Starbucks manager's comments to unionized worker were lawful, NLRB rules

The employee, Alejandra Toscano, had worked at multiple locations around Seattle since 2019 and like other Starbucks baristas, she had a designated home store. In 2022 that location unionized, and shortly after the union was certified Toscano was working a borrowed shift at a different store, according to filings in the case. Toscano's coworkers told her she would no longer be able to work at that location, prompting her to ask the store's manager. The manager said she had attended a meeting with lawyers from Starbucks who said union and non-union stores would no longer be able to swap employees. But she said she "didn’t know exactly what was true" given that Toscano had continued to borrow shifts after that meeting took place, according to board filings. The manager said Toscano was welcome there, but that she wanted to prepare her in case shift borrowing was restricted. Toscano transferred to the manager's store full time two months later. The union filed a complaint with the NLRB and an administrative judge in 2023 ruled against Starbucks. The manager could have denied what Toscano's coworkers told her, but instead repeatedly suggested that Toscano would no longer be able to borrow shifts and supplement her income, the judge said. The board on Wednesday reversed it, ruling that the surrounding circumstances made clear that the manager was not making threats but attempting to respond to Toscano's concerns. David Prouty, the lone Democratic appointee on the board, dissented. "A reasonable employee in Toscano’s shoes who heard that statement would be chilled from freely choosing to engage in union organizing activities at their home store and stores where they borrow shifts," Prouty said. The case is Starbucks Corporation, National Labor Relations Board, No. 19-CA-295850. The manager of a Starbucks in Seattle did not violate federal labor law by telling an employee from a unionized store that she may have been barred from picking up shifts at the company's non-union locations, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled. The board in a 2-1 decision on Wednesday said the manager's equivocal comments about the ability of unionized workers to "borrow" shifts at other stores could not reasonably be interpreted as a threat to eliminate benefits in retaliation for joining a union, reversing an administrative law judge who had ruled against Starbucks. Workers at more than 700 Starbucks in 45 states have unionized since 2021, with most joining Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. The union and individual workers have filed scores of complaints against Starbucks alleging unlawful union-busting and other illegal labor practices, which the company has denied. The NLRB has ruled against Starbucks in at least three cases since 2024 involving managers' statements about union workers taking shifts at non-union locations. But the board's Republican majority on Wednesday said that unlike the Seattle case, none of those involved a conversation initiated by an employee. And the manager said she was uncertain about the company's policy and reassured the worker that she was "always welcome" at her store, the board said. "Considering all of the circumstances ... we find that her comments lacked a reasonable tendency to interfere with protected activity," wrote the board majority, which included Chair James Murphy and member Scott Mayer. The union did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Starbucks spokesperson in a statement said the decision confirmed that the company had not threatened workers with the loss of shift opportunities. "We remain focused on supporting our partners and complying with our obligations under federal labor law," the spokesperson said.

Starbucks manager's comments to unionized worker were lawful, NLRB rules

How the dispute arose

NLRB says manager's comments were not threats

Case is part of broader Starbucks labor disputes

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