The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments in a dispute between Starbucks and the National Labor Relations Board related to the Board’s order to rehire employees who were terminated after attempting to unionize a store in Tennessee. Justices appeared to side with Starbucks in its request to make it more difficult for the NLRB to secure a judge’s intervention in cases where a business is accused of breaching labor laws.
In February 2022, the coffee company fired seven employees who allowed local reporters into a closed store to discuss their efforts to unionize. The NLRB then procured a court order that forced Starbucks to reinstate the workers while the situation was going through the board’s administrative proceedings. Earlier this year, Starbucks and Workers United returned to talks about reaching contract agreements, with the first bargaining session scheduled to occur today.
The agency said that the 1947 National Labor Relations Act gives the courts the power to enact temporary injunctions if it agrees the request is based on reasonable cause to believe that labor violations occurred and that the order would be a “just and proper” decision. A district court issued the injunction to Starbucks in August 2022, and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.
Other federal courts, however, have mandated that the NLRB meet two additional standards: That the agency would likely win the administrative case and the workers would suffer irreparable harm without the injunction.
