We made it to 2023, and as our own Phil Wilson predicts, a busy year of labor law developments awaits us. The NLRB closed out last year with three cases that will pave the board’s way for pushing the Biden administration’s aggressively union-friendly agenda into motion. The board will soon finish reconsidering Joy Silk, deliver their ruling on captive audience meetings, and much more will come.
That impending news will arrive after 2022’s intense media focus on organizing drives at high-profile companies. Unsurprisingly, those reports generally do not communicate the full picture, although NPR recently acknowledged the reality of an organizing frenzy, which does include notable union victories but will also bring worker disappointment when unions fail to deliver tangible results at the bargaining table.
That’s already happening with Starbucks Workers United, which has so far notched over 250 union wins without any successful contract negotiations to show for them. This results in more worker frustration along with more strong-arm tactics from the NLRB, and with that, we have set the stage for Biden’s labor board taking stronger action on the Starbucks front. We’ll finish this article with Microsoft updates and a brief roundup:
- The NLRB’s all-out battle against Starbucks continues. Board prosecutors recently alleged that Starbucks illegally refused to negotiate with at least 20 cafes throughout the Pacific Northwest. In response, the company pointed the finger at Starbucks Workers United as a culprit in the failed negotiations while claiming to have come to the table in “good faith” for 75 bargaining sessions during 2022.
- The NLRB’s complaint against two Oklahoma City Starbucks cafes will head toward a hearing in April to consider numerous claims of unfair labor practices.
- 1,000+ members of the Starbucks union waged the biggest strike in the coffeehouse giant’s history on December 16, when dozens of stores saw baristas hit the picket lines over stalled contract negotiations. This three-day strike follows a coordinated one-day walkout, now known as the Red Cup Rebellion, which took place at 100+ stores on November 17. That’s generally one of the company’s busiest days of the year, given that free holiday cups go out to customers who purchase holiday drinks, so disruption is the name of the game.
Here’s fresh news from the Microsoft realm with some Apple on the side:
- Microsoft’s first U.S.-based union officially exists with recognition from the tech conglomerate. 300 video game testers at Microsoft subsidiary ZeniMax Studios, makers of The Elder Scrolls, voted this week to unionize with the CWA. This turn of events comes on the heels of Microsoft’s neutrality agreement, in which the company agreed to cooperate with unions that formed under its umbrellas.
- Another Microsoft wrinkle: If the Bill Gates-owned company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard moves past an FTC block and closes, then Microsoft will further cooperate with the CWA. The union has organized two Activision groups, Raven Software and Blizzard Albany, thus far. A third group at Proletariat, makers of World of Warcraft Dragonflight, also filed for a union election.
- Apple is dealing with its own NLRB woes while continuing to fend off organizing activity after stores in Maryland and Oklahoma voted to unionize. Meanwhile, the CWA has accused Apple of illegally setting up its own company-controlled union to put the kibosh on union activity. The Board also recently moved against Apple on allegations that the company interrogated workers about the CWA and held captive audience meetings.
More organizing updates surfaced over the holidays:
- Amazon is staring down another union drive, this time at their Minnesota Fulfillment Center. The company has succeeded at pushing back all such efforts with the exception of Staten Island’s JFK8 warehouse, where workers voted to unionize in April 2022.
- The NewsGuild-CWA persuaded nearly 60 editorial workers at Reviewed, a Gannett Inc. product-review publication in Massachusetts, to launch a union drive with the goal of joining the Boston Newspaper Guild.
- American Red Cross workers in small-town Kansas unanimously voted to become Teamsters in the fourth such union win within the humanitarian organization since mid-2022.
