Starbucks violated the National Labor Relations Act at multiple St. Louis stores

Starbucks has violated multiple parts of the National Labor Relations Act at stores in the St. Louis region, a National Labor Relations administrative law judge found this week.

Judge Robert A. Ringler found the Seattle-based coffee chain broke the law by punishing workers who wore Starbucks Workers United T-shirts.

“We knew what the outcome was going to be, at least all the (unfair labor practices) at my store of the stuff that we filed,” said Jon Gamache, a barista at the Starbucks at Lindbergh and Clayton. “It was egregious, it was black-and-white illegal.”

Gamache was among a few workers at the west St. Louis County location who received written warnings from the company for violating the dress code because they were wearing shirts with the union logo on them. Alex Barge, another barista at that Starbucks location, was also written up for wearing her union shirt.

“Through the time they were giving us this discipline we were just constantly saying: ‘This is illegal. We have a legal right to wear a union T-shirt in the store. You shouldn’t be doing this,’” she said. “So it’s very gratifying to see that the judge agreed with us.”

Starbucks also used these violations as part of their basis to fire shift supervisor Bradley Rohlf last October.

“It was a surprise, but it wasn’t unexpected,” Rohlf said. “We knew that Starbucks had terminated people before.”