Starbucks illegally withheld raises from union workers, labor board says

The NLRB seeks back payments and benefits for unionized workers since May and to require Schultz to read a statement to workers about their union rights. The board, which is tasked with enforcing labor laws that protect union rights, said Starbucks’s denial of benefits and raises to union workers was intended to discourage union organizing

But Starbucks denied that. “We’ve been clear in that we are following NLRB rules when it comes to unilaterally giving benefits,” Reggie Borges, a Starbucks spokesman, wrote in an email.

The company stated in a news release in July that legally it cannot change benefits or wages without bargaining with a union once one is in place. “Partners still have access to all Starbucks benefits already in place when the petition was filed, but any changes to your wages, benefits and working conditions that Starbucks establishes after that time would not apply to you and would have to be bargained,” the statement says.

Union activists were thrilled that the labor board had weighed in. “This is a historic triumph for democracy and the rule of law that a billionaire CEO must apologize to employees for abusing them and violating their rights as well as making them whole,” said Richard Bensinger, a lead organizer of the Starbucks Workers United campaign.

Starbucks has tried to fend off the union effort as organizers have built momentum. Schultz announced in May that the company would raise pay and double training hours at its more than 10,000 corporate-owned stores. But he said those changes would not apply to recently unionized stores or stores in the process of unionizing, where workers had filed for union elections.

“We do not have the same freedom to make these improvements at locations that have a union or where union organizing is underway,” Schultz stated on an earnings call at the time.

In August, nonunion Starbucks workers who had been employed since May 2 saw their wages increase to $15 an hour or by 3 percent, whichever was higher. Employees with between two and five years of experience received a raise of at least 5 percent, or an increase to 5 percent above the starting rate in their market, whichever was greater. Nonunion baristas with more than five years of experience received raises of at least 7 percent or 10 percent above the starting rate in their market, whichever was greater.

This year, Schultz stated that employees who had not sought union benefits would receive access to the chain’s relaunched coffee expertise program, known as “Coffee Masters.” Nonunion stores would see new investments in equipment and technology and enhanced tipping options for customers. Further communications stated that the…