Michael Hiltzik: How touchy-feely Starbucks became the poster child for illegal union-busting

Few American companies strive to project as warm and welcoming an image as Starbucks, in its treatment of customers and workers alike.

That may have ended with a ruling last week by a National Labor Relations Board judge, who cited the coffeehouse chain for "hundreds of unfair labor practices" amounting to "egregious and widespread misconduct demonstrating a general disregard for the employees' fundamental rights."

Administrative Law Judge Michael Rosas' ruling related to the company's response to an organizing drive by Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, in Buffalo, New York.

That region became the epicenter of a movement that has now held successful union votes at 289 of the company's roughly 9,000 locations.

One would have to look far and wide for as uncompromising a condemnation of union-busting as