Judge: Starbucks violated federal labor law by withholding pay hikes from unionized workers

Starbucks violated federal labor law when it increased wages and offered new perks and benefits only to non-union employees, a National Labor Relations Board judge found Thursday.

The decision is the latest in a series of NLRB rulings finding that Starbucks has violated labor law in its efforts to stop unions from forming in its coffee shops.

"The issue at the heart of this case is whether, under current Board law, [Starbucks] was entitled to explicitly reward employees," for not participating in union activity, "while falsely telling its workers that the federal labor law forced it to take this action," wrote administrative law judge Mara-Louise Anzalone. "It was not."

In its actions, the company engaged in a "flagrant, corporate-wide attack on its employees' right to choose union representation," the judge added.

Nearly two years ago, the first Starbucks location voted to unionize, setting off a national campaign to organize. In that period, Starbucks has been fighting the effort, in some cases acting illegally, according to the NLRB's findings. Starbucks is currently facing hundreds of unfair labor practice charges.

Last year, Starbucks announced that it would raise wages for non-union employees, and offer them other new benefits. When announcing the new wage hike, Howard Schultz, then interim CEO of the company, said that '"we do not have the same freedom to make these improvements at locations that have a union or where union organizing is underway," because federal law "prohibits us from promising new wages and benefits at stores involved in union organizing."

In Thursday's decision, Anzalone said she was not convinced by that reasoning, which was reinforced by Starbucks' witness in the case.