Union Organizing at Starbucks Is the Company Retaliating?

Recently, a labor union for Starbucks employees accused the coffeehouse chain of retaliation against unionization efforts. Starbucks Workers United said workers at two stores, one in Seattle, Washington, and one in Kansas City, Missouri, were told that the locations would be permanently closing. The union accused the coffeehouse company of "clear retaliation," noting the Seattle and Kansas City locations had both taken steps toward unionization.

Workers were told the Kansas City location was being shut down over safety concerns. That location voted to unionize several months ago, but the election resulted in a tie and remains pending. "After careful consideration, we are closing some stores in locations that have experienced a high volume of challenging incidents that make it unsafe to continue to operate, allowing us to open new locations with safer conditions," a Starbucks spokesperson said.

"We regularly open and close stores as a standard part of our business operations," a Starbucks spokesperson stated regarding the Kansas City location. "We apply the same focus on safety at unionized and non-union stores and are closing non-union stores where we are similarly challenged in providing a safe environment for our customer and partner experience."

Starbucks' employees are upset with the closures saying they werent consulted or given any options. "We think it is not fair that we were not allowed to be a part of this decision about our working conditions, nor for Starbucks to claim they could not provide a safe experience for our workplace," said an employee at one of the stores that is closing.

The Seattle store voted in favor of unionizing approximately six months ago, according to a tweet from Starbucks Workers United. It will transition to a licensed store that QFC, the grocery store chain attached to it, will run and staff. "At Starbucks, we continue to evaluate the partner and customer experience at all of our stores. As a result, we have reached an agreement with QFC to operate the Seattle location, which is attached to

the QFC, as a licensed store. This decision will continue the long-term growth of this store and better align with the unique relationship this store has with customers and QFC," the Starbucks spokesperson said.

The closures took on heightened significance because of an ongoing unionization effort at Starbucks U.S. stores. Out of the 9,000 stores Starbucks has at this time, more than 189 U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize over the past year. Starbucks Workers United said it intends to file unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks on behalf of the two unionized stores that are closing. But Starbucks insisted the closures werent related to the unionization drive. "Opening and closing stores is part of our business operations," a spokesperson for the company said. "This is really rooted in safe and welcoming stores." As further evidence of this, Starbucks provided information that the closure of 16 stores (including the two stores in Kansas City and Seattle) was one of several measures Starbucks took to improve employee safety. Out of these 16 stores identified for closure that year, two had participated in organizing efforts. Of the 16 stores set to close, most were located on the West Coast in communities with higher crime rates per capita than the national average. According to safehome.org, the overall violent crime rate in 2020 was 309 per 100,000 people. Kansas City, Missouris crime rate in 2020 was 1216/100,000 people, and Seattle, Washingtons crime rate was 1351/100,000 people.

The union responded by arguing that U.S. labor law doesnt prevent Starbucks from closing its stores for business reasons. But it cant close a store whether its unionized or not in retaliation against labor organizers.

Based on the facts presented above, do you believe that Starbucks is guilty of unfair labor practices in closing these two stores? Why or why not