Ever since the Starbucks in Buffalo, New York became the first store to unionize last year, the coffee corporation has been accused of hundreds of labor violations across the United States.
Now, a new alleged labor violation has come from a store in the Central Coast. Some Starbucks employees trying to unionize at a Paso Robles store say the corporation is illegally discouraging them from doing so.
Bob Giolito is a union attorney. He said he has never seen a company face so many labor violations in his entire career
“I've been a union lawyer for 49 years and I could tell you. This has never happened before. This is probably the largest anti-union campaign in American history,” Giolito said.
According to Giolito, the manager at Paso Robles’ Creston and Sherwood Starbucks allegedly made several attempts to discourage employees from unionizing.
The manager held mandatory captive audience meetings and threatened employees they would lose their benefits if they formed a union.
Giolito said the worst part of the violation was when the coffee company allegedly issued a written warning to an employee discouraging them from leading a unionization effort.
“And of course you cannot discriminate against an employee simply because they're engaging in union activities or seeking to form a union,” Giolito said.
In a statement to KCBX, a Starbucks spokesperson said the company disagrees with the complaint and they maintain that the actions taken in Paso Robles were lawful and consistent with Starbucks’ policies.
They said they, “train managers that no partner will be disciplined for engaging in lawful union activity and there will be no tolerance for any unlawful anti-union behavior, if ever found to be true.”
Giolito said after an eight month investigation, the complaint will finally be heard by an administrative judge on May 2. He said he does not expect a judge's decision on the charge until late summer or early fall.
The coffee company said they are considering all options to obtain a full legal review of the matter.
