Even as talks drag on between Anti-Union Starbucks management and Workers at 640 of its stores nationwide, the monster Coffee Chain can’t resist antagonizing its Workers and continuing to break Labor Law.

And the saga of what happened more than three years ago at the Starbucks store in Sylmar, California not only illustrates the Coffee Giant’s animosity towards its Workers and Unions but also casts a spotlight - as if it is needed - on the multitude of problems with U.S. Labor Law.

Talk about “justice delayed is justice denied” - the case of the Starbucks Workers in Sylmar is a case study.

The antagonism occurred when the Sylmar Workers tried to vote in 2022 to join the Starbucks Workers United Union, but the firm’s law-breaking - including threats to withhold raises, coercive interrogations, and an outright firing of a top Pro-Union Worker, was so outrageous that the Workers lost the vote in mid-2022.

They filed an Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) complaint and won a ruling against Starbucks from National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge Ira Sandron in December 2023.

But that isn’t the end of the story.

Now the whole mess in Sylmar is in Federal Appellate Court in New Orleans, one of the most-Conservative Courts in the U.S., dominated by Donald Trump-named judges.

The original National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935 says it is U.S. policy to have Workers organize both for improving their lot and for protecting themselves against bosses.

But FDR’s Labor Secretary, Frances Perkins, and Senate sponsor Robert F. Wagner, Sr. (Democrat-New York) assumed employers would obey the law, breaking it only in rare instances.

So to encourage peaceful settlements, penalties started low and have stayed low.

The assumption hasn’t changed, but 90 years of employer hatred of Unions for their Workers shows it’s flat wrong.

When bosses break the law, they do so intentionally, often with a wink-wink-nod-nod from hired “persuaders” - Union-Busters, who tell them of the law’s weak penalties: Small fines, we-won’t-do-it-again notices and maybe a re-run election.

It costs a company much more to endanger a species under environmental law or to violate someone’s Civil Rights than it does to break a Worker’s rights under Labor Law.

And in labor law cases, the company - the employer, does so intentionally - and doesn’t give a damn.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: NLRB’s ruling for Calif. Starbucks workers illustrates labor law’s problems – People's World