Shuttered Starbucks Stores Could Reopen Following Labor Complaint

LOS ANGELES—Starbucks could be forced to reopen six Southland locations that it closed last summer, with federal regulators alleging the stores were shuttered in an effort to suppress unionization efforts by employees. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a complaint Dec. 13 questioning the closures of 23 Starbucks locations nationwide, noting that workers at more than a half-dozen of those stores had already voted to unionize with Starbucks Workers United. The NLRB called on Starbucks to reopen the locations, although the matter is expected to go before an administrative law judge sometime next year, The New York Times reported. Mari Cosgrove, a member of Starbucks Workers United, issued a statement calling the NLRB complaint “the latest confirmation of Starbucks’ determination to illegally oppose workers’ organizing. It adds to the litany of complaints detailed in the company’s own report released this morning. If Starbucks is sincere in its overtures in recent days to forge a different relationship with its partners, this is exactly the kind of illegal behavior it needs to stop.”...