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The U.S. District Court building for the Western District of New York. In an unusual move, Trump appointee Judge John L. Sinatra has cracked down on worker communications with the media.
After workers in Buffalo, New York, won the first Starbucks union elections in 2021, baristas at 345 Starbucks stores in thirty-nine states across the country have filed for a union election. Employees at over 100 stores went on strike on November 17, or “Red Cup Day,” when customers swarm Starbucks stores to get a free, seasonal, reusable cup. It was the largest single-day strike of Starbucks workers in the United States. Meanwhile, the original Buffalo organizers have been embroiled in a legal battle, and the latest development has alarming implications for the future of press freedom.
In September, U.S. District Court Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. ordered Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), the employee group representing Starbucks workers, to turn over communications with journalists regarding organizing in the Buffalo region. This includes “documents, emails, texts and other electronic communication between the workers and ‘any digital, print, radio, TV, internet-based or other media outlet’ regarding its organizing efforts,” according to The Washington Post.
The order stems from a case that began in June of this year, after a complaint was filed in May with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) accusing Starbucks of more than 200 violations of labor law at nearly 20 stores in the Buffalo area. These alleged violations include more closely monitoring pro-union workers and denying them benefits, closing stores where there is union activity, and failing to bargain with the union. The petition to cease Starbucks’ alleged anti-union campaign was filed by the NLRB’s Buffalo regional director, Linda Leslie, who said she hopes that it will lead to a nation-wide court order preventing Starbucks from engaging in future union busting.
Normally, a request for private messages with journalists would be illegal, but since the order is directed at the sources rather than reporters, it is legal in the state of New York.
The request for organizers’ communications came from Starbucks corporate attorneys, which wanted to subpoena the messages as evidence for the ongoing case. Starbucks has denied any wrongdoing. Normally, this request would be illegal, but the Post reports that since the order is directed at the sources rather than reporters, it is legal in the state of New York.
The NLRB filed a motion to block Starbucks’ request, but it was overruled. SBWU is attempting to challenge the order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, putting the case on hold until a ruling is issued.
In a statement, the NewsGuild-CWA—the largest union of communications employees in North America—“strongly condemn[ed]” the order, which it argued will discourage workers from talking to reporters, thereby preventing the public from reading about labor issues.
Judge Sinatra, whom Donald Trump appointed in 2018, is a member of the Federalist Society, the notorious conservative lawyer’s group concerned with remaking the U.S. legal system in its libertarian vision. Its co-chairman is Leonard Leo, the rightwing powerbroker who in August received the largest-ever political contribution—$1.6 billion from conservative industrialist Barre Seid—to one of his nonprofits.
Founded in the 1980s, the Federalist Society began as a discussion group for conservative law students at campuses across the country. It has since expanded to become a “libertarian intellectual network” of conservative lawyers, judges, law students, and professors that has gained considerable political influence.
Amanda Hollis-Brusky, a political science professor at Pomona College and author of the book Ideas With Consequences: The Federalist Society And The Conservative Counterrevolution, discussed the role of the Federalist Society in shaping the list of Trump’s twenty-five Supreme Court nominees in 2018 with NPR: “I would say one very direct role is that Leonard Leo, who was the executive vice president of the Federal Society, took leave from the society to construct that list for President Trump,” she said. “And so that list is in many ways a product of the Federal Society and its network.”
Leo is infamous for using his dark money network to influence the Supreme Court nomination process and promoting a far-right agenda. U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has called Leo a “conservative kingmaker.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the percentage of unionized workers is lowest in the food preparation and service industries. The same report indicates that, along with Hawaii, New York is the state with the highest percentage of unionized workers.
For now, Starbucks workers and SBWU are awaiting the results of their appeal, but this order makes it clear that workers’ freedom to speak to the press about their working conditions, and journalists’ ability to share this with the public, is on the line.