Published
October 14, 2024
A simple fact of life in the American economy is that if you're not happy in your job, you can always find another one. This flexibility is one of the great advantages of our free enterprise system.
For the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), however, pointing this out to a worker is coercive and merits punishment. Such is the case in a recent ruling against Starbucks, a company the NLRB has spent a lot of time criticizing over the past few years.
In April 2022, then-CEO Howard Schultz attended an employee meeting held in Long Beach, California. During the course of the meeting, Schultz asked one of the workers why she seemed angry at Starbucks. In her response, she mentioned pending unfair labor practice charges against the company. At that point, Schultz told her that, "if you're not happy at Starbucks, you can go work for another company."
The administrative law judge (ALJ) in the case admitted that the employee was not disciplined, was not told that she would be fired or asked about her union activity, and was paid for her time at the meeting. Nonetheless, the ALJ found Starbucks guilty because, he claimed, Schultz's statement would "have a reasonable tendency to coerce employees in the exercise of their Section 7 rights" by "inviting the employee to quit."
Fair enough. But Schultz did not invite the employee to quit; he merely pointed out that she was free to work elsewhere if she chose to do so. Later in the ALJ decision, the judge stated "it is irrefutable that Schultz told Hall to quit" (emphasis added). If he did, in fact, tell her to quit, that would be a stronger case. But that is not what the ALJ quoted Schultz as saying earlier in his own decision.
Nonetheless, the Board upheld the ALJ ruling. This is on par with the NLRB's ongoing campaign to stifle on employer speech rights. Eventually, courts will rule on the legality of the agency's attempt to shut down employer speech (while leaving unions free to say virtually anything to workers). Until then, we can expect to see more unbalanced decisions coming from the NLRB.
About the authors
Glenn Spencer
Spencer oversees the Chamber’s work on immigration, retirement security, traditional labor relations, human trafficking, wage hour and worker safety issues, EEOC matters, and state labor and employment law.
