In today’s news and commentary, the NLRB prohibits some employer unionization threats; five thousand UC workers unionize; and exit polls show continued union support for Democrats. 

On Friday, the National Labor Relations Board held employer warnings about changes to unionizing workers’ relationship with management are no longer categorically permissible under federal labor law, overturning a 39-year precedent. Starbucks management told unionizing employees at its Seattle Roastery that “if you want to maintain a direct relationship with leadership, you’ll [vote] no” on unionization. That statement would have been permissible under the Board’s 1985 decision in Tri-Cast Inc., which held “‘there is no threat, either explicit or implicit,’ in explaining to workers that organizing changes their dynamic with the company.” But the Biden Board disagreed. “[T]he purposes of the [National Labor Relations] Act are better served if the content and context of such statements are analyzed on a case-by-case basis,” the Board said, citing the Supreme Court’s 1969 decision in NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co. In overturning Tri-Cast, the Board determined its updated rule would apply only prospectively, clearing Starbucks of the unfair labor practice charge in this case. Nonetheless, the Board found the coffee giant violated federal labor law in several other ways – including by making illegal threats to employees that unionization would be futile and result in the reduction or elimination of benefits. Starbucks has accumulated hundreds of labor law violations as workers at over 500 storefronts push towards bargaining. 

On Friday, approximately five thousand University of California workers filed to form a union. The bargaining unit, which hopes to affiliate with the United Auto Workers, would encompass student services and advising workers across the UC system. “There’s still so many of us, including me, that struggle to make ends meet, pay for the high cost of living in different places in California across all of our different campuses and have opportunities for professional growth,” Nandini Inmula, a career services worker at UCLA, told the Daily Bruin in an interview. “This is a movement and a campaign that is really long overdue.” UC is unlikely to challenge the union drive. “The University values our employees’ right to organize, and we respect that there is a majority of support among student services and advising professionals who are currently not represented by a union to pursue the organization of a bargaining unit to represent them,” a UC spokesperson said in a statement.

Exit polls indicate union voters were one of the few groups voting blocs that did not substantially shift towards President-Elect Donald Trump and the GOP in Tuesday’s election. Vice President Kamala Harris won union households by 55 to 43 percent, roughly in line with President Joe Biden’s 56 to 40 percent margin. “There were much bigger issues afoot for Democrats in this election, but if you’re looking for bright spots, labor was one of them,” said AFL-CIO deputy director for public affairs Steve Smith. Union support wasn’t enough to put Harris over the edge in the union stronghold battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Nevada. And several major unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, International Association of Fire Fighters, International Longshoremen’s Association, and the United Mine Workers of America, declined to endorse Harris.