Starbucks, the accusation over store closures: aimed at unionized ones

Immediately reopen 23 stores that Starbucks reportedly closed in response to their unionization. This was ordered by the National Labor Relations Board, an independent agency of the United States federal government which is responsible for supervising the correct application of collective bargaining and monitoring any unfair practices in the labor law field.

According to Axios, this is yet another point of conflict between the coffee chain and the Starbucks Workers United union, which on several occasions has accused the company of placing illegal limits on workers’ rights.

The problem, in the latest case of store closures, is that at least seven were unionized, as reported by the NYT, and this has generated accusations of violation of federal law. To the newspaper, a Starbucks spokesperson noted that every year “as part of normal business management we evaluate the store portfolio” and generally open, close or change stores. In 2022, the company opened “hundreds of new stores” and closed over 100, of which about 3% were unionized, according to the NYT.

The controversy is certainly not a bolt from the blue. Starbucks itself has just published an independent report that it requested on internal union practices. What emerged was the absence of evidence regarding the presence of real “anti-union manuals” or specific training on how to circumvent US laws or interfere with the organization of employees in forms of representation. Of course, communication and training defects with respect to employees and trade union freedoms have emerged.

On the other hand, the hard line of the old CEO Howard Schultz, who openly spoke out against “the threat of unionization”, changed slightly after Laxman Narasimhan became CEO in March, and spoke of the need to “take care of the staff at contact with customers”.