Starbucks allegedly continues to deploy unlawful tactics in an attempt to frustrate the ongoing organizing efforts unfolding at dozens of its cafes across the country. On Tuesday, the firm discharged seven members of a Memphis store’s bargaining committee, claiming they had violated company safety and security protocols. However, one of the dischargees, a shift supervisor, insists she had never heard of such policies, much less seen them enforced. The employees reportedly intend to file unfair labor practice charges with the Board in connection with the dismissals. The fact that even in such a high-profile context the existing labor law regime is so plainly unable to deter a major employer from disregarding its employees’ statutory rights to organize and join unions underscores the need for legislative reform.

A bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. Senate on Monday aims to eliminate forced labor overseas by obligating transnational corporations “to disclose the use of forced labor in their direct supply chain.” The legislation, sponsored by Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), prescribes hefty civil and punitive damages for firms which fail to uncover and publicly disclose forced labor in their supply chains. Hawley, often identified as a purportedly populist, pro-worker Republican, declared in a press release that “the scourge of global slave labor must end and multinational corporations complicit in this moral atrocity must be held accountable.”

On the West Coast, the California legislature passed a bill on Monday requiring that most employers in the state provide up to two weeks of paid sick leave to any of their employees who are unable to work for Covid-related reasons. A similar state program expired in September 2021, and the updated legislation is retroactive to January 1, 2022. Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming days.