March 8, 2006
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A settlement between Starbucks Coffee Co. and the National Labor Relations Board over labor practices opens the way for a union to organize coffee shop employees, a union representative said on Wednesday.
Starbucks has agreed to drop policies prohibiting sharing written union information and wearing union pins on company property, and will not promise workers promotions to discourage union support, according to a copy of the agreement posted on the website (http://www.starbucksunion.org/files/usgovsettle.pdf) of the IWW Starbucks Workers Union.
"The U.S. government's agreement with Starbucks represents a major victory for the right of Starbucks baristas around the country to join a union," said Daniel Gross, a union organizer.
The Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW, was not part of the settlement, although its charges of unfairness led to an NLRB investigation.
Starbucks, which did not admit to wrongdoing, said in a statement on Wednesday that it had no unionized stores and preferred that there not be a union. But it said that it would allow organizing. It also agreed to offer to rehire two workers and pay nearly $2,000 to others.
"We ... believe firmly that our progressive, positive work environment, coupled with our outstanding compensation and benefits, make unions unnecessary at Starbucks," said the company, which has about 7,600 coffee shops in the United States.
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