"Of course it's gonna be kind of hard for me to go back considering all the company has put me through — and put us through — and definitely how they've like slandered our name and the media and to our fellow partners, pinning us against each other, but I definitely wanna go back," Nabretta Hardin, who was fired from a Memphis location in February, told Yahoo Finance in a phone interview.
On Friday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a formal complaint against Starbucks on behalf of seven pro-union employees who were fired at the Memphis location in February. The complaint alleged that Starbucks fired the partners (as employees are known) because they "joined or assisted the Union and engaged in concerted activities, and to discourage employees from engaging in these activities."
In a statement to Yahoo Finance, Starbucks stated: "When we were made aware of several safety and security violations at our Poplar/Highland Starbucks store [in Memphis], we opened an investigation. Our investigation revealed that partners violated numerous policies, including maintaining a secure work environment and safe security standards."
At the time of the firings, Starbucks cited “several safety and security violations,” including the employees allowing a local media member in the store after hours for an interview.
"Our safety and security policies are in place to protect partners and to protect our customers and the communities we serve," the Starbucks statement added. "Our partners’ safety and security are of utmost concern."
If an agency judge agrees with the complainants, the NLRB can order Starbucks to advise baristas of their rights, which include voicing concerns about wages and scheduling. The company can appeal an adverse decision to the national board in Washington.
The fired employees were part of the nationwide movement of organizing at Starbucks in which across the country: According to the NLRB, more than 200 of the coffee chain's 9,000 company-operated stores have filed for union elections, and as of Friday, 26 locations have approved unions (with two voting against unionization), two store results remain inclusive, and 17 stores have been certified for the union.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders speaks during a unionization rally held by Starbucks Workers United, in Richmond, Virginia, U.S. April 24, 2022. REUTERS/Julia Rendleman ·Julia Rendleman / reuters
'It's not the job. It's the people.'
Separately on Friday, U.S. labor officials with the NLRB asked a federal court to reinstate three pro-union Starbucks workers whom Starbucks had disciplined.
A regional director in Arizona filed a petition for a temporary injunction that claimed Starbucks retaliated against three members of a union organizing committee, asserting that the company "disciplined, suspended, and discharged one employee, constructively discharged another, and placed a third on an unpaid leave of absence after revoking recently granted accommodations."
The board asked that Starbucks bring back those three employees as the company's actions allegedly “have irreparably harmed, and are continuing to harm, employees," according to the filing.
"We disagree with the claims by the US Labor board in this complaint," a Starbucks spokesperson told Yahoo Finance in a statement. "A partner’s interest in union representation does not exempt them from the standards we’ve put in place to protect partners, customers, and the communities that we serve."
A cup is handed through a Starbucks drive-thru window in Cheektowaga, a suburb of Buffalo, New York, U.S., December 8, 2021. REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario ·Lindsay DeDario / reuters
The NLRB asked that Starbucks be required to read the court order aloud in the presence of a board official and that a video recording of the reading be made available to Starbucks workers nationwide.
"I'm not shocked because the evidence is right there," Laila Dalton, a 19-year-old union organizer and one of the three employees fighting to get her job back, told Yahoo Finance. Dalton added that "Howard Schultz is firing more people since I had got fired. And I think it's just helping the other cases. It's proving the points and just showing the pattern."
Dalton worked at a Phoenix location that is at the heart of several complaints from Workers United, a labor organization that is backing barista unionization efforts, against Starbucks — and vice versa.
Asked why she wanted her job back despite the acrimony, Dalton explained that "it's not the job. It's the people. It's a family. ... And not all stores are like that, but our store... we're all on the same team. We all support each other. And I love my store. I love my customers. I love what we make of it. And at the end of the day, I love what I do — and I don't even drink coffee. I just love making customers stay."
Raising the stakes for Dalton is that Starbucks was paying for her online college education at Arizona State University, where she's majoring in mass media and communications.
'It's nowhere near what I was getting paid at Starbucks'
Hardin, one of the employees let go "on the spot" at the Memphis store, found another job at a local ice cream and cookie shop in town.
"It's nowhere near what I was getting paid at Starbucks," she said. "So I definitely make less money and everything else, definitely struggling because of the whole thing that's going on."
Hardin noted that the hiring process was difficult given what happened at Starbucks.
"You have to put your last job on [there and explain:] Why did you leave?" Hardin explained. "Some people ask those questions like 'Oh, well, what did you do? What did you do wrong?' type of thing, that kinda turns people off about willing to hire you,"
