Starbucks Union Letter Held Illegal Threats, NLRB Judge Says

A letter sent by Starbucks Corp. management to unionizing workers in Washington and Oregon contained unlawful threats and misleading statements, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled.

Starbucks’ “Dear Partners” letter to workers at three stores in 2022 crossed the line from legitimate expression of the employer’s beliefs to illegal threats, said NLRB Administrative Law Judge Eleanor Laws in her ruling Monday.

The letter, posted in stores in Seattle, Wash. and Eugene, Ore., stated that benefits and wages would be “frozen” during negotiations, which Laws said could be reasonably interpreted as a threat by the workers.

Starbucks has previously run ...