Starbucks accuses union of ‘smear campaign’ over Pride decorations

June 28, 2023
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Days after Starbucks union workers announced they were walking out of stores in protest of alleged restrictions and bans over Pride decorations, the company has struck back by filing unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight In a statement, the coffee chain accused Starbucks Workers United of making “maliciously and recklessly false statements” as part of “an unlawful smear campaign” about company policy on Pride decor and benefits related to gender-affirming care.

It’s the latest salvo in a dispute that started this month and has led to a temporary strike that began Friday at more than 150 stores, in which over 3,000 employees in at least 28 states vowed to walk out for a week.

On Monday, Starbucks’s executive vice president, Sara Trilling, announced that the company will “issue clearer centralized guidelines … for in-store visual displays and decorations that will continue to represent inclusivity and our brand.”

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The dispute began when the union accused regional-level Starbucks leaders and store managers of blocking workers from putting up Pride flags and other decorations commemorating LGBTQ rights. Starbucks Workers United filed its own complaint with NLRB on June 7, when union officials said they started hearing about orders to take down decorations celebrating Pride Month. The charge alleges that Starbucks did not bargain with the union over the issue. (Starbucks filed similar charges in May alleging that the union did not respond to bargaining sessions for 125 stores.)

While the union is not alleging that restrictions on decor were a “corporate top-down national policy,” the labor group said the company should have known about the regional bans because the purported instances were so widespread, according to a statement sent to The Washington Post.

The Seattle-based company has vehemently denied these claims, noting its track record of supporting LGBTQ employees. Among them was updating the company’s health insurance benefits to include coverage of gender reassignment surgery.

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“For nearly four decades … Starbucks has been at the forefront of supporting the LGBTQIA2+ community,” the company said in a statement. “We can not and will not tolerate these deliberate misrepresentations being broadcast to our partners.”

Union leaders are confident the NLRB will rule against Starbucks.

“Every single charge that Starbucks has filed against our union has been dismissed by the NLRB for lacking merit,” the union said in a statement to The Post. “Watch what Starbucks does, not what it says.”

The turmoil at Starbucks is the latest culture war flare-up to play out in the workplace, as a range of companies have come under scrutiny over their perceived commitment, or lack thereof, on polarizing social issues.

In some cases, there have been threats of violence. Anheuser-Busch facilities were the target of bomb threats following its Bud Light partnership with transgender actress Dylan Mulvaney. After Target announced that it was pulling back its Pride merchandise, citing employee safety, stores in at least eight states have received bomb threats — no explosives were discovered. Though several were purportedly made by people claiming to be angry about the removal of Pride merchandise, this has not been verified by law enforcement.

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Source: The Washington Post