Labor Board Sues Starbucks, Says Nassau Store Union-Busted Staff

GREAT NECK, NY — In another development in the battle between employees of a Great Neck Starbucks who tried to unionize and the giant corporation, a labor board has filed a lawsuit against the store's management, alleging they retaliated against the union organizers.

Filed Wednesday, the federal lawsuit is one of several the National Labor Relations Board filed this year on behalf of staff at the Starbucks, located at 6 Great Neck Rd. The employees filed a petition in February to unionize under Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.

The leader of the efforts to unionize, Joselyn Chuquillanqui, was fired in July. Starbucks cited tardiness as the reason, but Chuquillanqui asserts that the termination was retaliation for her efforts to organize the employees. She has worked at Starbucks for over six years, she said.

On August 2, the board filed an unfair labor practice lawsuit against the retailer, saying it reduced Chuquillanqui's hours "in retaliation for her union activities."

A Starbucks spokesperson shared a statement with Patch:

“We have fully honored the process laid out by the National Labor Relations Board and have encouraged our partners to exercise their right to vote in union elections. In May 2022, partners at our Great Neck store in New York made clear their decision to maintain a direct employment relationship with Starbucks. We strongly disagree with the merits of today’s filing and look forward to sharing the facts and addressing inaccuracies as we work side-by-side with our partners to reinvent Starbucks for the future.”

The new suit details several incidences of the managers at the store threatening employees if they unionized. The board says managers told staff "it would be futile for them to select the Union as their collective-bargaining representative by telling them that they would not be able to remove the Union as their representative after having selected the Union and that they would not be able to improve their wages, benefits and other working conditions if they chose to be represented by the Union."

The lawsuit also says managers "threatened to reduce employees’ wages by threatening employees with the loss of opportunities to work in Respondent’s other facilities beyond the Great Neck Store; threatening employees with loss of employment if they select the Union as their bargaining representative; threatening employees that they would be required to participate in strikes; threatening employees that they would have no choice but to have Union dues deducted from their paychecks if they were represented by the Union," among over a dozen allegations of anti-union pressure.

The February union petition made by Great Neck employees was one of four that day: stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn also filed petitions, joining over 50 in the United States that began the unionization process.