After peaking earlier this summer, unionizing efforts at Starbucks stores across the country have seemed to slow down over the past few months, but the broader effort to organize within the QSR industry continues. Most recently, two locations of California-based Peets Coffee filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for union representation elections. The…
Read More »The unemployment rate increased slightly in August, despite the economy adding another 315,000 jobs during the month. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the unemployment rate in August was at 3.7 percent, up from the 3.5 percent recorded one month earlier. Despite the labor shortage, an additional 344,000 were added to the unemployment…
Read More »With the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seemingly pulling out all the stops to punish business and ‘win’ unionization at every turn, the President added the prestige of the White House to that effort with a pro-union meeting at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. President Biden made it clear during his campaign that he would be the…
Read More »The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is flexing more of its pro-union muscle against Starbucks as the government agency leveled no fewer than 33 unfair labor practice complaints against the company. The NLRB complaints, filed by the Regional Director for the Buffalo New York Region, stem from the initial unionizing efforts within Starbucks. Notwithstanding a…
Read More »Vermont gadfly Senator Bernie Sanders chairs the Senate Budget Committee that held a public hearing last week objectively entitled “Should Taxpayer Dollars Go to Companies that Violate Labor Laws?” One of the prime speakers invited to testify was a fired Amazon employee (Chris Smalls) who helped create the Amazon Labor Union (ALU). Smalls testified that…
Read More »Organized labor appears close to celebrating a big win in Connecticut as the House of Representatives last week passed legislation that will prohibit employers from holding mandatory meetings on unionization and other sensitive subjects. Senate bill 163, which passed the state Senate a few weeks ago, was approved by the House on a vote of…
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 »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…
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