Punching In: Labor Board’s Long-Awaited Quorum Is Almost Here

Monday morning musings for workplace watchers

NLRB Quorum Pending | Starbucks Strike Hits Rough Milestones

Robert Iafolla: The National Labor Relations Board will begin deciding cases as early as this week if the Senate and White House hustle.

Republican senators put the NLRB on track to regain its operating quorum late last week. They added board nominee Scott Mayer, chief labor counsel at Boeing Co., to a mega-slate of nominees that already included James Murphy, a former NLRB attorney who came out of retirement to join the board, and the agency’s general counsel nominee, Crystal Carey of Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius.

The Senate could begin a series of votes needed to clear the package of nearly 100 nominees, potentially confirming them this week. The White House will then need to finalize the necessary paperwork to formally appoint the new members—a ministerial step that caused the agency a slight headache during the Biden administration, when member David Prouty (D) served for nearly a month before the president signed his commission.

Once the new NLRB members are in place, the board will be able to start issuing opinions immediately, according to former chair Marvin Kaplan.

Kaplan, now a partner at Jackson Lewis PC, said Murphy and Mayer will likely focus on quickly deciding the cases that have piled up this year, focusing foremost on straightforward disputes.

“The backlog is berserk,” he said. “I’d advise them to get those cases out the door and not get sucked into cases that might not move because of a disagreement over the facts.”

The NLRB has decided just six cases since President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The board handed down 110 published rulings at a similar point in the Biden administration.

Kaplan said he expects Murphy and Mayer to adhere to the longstanding board tradition of not changing precedent without three votes in the affirmative.

Although that will mean waiting until the NLRB gets a third Republican appointee before the board flips any Biden-era precedent, the board can still consider aspects of some of those decisions without undermining the three-member rule, he said.

Kaplan said there are a few areas “primed for clarification.” Those include what kind of violations are sufficient to trigger a bargaining order under Cemex Construction Materials Pacific LLC and what situations would qualify as special circumstances allowing restrictions on the display of union insignia under Tesla, Inc.

“The board has long clarified decisions via two votes,” he said.

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (C) and Sen. Bernie Sanders join striking Starbucks workers in New York.

Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images

Parker Purifoy: Tensions between Starbucks and their unionized workers reached a new level recently when about a dozen baristas were arrested outside the Empire State Building in New York City.

Around 3,000 workers have been out on strike at more than 145 locations nationwide for three weeks in what is now the longest work stoppage in the company’s history, according to Starbucks Workers United.

According to Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson, the arrests took place after police asked the picketers to stop blocking entrances to the Empire State Building, which houses a three-floor Starbucks Reserve cafe and the company’s regional corporate office.

SBWU has been locked in negotiations with Starbucks for more than 18 months over a framework that could be used to negotiate individual collective bargaining agreements. The union organized 11,000 workers across the country since 2021 and inspired labor movements at other retailers including Trader Joe’s and REI, Inc.

The union says the company has been stonewalling them at the bargaining table for six months, despite CEO Brian Niccol’s pledge to get a deal over the finish line when he took the job last year. According to a Bloomberg Law analysis , it has taken an average of 465 days for new unions to get initial CBAs but it’s been more than three years since the first Starbucks locations unionized.

Union delegates voted in April to reject Starbucks’ latest contract proposal. Organizers said it fell short because it only guaranteed annual raises of at least 2% and didn’t ensure that employees would get enough hours of work to qualify for benefits. Starbucks management has said they already offer “the best job in retail,” with barista pay averaging over $19 per hour, and total compensation that’s greater than $30 an hour when counting benefits.

“We’ve been very clear that we’re ready to talk when the union is ready to return to negotiations,” Anderson said. “Instead, they are focused on staging and promoting a protest in New York City, where they represent only 200 of the 4,500 partners in NYC.”

The strike has attracted widespread political support with officials including New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) walking the picket line with them.

“While workers are on strike, I won’t be buying any Starbucks, and I’m asking you to join us,” Mamdani posted on X.

The union has turned to more public-facing action after years of seeking recourse from the NLRB. It filed thousands of unfair labor practice charges against the coffee giant, resulting in over 130 complaints from the NLRB and dozens of administrative judge decisions finding over 400 violations of federal labor law.

With Trump’s NLRB nominees poised to be confirmed by the Senate, recourse for the union through the agency may become limited.

We’re punching out. Daily Labor Report subscribers please check in for updates during the week, and feel free to reach out to us.