NLRB rules Starbucks illegally fired Michigan worker

Yahoo Finance's Alexis Keenan discusses labor relations between Starbucks and unions as negotiations are expected to ramp up in October.

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AKIKO FUJITA: Well, Starbucks unionization movement kicking into high gear with talks ramping up. More than 200 stores nationwide have joined the movement. There's pressure on the coffee giant to engage that's growing from both workers, shareholders, and regulators. Let's bring in Yahoo Finance's Alexis Keenan. With a broad state of play right now and in many ways, Friday was a big step--

ALEXIS KEENAN: It was.

AKIKO FUJITA: --in sort of resolving where we are.

ALEXIS KEENAN: Yeah, so let's talk about what happened. But first, let's kind of look at the state of affairs for Starbucks and this unionization push by its baristas across its retail stores in the US. You have among its 900-- or 9,000, rather, corporate owned US stores, about 220 of them have unionized so far. Also, the number of union votes that have been held as of Thursday, 309 ballot counts, 248 of those ending in yes votes to unionize, 54 of those saying no, and 7 under a challenge right now.

But Friday was significant, and there's two reasons for that. One is that it was the first time that workers in Arkansas have chosen to go ahead and petition to unionize. And that brings the number of states that actually have unionized stores to 38 among the 50 states. And it also, Friday, was the first time that the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board, ruled that Starbucks illegally fired one of its workers. And that was for taking part in unionization activity.

So that's kind of a big deal, right, for the Labor Board to say, for the first time, among a lot of complaints that have been filed-- there are 35 filed so far-- that, yes, Starbucks was in the wrong here. And as a consequence, what Starbucks is going to have to do is, it's going to, A, reinstate that employee's job, give that employee back pay, but also have a meeting with the Starbucks workers there. And this is Ann Arbor, Michigan, by the way.

The Starbucks workers, its management, as well as government, has to take part in the talks, where it's going to have to read a notice about what exactly was illegal about its actions. So it's going to have to have this sort of mea culpa and get everybody together and say, these are your rights. Now, as for Starbucks' part, we reached out to Starbucks. We haven't heard back yet, but the company has told Bloomberg that these claims that were in this complaint for this Ann Arbor worker, they called them categorically false.

So, just a lot of changes here for Starbucks. And the company is continuing to fight these challenges, these efforts by their workers across the country to unionize. So just a bit of pressure here, particularly on Friday. So kind of a big turn with this NLRB decision coming down.

AKIKO FUJITA: And you talk about the various pressure points that are mounting against Starbucks. Another one coming from the New York City comptroller. What do we know about that?

ALEXIS KEENAN: Right, so I will have to get back to you with more information on that. I haven't been focusing on that as much, Akiko. But certainly, the-- New York has wanted Starbucks to go ahead and follow the rules that the National Labor Relations Board lays out for these push-- these petitions by workers to follow what is required under law for these elections to take place.

AKIKO FUJITA: OK, staying on top of it for us. Alexis Keenan, thanks so much for that.