With original case cited as grounds for blocking vote settled, worker pushes for decertification election to oust SBWU
Oklahoma City, OK (November 20, 2024) – Starbucks employee Amy Smith has filed a Request for Review with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Washington, D.C., asking the agency to review a regional NLRB order tossing her petition seeking an election to remove the Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) union from her Oklahoma City store. Amy Smith, who works at the Nichols Hills Starbucks location, is receiving free legal representation from National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation staff attorneys.
Smith’s appeal challenges the regional NLRB’s refusal to reinstate her decertification petition, which it is still stonewalling despite the resolution of SBWU union officials’ charges against Starbucks that were ostensibly the justification for blocking the workers’ petition for a vote to remove the union. Smith argues that the decision is inconsistent not only with the Board’s past reasons for holding up the petition, but also with workers’ right under federal labor law to promptly have an election to remove a union they do not want.
Starbucks Employee Challenges Labor Board’s Unreasonable Stalling
In October 2023, Smith filed a petition asking the NLRB to hold a decertification election so she could vote to remove SBWU from her workplace. Her petition had enough of her coworkers’ signatures to meet the 30% threshold necessary to trigger a decertification vote. However, at SBWU union officials’ request, the NLRB dismissed the petitions “subject to reinstatement” until the unfair labor practice case Starbucks Corporation (01-CA-305952) was resolved. That case has now been settled, and the NLRB closed the case.
Last month, Smith had asked the NLRB Regional Directors in Region 14 (covering Oklahoma City) to reinstate her petition so the NLRB can promptly schedule a secret ballot election to determine whether a majority of workers want to end union officials’ monopoly power at her store. However, instead of reinstating Smith’s petition, regional NLRB officials instead came up with a different unfair labor practice case against Starbucks to scuttle the election again, without even giving Smith a hearing to defend her petition.
“This standard has proved not only to contradict the plain text of [federal labor law], but has failed to appropriately account for the Board’s statutory mandate to conduct an election,” the Request for Review says.
Growing Momentum for Decertification
Oklahoma is a Right to Work state, meaning union payments must be voluntary and cannot be required as a condition of employment. However, under federal law, SBWU officials’ monopoly bargaining powers still allow them to impose a union contract on all employees at the store, even those who are not union members and who oppose SBWU’s so-called “representation.” A successful decertification vote would strip union officials of that extraordinary monopoly bargaining power.
The growing movement among Starbucks partners to eject unwanted union officials from their stores is part of a larger trend, with an over 50% increase in the number of decertification petitions filed annually over the last four years. Already, National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys have assisted Starbucks employees in over a dozen stores seeking votes to remove the SBWU union. However, union officials have so far manipulated federal labor law to block any decertification votes from being held.
“Employees like Amy Smith should have the fundamental right to decide who represents them in the workplace, free from unnecessary delays and bureaucratic roadblocks,” commented Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation. “The NLRB’s refusal to allow a timely vote is a clear disregard for the principles of employee free choice. We are committed to defending workers’ rights to hold unions accountable and ensuring that workers’ voices are heard.”
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.
