However, Judge Gollin dismissed most of these claims. Notably, he ruled that Ledwon was within her rights to remove union flyers from a backroom area, as employees had not previously been allowed to post nonwork-related materials there.
“The board has held that there is no statutory right of employees or a union to use an employer’s bulletin board. But if an employer allows its employees to post nonwork-related items, it cannot legally prohibit union postings,” Judge Gollin explained in his decision. “Here, there is no evidence that employees previously posted nonwork-related materials.”
The judge also rejected the notion that Ledwon had made vague threats of retaliation when she told Victor that she would continue to remove the flyers if workers put them back up.
The Threshold for a Bargaining Order
The heart of the legal battle centered on whether Starbucks’ actions were severe enough to have influenced the outcome of the election. Under NLRB precedent, even a single violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in the lead-up to a union vote can justify a bargaining order—but only if it is deemed substantial enough to have impacted the election.
