(MENAFN) On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Starbucks' challenge to a judicial ruling mandating the rehiring of seven employees at a Memphis, Tennessee café. The federal agency determined that these workers were terminated by the coffee chain for supporting unionization.
Starbucks is appealing a lower court decision that suggested the company discouraged employees from exercising their labor rights by firing the Memphis workers in 2022. This case marks the first involving the ongoing nationwide campaign to unionize Starbucks stores.
The Memphis store is among the 370-plus Starbucks locations in the U.S. to unionize since 2021, a significant shift for the historically non-union Seattle-based company.
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found Starbucks guilty of unlawfully terminating the Memphis employees to undermine the union drive and send a message to other workers. U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman in Memphis granted an injunction compelling Starbucks to rehire the workers, a decision upheld by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2023.
Starbucks argued that it fired the workers for violating a safety policy by opening the store without consent and allowing journalists inside. Although the company rehired the seven employees last year to comply with Lipman's order, it continued to appeal the 6th Circuit decision to the Supreme Court.
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