One of the major forces in the federal government that can greatly influence organized labor is the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). In the wake of decisions such as that reported above…
Read More »The drumbeat of union representation elections continued loud and clear over the past few weeks, notably within the Starbucks chain and within Amazon warehouses. Speaking to Starbucks’ ongoing unionizing issues, the Starbucks Workers United (SBU) caught a big fish last week when the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in New York City officially voted to unionize by…
Read More »Contrary to the union-favoring anti-business provisions of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), there is finally a viable alternative floating around in the United States Senate. Republican Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) introduced the Employee Rights Act (ERA) of 2022 into the Senate just over a week ago. The legislation seeks to bring…
Read More »On Wednesday of this week, the Senate effectively ended the nomination of Dr. David Weil for another stretch as the administrator of the US Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division. On a procedural motion to advance consideration of the Weil nomination, the Senate voted 53-47 against consideration, with three democrats – Senators Manchin (WV),…
Read More »Workers at yet another Mesa Arizona Starbucks coffee shop have voted to unionize under the flag of the Starbucks Workers United banner, an affiliate of Service Employees International Union (SEIU). By a vote of 11-3 with one ballot challenged, workers won their eighth union representation vote out of nine tries nationwide. And speaking of unionizing…
Read More »A Starbucks store in the company hometown of Seattle became the seventh and latest store to formally vote for union representation, joining 5 other stores in the Buffalo New York market and one outlet in Mesa Arizona. The vote at the Seattle location was unanimous with 9 voting in the affirmative and one vote challenged…
Read More »One would have thought Starbucks had a full plate of issues with 6 stores newly unionized and another 120+ awaiting NLRB approval and scheduling of union representation elections, but there’s more the company is dealing with now. This week at the company’s annual meeting, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson announced that he was retiring – on…
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