Rare NLRB trial, baristas sues Starbucks over union activity

[redheadbaker]

www.inquirer.com/jobs/labor/starbucks-union-fired-nlrb-20210301.html

Philadelphia baristas TJ Bussiere and Echo Nowakowska believe Starbucks illegally fired them for trying to organize a union. And after months of investigation, lawyers for the federal government thought the workers had a case.

Cases such as theirs, which allege an employer has violated a worker’s legal right to organize, are rarely decided in court. Most workers avoid the risk of a long legal battle and settle.

But last summer, when Starbucks offered Bussiere and Nowakowska a settlement, they didn’t think it was fair. The final offer was $50,000 each, the baristas said, more than three times the back pay they were due. It didn’t include reinstatement — the pair wanted to go back to work and keep organizing — and the settlement would have done nothing to raise the standards for other Starbucks baristas.