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• DJ Supreme Court Sides With Starbucks in Challenge to Labor Board -- Update, from 58 minutes ago by Dow Jones

  58 minutes ago by Dow Jones
  Companies Mentioned: SBUX
  By Erin Mulvaney, Heather Haddon and Jan Wolfe The Supreme Court on Thursday backed Starbucks in a battle with the National Labor Relations Board, potentially making it more difficult for the agency to take action on behalf of workers fired during union drives. The court, in an opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas, said lower courts followed an approach that was too favorable to the NLRB when they ordered the reinstatement of seven terminated Starbucks workers in Memphis who had been involved with a unionizing campaign. The employees alleged they were unlawfully fired after they started the union effort. Starbucks said it fired the workers for violating company policies. In a separate decision handed down on Thursday, the court ruled against a California man who wanted to trademark a derogatory slogan about former President Donald Trump for use on T-shirts and hats. The Starbucks case is part of a yearslong clash between the coffee giant and workers who have sought to unionize hundreds of stores. The Memphis workers, inspired by organizing at other Starbucks locations, began organizing in 2022. As part of the campaign, the workers invited a news crew to visit the store to promote the effort. They were fired soon after bringing in a television crew after hours. The group earned the moniker the "Memphis 7" and received national attention during a time of growing labor movement activism. The NLRB, which has fielded hundreds of unfair labor practice charges against Starbucks, filed a complaint over the dismissed Memphis workers and asked a federal judge to reinstate them while the board considered the case. The judge agreed and an appeals court affirmed that decision. Thomas, in an 11-page opinion, said the legal standard the lower courts used gave too much deference to the agency, adding that it was "hard to imagine" how the board could ever lose under that test. The court sent the case back for additional proceedings. Seven other justices agreed with the ruling in full. Judges around the country had been using different standards for deciding when to issue injunctions that required the reinstatement of workers. Thursday's decision means the NLRB in some jurisdictions will need to clear higher legal hurdles to win. A Starbucks spokesman said that consistent federal standards help employees know their rights and creates uniform labor practices across the country. The company is making progress in negotiations with unionized employees and aims to ratify labor agreements with represented stores this year, he said. Of the seven employees, five are still working at Starbucks, the company said. Two voluntarily left the company, but are still involved in the organizing effort. Workers United, the main union organizing Starbucks's U.S. stores, called the ruling "egregious," and said the company should have dropped the case once agreeing to move forward with bargaining. "It's incongruous to want to build a productive, positive relationship with workers and at the same time lead an attack on one of the few mechanisms they have to defend themselves against unscrupulous employers, " said Lynne Fox, international president of Workers United. The NLRB declined to comment on Thursday's decision, but referred to an April statement in which general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said the board had been successful in the past under various legal tests. In Thursday's trademark case, the high court said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was right to reject a California man's effort to claim rights to the phrase "Trump too small." The case, Vidal v. Elster, dates back to early 2016, when Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), then running for president, said then-candidate Trump had small hands. "You know what they say about men with small hands -- you can't trust them," Rubio told supporters, responding to Trump calling him "Little Marco." After that exchange, California-based lawyer Steve Elster sought to trademark "Trump too small," which he said was meant to convey that "some features of President Trump and his policies are diminutive." The patent office rejected his application, citing a provision of the federal Lanham Act that prohibits trademarking a living person's name without their authorization. The court's lead opinion, written by Thomas, said the prohibition on trademarking someone else's name doesn't discriminate against particular viewpoints and is fully consistent with the First Amendment. Write to Erin Mulvaney at erin.mulvaney@wsj.com, Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com and Jan Wolfe at jan.wolfe@wsj.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 13, 2024 18:17 ET (22:17 GMT)

• DJ Supreme Court Sides With Starbucks in Challenge to Labor Board -- WSJ, from 3 hours ago by Dow Jones

  3 hours ago by Dow Jones
  Companies Mentioned: SBUX
  
  By Erin Mulvaney, Heather Haddon and Jan Wolfe
  
  The Supreme Court on Thursday backed Starbucks in a battle with the National Labor Relations Board, potentially making it harder for the agency to stop companies from stifling union drives.
  

• US Supreme Court Backs Starbucks in Tennessee Labor Dispute, from 4 hours ago by MT Newswires

  4 hours ago by MT Newswires
  Companies Mentioned: SBUX
  02:55 PM EDT, 06/13/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Starbucks (SBUX) was handed a win by the US Supreme Court on Thursday in a unanimous ruling that overturned a lower court ruling ordering the company to reinstate seven employees who were fired after they o...

• DJ It's a New Day for Fast-Food Chains. Consumers Are More Selective. -- Barrons.com, from 4 hours ago by Dow Jones

  4 hours ago by Dow Jones
  Companies Mentioned: JACK, MCD, SBUX, CMG
  
  By Evie Liu
  
  For the past two years, rising prices at fast-food restaurants have been the main driver of their sales growth. That's changing now.
  
  As consumers become more price-sensitive and pull back their spending, companies like McDonald's and Wendy's will need to find ways to get more people in the door, according to Goldman Sachs analyst Christine Cho. Opening new restaurants faster than their rivals is part of the game, she said in a Thursday research note.
  

• Sector Update: Consumer Stocks Gain Thursday Afternoon, from 5 hours ago by MT Newswires

  5 hours ago by MT Newswires
  Companies Mentioned: LBTYA, TSLA, SBUX
  01:52 PM EDT, 06/13/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Consumer stocks edged higher Thursday afternoon with the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLP) and the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) both up 0.1%. In corporate news, Liberty ...