Starbucks Gets Fifth Circuit Win Over NLRB in Worker Firing Case

A federal appeals court overturned a National Labor Relations Board finding that Starbucks Corp. unlawfully fired a worker for his union activity.

The NLRB relied on faulty comparator evidence to back its holding that the coffee chain axed an employee at a Southern California store out of anti-union animus, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Tuesday.

The appeals court also nixed some NLRB findings that Starbucks made coercive threats, while upholding other threat holdings against the company. It endorsed the board’s ruling that Starbucks conducted an unlawful interrogation of the union supporter it later fired.

The ...