Federal labor officials are seeking to force Starbucks to reopen three Portland stores and others across the country that the coffee giant closed in 2022, saying the closures were intended to crack down on union activity.

In a complaint filed by the National Labor Relations Board regional director in Seattle in December, the labor regulator accused Starbucks of shuttering stores with the goal of “discouraging membership in a labor organization.” At the time, Starbucks said it was closing the shops due to safety concerns and crime nearby.

The labor board official wants Starbucks to reopen 23 stores in eight states and Washington, D.C., and reinstate the workers who were “forcibly transferred to other stores” or lost their jobs as a result of the closures. Regulators also want the coffee chain to bargain in good faith with the eight unionized stores and compensate those workers for lost wages and benefits, and any expenses incurred while searching for new work.

The three Portland Starbucks stores in the complaint are:

Kayla Blado, press secretary for the National Labor Relations Board, said the complaint filed by the regional director is not a board decision and that the next step is for the two parties to discuss a settlement.

Starbucks, though, posted a response to the labor board’s complaint on its website saying the labor board’s allegations lack merit and that the company plans to defend its “lawful business decisions” to an administrative law judge at a hearing scheduled for late August.

The company said it also notified the Workers United union at represented stores before the closures and “bargained in good faith” over the effects of the closures on union workers.

“The store closures … were outcomes of regular business reviews, which assess the health and overall footprint of our store portfolio,” the coffee company said. “The difficult decision to close any store follows an extensive review process intended to advance the Starbucks experience we deliver for our partners and customers — and is done without regard to union status.”

Starbucks said it regularly closes and opens stores for various reasons. In the 2022 fiscal year, the coffee giant opened 437 new stores and closed 116 locations across the country, according to Starbucks.

“Each year as a standard course of business, we evaluate the store portfolio to determine where we can best meet our community and customers’ needs,” Sara Trilling, executive vice president of Starbucks North America, said in a statement. “This includes opening new locations, identifying stores in need of investment or renovation, exploring locations where an alternative format is needed and, in some instances, re-evaluating our footprint.”

This is not the first time Starbucks was accused of illegally closing stores over union activity. A federal labor judge last year ordered Starbucks to reopen a closed store near Buffalo, New York, and reinstate workers who had been fired for union activity. Starbucks was also ordered to reopen a shuttered store in Ithaca, New York, for similar reasons.