The Memphis 7, Starbucks workers fired by management in a failed attempt to stop organizing at their store, were reinstated in September after the National Labor Relations Board won an injunction. Beto Sanchez, second from left, said the firings “backfired on them completely.” Photo: Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian via AP.
Reposted from Labor Notes
In a few days Austin Locke will walk back into the Queens, New York, Starbucks store he was fired from seven months ago. He’ll also get a wad of back pay, and money from civil penalties.
Locke had a target on his back because he was involved in a union drive at the store, but his reinstatement didn’t come from the National Labor Relations Board. Instead, his case was taken up by the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), under a city law passed in 2021 which makes unjust firings in fast food illegal.
Two recent city laws protecting fast food workers, the 2017 Fair Workweek Law and the 2021 Just Cause law, have resulted in 230 investigations, resulting in nearly $27.1 million in combined fines and restitution for more than 20,100 workers, according to Michael Lanza of the DCWP. Chipotle paid $20 million in September.
Now the city council is considering extending this just-cause protection to all New Yorkers through the Secure Jobs Act.
In Illinois, a coalition of unions and worker centers is lobbying for a similar law statewide. The proposed laws also provide for severance pay for layoffs.
Most U.S. workers not covered by union contracts are considered “at-will employees,” meaning they can be fired for almost any reason.
There are some important exceptions: It’s already illegal to fire someone for racist, sexist, or ageist reasons. Labor law also bars employers from firing workers for engaging in “concerted activity,” meaning getting together with co-workers to improve job conditions. But it’s hard to prove intent when a manager can legally fire you because he doesn’t like your hairstyle or your attitude.
With just cause laws, which require a due process for terminations, “the U.S. would just be catching up with the rest of the world,” said Paul Sonn of the National Employment Law Project. “In many Canadian provinces, the U.K., Mexico, Colombia, there are systems where you need to be given a good reason and advance notice, and typically guaranteed severance pay.”
In surveys conducted by NELP, two-thirds of Americans think there should be similar laws protecting workers.
If properly enforced, just cause protections would give all workers more security to stand up to dangerous working conditions, sexual harassment, bullying, speed-up, and wage theft.
But the New York City law indicates it could help workers who want a union, too. “It’s helpful,” said Locke. “You need to use every sort of avenue you can to fight these companies.”
Locke was fired for falsely reporting workplace violence and for missing part of a multipart Covid screening protocol. Video vindicated him on the first charge and the second had been breached regularly with no repercussions except in his case.
The complaint process was simple. He said he filed paperwork and the city did the rest. Starbucks eventually settled, but not before trying to place Locke at another store. He refused. An NLRB case challenging his firing was dropped as part of the settlement.
A FIRING STRATEGY
Starbucks management has fired 200 workers in the course of an organizing wave that started in Buffalo, New York, in December 2021. So far workers have filed for union recognition in 360 stores and won in 285.
Starbucks didn’t start firing workers right away, according to Casey Moore, a Buffalo barista who now works for Workers United, the division of the Service Employees (SEIU) backing the campaign.
But three months into the union wave, she said, corporate managers realized, “‘Oh, crap, we have a big problem here,’ and they did some calculus where they said, ‘Well, we’re going to fire these workers. We might face legal repercussions, but those aren’t as bad as the benefit from scaring workers.’”
On February 8, 2022 Starbucks managers in Memphis, Tennessee, called seven workers in to individual meetings and fired them all on various pretexts, one of which was that they had held a press conference in the store.
Beto Sanchez, one of the 7, said he was additionally told he was being fired for failing to wear a mask while off-duty—although the rule they cited only required masks while working.
The Memphis workers had gone public with their union drive three weeks earlier, on Martin Luther King Day. The firings were designed to halt the drive by removing the majority of the organizing committee.
But it didn’t work. Although Starbucks hired a bunch of new people in, they still voted for the union, which won overwhelmingly.
“It backfired on them completely,” said Sanchez, a shift manager. “Starbucks was hoping to use our firings as a way to squash the fire, to scare people from organizing, but instead it fired people up to organize even more.”
Soon after the 7 were terminated, Sanchez said, they saw photos of workers in faraway stores marching on the boss or walking out on strike holding “Reinstate the Memphis 7” signs.
If properly enforced, just cause protections would give all workers more security to stand up to dangerous working conditions, sexual harassment, bullying, speed-up, and wage theft.
But the New York City law indicates it could help workers who want a union, too. “It’s helpful,” said Locke. “You need to use every sort of avenue you can to fight these companies.”
Locke was fired for falsely reporting workplace violence and for missing part of a multipart Covid screening protocol. Video vindicated him on the first charge and the second had been breached regularly with no repercussions except in his case.
The complaint process was simple. He said he filed paperwork and the city did the rest. Starbucks eventually settled, but not before trying to place Locke at another store. He refused. An NLRB case challenging his firing was dropped as part of the settlement.
A FIRING STRATEGY
Starbucks management has fired 200 workers in the course of an organizing wave that started in Buffalo, New York, in December 2021. So far workers have filed for union recognition in 360 stores and won in 285.
Starbucks didn’t start firing workers right away, according to Casey Moore, a Buffalo barista who now works for Workers United, the division of the Service Employees (SEIU) backing the campaign.
But three months into the union wave, she said, corporate managers realized, “‘Oh, crap, we have a big problem here,’ and they did some calculus where they said, ‘Well, we’re going to fire these workers. We might face legal repercussions, but those aren’t as bad as the benefit from scaring workers.’”
On February 8, 2022 Starbucks managers in Memphis, Tennessee, called seven workers in to individual meetings and fired them all on various pretexts, one of which was that they had held a press conference in the store.
Beto Sanchez, one of the 7, said he was additionally told he was being fired for failing to wear a mask while off-duty—although the rule they cited only required masks while working.
The Memphis workers had gone public with their union drive three weeks earlier, on Martin Luther King Day. The firings were designed to halt the drive by removing the majority of the organizing committee.
But it didn’t work. Although Starbucks hired a bunch of new people in, they still voted for the union, which won overwhelmingly.
“It backfired on them completely,” said Sanchez, a shift manager. “Starbucks was hoping to use our firings as a way to squash the fire, to scare people from organizing, but instead it fired people up to organize even more.”
Soon after the 7 were terminated, Sanchez said, they saw photos of workers in faraway stores marching on the boss or walking out on strike holding “Reinstate the Memphis 7” signs.
POWER OF REINSTATEMENT
That power was on display when the Memphis 7 won reinstatement in September. Starbucks’ actions were so egregious that the NRLB asked a judge to order them hired back while other aspects of the case continued through the courts.
“It’s pleasant to know they’re taking it seriously, and not listening to Starbucks’ whining,” Sanchez said. Their back pay case is still pending.
When they got reinstated, Sanchez said, there was an uptick in filings at other stores, “because people saw, hey, these people got their jobs back.”
Sanchez noted that the NLRB is understaffed, just like Starbucks stores, and that has led to delays. Still, the cases grind forward. “We’re getting them little by little. Each of them have their court dates. We’re just very ready for them to all get their jobs back.”
In Buffalo, Conklin said if her NLRB decision is favorable and she is offered reinstatement, “I would definitely go back. I want to look them in the eyes: I’m not leaving, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Jenny Brown is an assistant editor at Labor Notes.
COMMUNIST PARTY OF MAINE (Site Under Renovation) 