Fired Starbucks barista back to work following court order

A BARISTA WHO was unlawfully fired from her job at a Starbucks store in Ann Arbor last year returned to work Monday after a judge ordered the coffee chain to reinstate her.

Hannah Whitbeck is the first Michigan Starbucks worker to be reinstated after being unlawfully terminated for union organizing, according to Starbucks Workers United, the union representing the employees.

“I am excited to be back in the store so I can continue to help the union effort and hold this company account- able,” Whitbeck said in a written statement. “Hopefully they will actually sit down and start bargaining in good faith with us soon so we can get the contract we are still fighting for and deserve.”

Whitbeck works at the store at 300 S. Main St., where her coworkers voted to form a union in June 2022.

At least 13 Starbucks stores in Michigan have voted to unionize, part of a wave of union activity at the coffee giant that started at a Buffalo, New York store in 2021.

In February, U.S. District Judge Mark

A. Goldsmith ruled that Starbucks illegally fired Whitbeck for union organizing and ordered the company to rehire her with back pay. The coffee giant was also ordered to hold a meeting with employees and management to notify them that the company broke the law and that workers have a right to support unionization.

In the order, Goldsmith issued the first nationwide judicial mandate preventing the coffee giant from firing workers for engaging in union activity.

At the time, Workers United alleged

Starbucks had fired more than 200 workers nationwide in retaliation for supporting union activities.

Whitbeck was fired in April 2022 after becoming the leading union organizer at the store. Starbucks countered that she was fired because she left work early, forcing another worker to manage the store alone for 20 to 30 minutes.

Goldsmith didn’t buy Starbucks’ explanation, saying there was reasonable cause to believe the company violated the National Labor Relations Act.

—Steve Neavling

Stellantis slapped with 8th violation for Jeep plant

STATE ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATORS on Thursday issued an eighth air quality violation notice for the nauseating stench wafting from Stellantis’s two-year-old Jeep assembly plant on Detroit’s east side.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) said an air-quality inspector detected “persistent and objectionable” paint odors that constitute an “unreasonable interference with the comfortable environment of life and property.”

The company was given until June 1 to respond to the violation and come up with a plan to address the odor.

Despite repeated violations for the odors dating back to September 2021, the pungent, headache-inducing smell continues to make life miserable for the predominantly Black neighborhood near the Mack Assembly Complex, which builds Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs.

Stellantis is violating its air permit and state and federal air quality rules and regulations.

In December, EGLE entered into a consent order with Stellantis to require the company to address the smell by June 30. Under the agreement, Stellantis must install a second regenerative thermal oxidizer and update its nuisance minimization plan. It must also pay the state $136,832 and install a new building management system for Southeast High School.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Detroiters who live near the plant objected to the consent agreement last year, saying it didn’t go far enough to protect residents. They called on stricter penalties for noncompliance, and some asked for reimbursements to relocate.

In November 2021, five residents filed a civil rights complaint against EGLE for allowing the plant to increase emissions of toxic contaminants. They also allege the state failed to analyze the cumulative impact of air pollution before issuing the emission permits. They called on the state to stop allowing polluters to primarily build in predominantly Black neighborhoods, saying it amounts to environmental racism.

—Steve Neavling