News & Commentary May 21, 2023

[Omaha Steve]

https://onlabor.org/may-21-2023/

By Julio Colby

Julio Colby is a student at Harvard Law School.

In this weekend’s News and Commentary: an NLRB judge finds a Starbucks manager violated labor law by retaliating against a lead organizer in Florida; the Second Circuit seemed skeptical of restaurant groups’ claims that New York City’s just cause protections for fast food workers are preempted by federal labor law; and the NLRB’s General Counsel brings a case against USC seeking to establish that college athletes are employees protected by the NLRA.

On Wednesday, an NLRB judge found that a Starbucks manager violated federal labor law by unlawfully threatening the lead organizer at a store in Hialeah, Florida. As organizer Will Suarez was heading to a media interview about the Starbucks Workers United organizing drive at his store, manager Diron Martinez asked him to clock in early for his shift. When Suarez declined, Martinez told him that he didn’t want the campaign to “turn into another Memphis,” referring to an organizing drive at a store in Memphis, Tennessee, which had resulted in the firing of seven union supporters a week earlier. NLRB judge Donna Dawson said Martinez’s comment amounted to a threat of retaliation if Suarez continued to speak publicly about the union drive and ordered Starbucks to cease and desist from threatening reprisals and to post a notice at the Florida store. The union ultimately lost the election at that store, with workers rejecting representation 14-12.

FULL story at link above.