Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Wednesday was a historic day for the labor movement and Starbucks Workers United, who had a massive win as a result of their long-running efforts.
Administrative Law Judge Michael Rosas of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) made an unprecedented 218-page decision, stating that Starbucks was in violation, in hundreds of instances, of federal labor law in Buffalo alone.
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"It took 18 months of listening to the company tell us, to our faces, that not only would they were they adhering to US labor law, but they would never employ illegal tactics to try to break up our campaign or bust our union," said Michelle Eisen, 12-year barista and leader of Starbucks Workers United. "And now we have proof that not only did they do that, but they did that, to a degree that is unprecedented in U.S. labor law"
This decision forces Starbucks to reopen a Buffalo store Starbucks closed in retaliation for union activity and bargain with the Union at its Camp Road location, despite the Union losing the election there, due to the irredeemable nature of Starbucks’ violations, as well as reinstate several workers that Starbucks illegally terminated in retaliation for their union activity.
"Most of us have been gone for around a year, and we've been waiting a really long time to have this validation," said Angel Krempa, a reinstated Starbucks barista. "It's been the first happy tears that I've had since this campaign has really took off. It's just like I can breathe again."
Labor attorney working with the union, Ian Hayes, outlined the other actions Starbucks has to do as a result of the ruling, "Starbucks has to pay those workers for those damages. It also has to pay about 25 workers or maybe more consequential damages for other financial losses that they experienced as part of the chaos that the company created here in Buffalo. On top of all of that, the company has to post a physical notice that's about 15 pages long, letting workers know what their rights are, and essentially listing all of the violations that they engaged in here.
They have to post that not just in stores in Buffalo, not just in New York, but at all 9000 corporate run stores in the United States. They have to do it for as long as the organizing campaign is going on"
Although this win is monumental to the effort, the end goal is to ultimately get to the bargaining table for a contract.
"What we're doing now is trying to put as much pressure from the company as we can, from the outside, to get them to sit down and start negotiating that contract. They'll tell you that they've been willing to do this the entire time, I'll tell you that they most certainly have not.
We've seen the political pressure start to come through in the last few months. People demanding that the company do what's right, which is listen to our voices, and allow us to put those voices into a collective bargaining agreement. What we're doing is building those proposals and when the company is actually ready to sit down in any sort of meaningful way, we will be ready to put those across the table and say, let's start negotiating. Hopefully sooner rather than later."