US Supreme Court Backs Starbucks Over Fired Pro-Union Workers
14th June 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court sided on Thursday with Starbucks (SBUX.O), opens new tab in the coffee chain’s challenge to a judicial order to rehire seven Memphis employees fired as they sought to unionize in a ruling that could make it harder for courts to quickly halt labor practices contested as unfair under federal law.
The justices unanimously threw out a lower court’s approval of an injunction sought by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordering Starbucks to reinstate the workers while the agency’s in-house administrative case against the Seattle-based company proceeds.
The justices ruled that lower courts had used an improper legal standard – one that Starbucks argued was too lenient – to issue a preliminary injunction requested by the agency under a federal law called the National Labor Relations Act.