Photo / Peter Van Allen
A former Starbucks store at 176 Middle St. is under construction.
Updated: December 15, 2023
Labor board says Starbucks needs to reopen a Portland location, but landlord has made other plans
photo / Peter Van Allen
The former Starbucks location at 176 Middle St. as it looked Dec. 15. A new tenant is signed for the former Starbucks space.
The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint Wednesday against Starbucks, saying it needs to reopen its coffee shop on Portland's Middle Street, but the building is undergoing renovations and a new tenant is set to take over the space.
The board claimed the Seattle-based coffee chain illegally closed 23 stores across the country and is seeking to force the company to reopen them.
The lease for 176 Middle St. expired in April.
The building's renovation is being led by the Portland office of Consigli Construction. Matt Tonello, who manages Consigli's Portland office, told Mainebiz that the building is an active construction site.
The building's landlord, Portland-based East Brown Cow, said a new tenant has been signed for the former Starbucks space. Rough & Tumble, a Maine-based leather goods store, in June signed a seven-year lease and plans to move in once construction is complete, said a Brown Cow spokesperson, Jessica James.
At the time East Brown Cow announced renovation plans, in March 2022, it said it offered ground-floor tenants the option of moving into temporary, alternative space. At the time, Starbucks indicated it planned to return to the Middle Street location.
The National Labor Relations Board said Wednesday Starbucks should immediately reopen the stores, start bargaining with those stores that are unionized, including the Portland store, offer to rehire all employees who lost their jobs at the affected stores and compensate those people for any expenses they incurred looking for work.
Starbucks has until Dec. 27 to respond to the complaint filed by the labor relations board. A hearing about the complaint is expected to take place on Aug. 20, 2024.
Labor issues
Employees at the Middle Street Starbucks location voted to unionize on Oct. 18, 2022.
The location was shut down by Dec. 23, 2022. Starbucks said at the time that the Middle Street location no longer met its needs. The Maine AFL-CIO and a U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine 1st District, said at the time that the closure was a "union-busting move."
“Workers have a fundamental freedom in this country to organize unions and collectively bargain for a better life," said Matt Schlohbohm, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO, said in a prepared statement Wednesday in reaction to the labor relation board's action. "Working people are increasingly standing together in solidarity to exercise that right to win a collective voice on the job and better pay and benefits.
“Corporations like Starbucks are not above the law even though they act like they are. Starbucks has routinely, systematically and arrogantly broken our labor laws and sought to deny workers’ rights to collectively bargain. We applaud this decision to hold Starbucks accountable and order it to reopen and respect our First Amendment freedom of association.”
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