Union Demands Financial Disclosures From Starbucks And Its High-Powered Law Firm

The union that organized nearly 400 Starbucks stores has asked regulators to demand financial disclosures from the coffee chain and its law firm related to their long-running campaign against the organizing effort.

Workers United sent a complaint to the Labor Department on Tuesday, arguing that both Starbucks and the firm, Littler Mendelson, should have to reveal details about their relationship, including how much Starbucks is paying the firm. Starbucks has deployed dozens of Littler attorneys around the country in a two-year legal effort to blunt the organizing campaign.

The union suspects Starbucks has spent a fortune on the firm’s services – and claims the law should compel both parties to divulge numbers.

“It is difficult to imagine an employer for which there is a more compelling enforcement case than Starbucks Corporation and its consultant, Littler Mendelson, to uphold the purpose for which the disclosure laws were written,” wrote a representative for Worker United, which is part of the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union.

When employers hire consultants to dissuade workers from organizing, both the employer and the consultant are supposed to disclose their arrangement to the Labor Department for the sake of transparency. Amazon, for instance, spent more than $14 million on anti-union consultants in 2022, a fact known only because of Labor Department filings.

But in general, disclosures are required only if the consultant has direct contact with workers – not if they solely provide strategy or advice to the employer.

That carveout usually saves management-side attorneys from having to reveal how much they’re being paid to stop a union. But Workers United argues that Littler Mendelson’s