More workers say Starbucks retaliated for union efforts: ‘I lost everything when they fired me’

US employee rights agency issues growing number of complaints against coffee chain as hundreds of stores try to form unions

In April 2022, Hannah Whitbeck, a barista at a Starbucks store in Ann Arbor, Michigan was fired just weeks after she helped file for a union election at her store, which many employees voted in favor of shortly after her termination.

Whitbeck filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging her termination was in retaliation for union organising. On 7 October, a judge with the NLRB ruled she was illegally fired, ordering her reinstatement with back pay and the arrangement of a meeting to clarify workers' rights and how Starbucks broke the law.