Late yesterday, the NLRB announced that it had prevailed in federal district court and won an injunction against Starbucks ordering the company to rehire a number of workers it had terminated and further to cease all unlawful activities. The case involved a successful union election held at a Starbucks in Memphis where the company disciplined…
Read More »Should it be passed and signed into law, the FAST Act (the Fast-Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act) heading to a final vote this month in the California state senate will wreak havoc on the fast food franchise industry in California. Having previously been approved by the Assembly, a positive vote on the legislation in…
Read More »Speaking of organized labor, the latest news on unionizing efforts within local Starbucks’ stores has the company accusing the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Starbucks Workers United union of misconduct on the basis of allegations made by a whistleblower in the agency. Starbucks has formally claimed that agency officials interfered with elections by…
Read More »Earlier this month, the US Circuit Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) should revisit the ruling the board rendered two years ago regarding joint-employer status. A three-judge panel of the court determined that “the ruling for Browning-Ferris Industries Inc in 2020 failed to explain why it had…
Read More »In another DC court ruling, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for DC last week upheld a decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) whereby the agency found a manufacturer violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by firing a worker who made a vulgar protest against the employer by writing the words “whore…
Read More »Major executive changes continue at Starbucks as COO John Culver announced he will be leaving the Seattle firm effective October 3. His departure comes in the wake of CEO Kevin Johnson retiring in April, General Counsel Rachel Gonzalez leaving in May and North American President Rossann Williams leaving in June. Culver has been with Starbucks…
Read More »A few weeks ago, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the launch of a new toll-free confidential hotline for reporting sexual harassment at the workplace. The hotline, which will be administered by the New York State Department of Human Rights (NYSDHR), was authorized by legislation signed into law back in March. The hotline (1-800-HARASS-3) went…
Read More »In a surprise to absolutely nobody on the union front, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last week rejected the unfair labor practice complaint that Starbucks had filed against the Starbuck Workers United union. The complaint, one of only two that the company has filed against the union, stems from an unsuccessful effort to unionize…
Read More »Bipartisan legislation being filed in the United States Senate would lower the fees that restaurants and other retailers pay to process credit card transactions. The legislation, S.4674, sponsored by Senators Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), would require that the largest bank credit cards (over $100 billion in assets) provide at…
Read More »We’ve got a couple of early warnings to share with you this week on the subject of minimum wages, and both relate ballot initiatives. First, in California, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James Arguelles rejected a ballot campaign petition to force the question onto the 2022 ballot despite the campaign having missed a critical deadline.…
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