Starbucks, NLRB Square Up Once Again Over Make-Whole Remedies

Starbucks Corp. is taking aim again in federal court this week to undo one of the first National Labor Relations Board orders ever levied against the company.

The coffee giant will urge the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to vacate a 2023 NLRB ruling that ordered it to rehire a Michigan union organizer and compensate her for damages incurred from her unlawful firing during oral arguments Thursday. The NLRB is seeking enforcement of that order.

The case provides another opportunity for big businesses to target the board’s 2022 Thryv Inc. doctrine, which allows the agency to order ...