Federal labor regulators accused Starbucks on Wednesday of illegally closing 23 shops to suppress organizing exercise and sought to pressure the corporate to reopen them.

A grievance issued by a regional workplace of the Nationwide Labor Relations Board argued that Starbucks had closed the shops as a result of its workers engaged in union actions or to discourage workers from doing so. At the least seven of the 23 shops recognized had unionized.

The company’s transfer is the most recent in a sequence of accusations by federal officers that Starbucks has damaged the regulation throughout a two-year labor marketing campaign.

The case is scheduled to go earlier than an administrative decide subsequent summer season except Starbucks settles it earlier. Along with asking the decide to order the shops reopened, the grievance desires workers to be compensated for the lack of earnings or advantages and for different prices they incurred on account of the closures.

“This grievance is the most recent affirmation of Starbucks’ dedication to illegally oppose employees’ organizing,” Mari Cosgrove, a Starbucks worker, mentioned in an announcement issued by a spokesperson for the union, Staff United.

A Starbucks spokesman mentioned, “Every year as a regular course of enterprise, we consider the shop portfolio” and sometimes open, shut or alter shops. The corporate mentioned it opened a whole lot of latest shops final yr and closed greater than 100, of which about 3 p.c had been unionized.

The union marketing campaign started in 2021 within the Buffalo, N.Y., space, the place two shops unionized that December, earlier than spreading throughout the nation. Greater than 350 of the corporate’s roughly 9,300 corporate-owned areas have unionized.

The labor board has issued greater than 100 complaints masking a whole lot of accusations of unlawful habits by Starbucks, together with threats or retaliation in opposition to employees concerned in union exercise and a failure to cut price in good religion. Administrative judges have dominated in opposition to the corporate on greater than 30 events, although the corporate has appealed these choices to the complete labor board in Washington. Judges have dismissed fewer than 5 of the complaints.

Not one of the unionized shops have negotiated a labor contract with the corporate, and bargaining has largely stalled. Final week, Starbucks wrote to Staff United saying it wished to renew negotiations.

Based on Wednesday’s grievance, Starbucks managers introduced the closing of 16 shops in July 2022, then introduced a number of extra closures over the subsequent few months.

An administrative decide previously ruled that Starbucks had illegally closed a unionized retailer in Ithaca, N.Y., and ordered employees reinstated with again pay, however the firm has appealed that call.

The brand new grievance was issued on the identical day that Starbucks launched a nonconfidential model of an outdoor evaluation of whether or not its practices align with its said dedication to labor rights. The corporate’s shareholders had voted to again the evaluation in a nonbinding vote whose outcomes had been introduced in March.

The creator of the report, Thomas M. Mackall, a former management-side lawyer and labor relations official on the meals and amenities administration firm Sodexo, wrote that he “discovered no proof of an ‘anti-union playbook’ or directions or coaching about find out how to violate U.S. legal guidelines.”

However Mr. Mackall concluded that Starbucks officers concerned in responding to the union marketing campaign didn’t seem to know how the corporate’s Global Human Rights Statement would possibly constrain their response. The rights assertion commits Starbucks to respecting workers’ freedom of affiliation and participation in collective bargaining.

Mr. Mackall cited managers’ “allegedly illegal guarantees and threats” and “allegedly discriminatory or retaliatory self-discipline and discharge” as areas the place Starbucks may enhance.

In a letter tied to the report’s launch, the chair of the corporate’s board and an impartial director mentioned the evaluation was clear that “Starbucks has had no intention to deviate from the ideas of freedom of affiliation and the proper to collective bargaining.” On the similar time, the letter added, “there are issues the corporate can, and will, do to enhance its said commitments and its adherence to those vital ideas.”