Labor unions ask UN body to probe Starbucks' use of legal loopholes

By Hilary Russ

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Labor unions on Thursday asked a United Nations agency to investigate whether gaps in U.S. law have allowed Starbucks Corp to allegedly violate the rights of baristas organizing at the coffee chain's cafes, a filing seen by Reuters showed.

The complaint to the International Labour Organization (ILO), a U.N. workers' rights watchdog in Geneva, relies on the same set of standards that Starbucks shareholders used in March, when they approved a proposal for an independent review of the company's labor practices.

Critics say the company's firing of activists and closing of unionized stores violate ILO principles, which Starbucks explicitly agreed to follow in its 2020 Global Human Rights Statement.

Employees at more than 300 U.S. corporate-owned Starbucks locations have voted to unionize since late 2021, but none have yet struck a deal for working conditions and wages.

Since late April, three Starbucks locations in New York have asked to vote on whether to kick the union out of their stores.

The company has denied retaliating against organizers, accused federal labor officials of improper conduct and says it respects workers' rights to organize but prefers direct relations with employees.

Starbucks said in a statement that the National Labor Relations Act provides due process "if deployed appropriately."

"Starbucks has a decades-long record of demonstrating its commitment to all partners in the United States and elsewhere," it said.

It "has not created excessive delays in the organizing process as alleged" and "in the vast majority of elections, Starbucks has accepted the will of the voting partners and has sought to engage in good faith in person collective bargaining negotiations," it said.

It also said that Workers United, the union representing baristas, has confirmed only 23% of the bargaining sessions proposed by the company.

In Thursday's complaint against the United States, unions claim that U.S. laws and enforcement mechanisms are "woefully inadequate to deal with a big, powerful employer determined to crush union organizing."

The Service Employees International Union, its affiliate Workers United and the AFL-CIO claim the United States lacks speedy ways to decide labor disputes as required under ILO standards, allowing Starbucks to exploit "excessive delays to frustrate organizing and bargaining rights."

The complaint requests an "on-the-spot mission" to interview Starbucks management, workers, union staffers and government officials.

(Reporting by Hilary Russ; Editing by Richard Chang and Chizu Nomiyama)