The daily business briefing: March 2, 2023

A judge accuses Starbucks of 'egregious' labor-law violations, Eli Lilly slashes insulin prices, and more

Starbucks
(Image credit: Stephen Chernin/Getty Images)

1. Judge says Starbucks violated labor laws in effort to stop union

A federal administrative law judge ruled Wednesday that Starbucks tried to stop union-organizing campaigns at its coffee stores with "egregious and widespread" labor-law violations. Judge Michael Rosas ordered the company to reopen closed stores and provide back pay and damages to employees who started the nationwide effort to unionize Starbucks employees. Rosas wrote in his order that the company showed "a general disregard for the employees' fundamental rights," retaliating against employees affiliated with Starbucks Workers United. The case covered complaints of unfair labor practices at 21 Buffalo-area stores. Since the union drive began, 268 of Starbucks' 9,000 company-owned U.S. stores have unionized. Starbucks called the ruling "inappropriate," saying the workers were fired for violating company policies, not in retaliation for union affiliation.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.