Starbucks ran a ‘weird and bizarre’ campaign for employees, claims corporations | Labor Rights Issues

The alliance won the most prestigious poll in Starbucks in Buffalo, New York in the United States last week. Now, it is urging the National Labor Relations Board to reject the results of a failed vote in another organization.

A coalition that won a popular vote on behalf of Starbucks Corp. in Buffalo, NY, last week attempted to drop a vote that did not win a store.

The workers’ union, Workers United, urged the National Labor Relations Board in writing last Thursday to reject the results of the failed vote, saying Starbucks had launched a “strange and bizarre” campaign to intimidate workers. It also submitted the same complaints to the store where the outcome of the election is still uncertain.

“The psychological damage to employees cannot be exacerbated, as they have to deal with many managers on anti-union lies,” the agency wrote in the complaint.

When asked to comment, a Starbucks spokesman quoted Dec. 9 while the company stated that the results were the first “without any immediate change in our intimate relationship as the NLRB process progressed.”

The complaint came on the same day as the union affirmed the success of the contract at Buffalo’s third-largest retailer, demanding that Starbucks begin negotiations with workers.

Vote letters from the Buffalo polling station where the deal was lost went 12-8 against the agreement, but the union’s lawyer said last week some votes were not counted. The results of one store where the council filed a complaint awaiting the outcome of the difficult voting results, but the votes counted there favored the agreement.

Workers United, affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, is trying to expand its position among the many thousands of Starbucks restaurants in the US that won last week. The coalition called in August for a store-to-vote vote in three restaurants in the state of Buffalo.

The Labor Board has the power to restrict the decision-making process based on what would have changed and to prevent workers from making free choices if they want to enter into a union. Tensions on the outcome of the elections are considered by the regional labor authorities, whose decisions may be handed down to board members in Washington.

If a trade union confirms that a contract is successful in one or more of the elections, Starbucks will be required by law to co-operate with the employees of each store in which the agreement was won. However, employers in such a situation sometimes refuse to negotiate until they have an opportunity to challenge the agency in federal court.