WASHINGTON — The High Council made it harder Thursday for the federal government to win court orders as it suspects a company of meddling in union campaigns in a case arising from a labor dispute with Starbucks.
The justices tightened the standards for when a federal court must issue an injunction to protect workers’ jobs during a unionization campaign.
The court rejected a rule that some courts had applied to National Labor Relations Board orders in favor of a higher threshold, demanded by Starbucks, that must be met in most other fights over injunctions or injunctions.
The NLRB had argued that the National Labor Relations Act, the law that governs the agency, has for more than 75 years allowed courts to issue temporary injunctions if they deem requests “just and appropriate.” The agency said the law does not require it to prove other factors and that it was intended to limit the role of the courts.
The case started in February 2022, when Starbucks seven employees laid off who were trying to unify their store in Tennessee. The NLRB obtained an injunction forcing the company to rehire the employees while the case played out the agency’s administrative procedures. Such procedures can take up to two years.
A district court judge agreed with the NLRB and issued a temporary injunction for Starbucks to rehire the employees in August 2022. After the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling, Starbucks appealed to the Supreme Court.
Five of the seven employees are still employed at the Memphis store, while the other two remain involved in the organization, according to Workers United, the union that organizes Starbucks workers. The Memphis store voted to unite in June 2022.
As the case progressed, animosity arose between them Workers united and Starbucks started to fade. The two sides announced in February that they would resume talks with the goal making contract agreements this year, and in late April they held their first negotiating session in almost a year.
According to the NLRB, employees at 437 U.S. company-owned Starbucks stores have voted to unionize as of late 2021, but none of those stores has entered into an employment contract with Starbucks.