Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz defended the company's labor practices, garnering both praise and criticism from lawmakers in a U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on March 29.
The hearing covered union-busting allegations against Starbucks, the reasons why nonunionized workers are receiving better benefits and raises than unionized workers, and the reasons why bargaining talks have been unproductive so far. Schultz said the company has not broken federal labor law.
In recent years, about 300 Starbucks stores in the United States have voted to join a union, but none have formed a collective bargaining agreement with the company yet. The company must negotiate with each store individually, and it wants to do so in person, not on Zoom, for safety and privacy reasons, Schultz said.
Bargaining meetings in Minnesota lasted less than six minutes, according to Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn.
"That seems to me a failure to negotiate in good faith," she said. The company's representatives left the meetings after union representatives began Zoom calls for others to join the discussions, Schultz said.
NLRB Complaints and Lawsuits
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed more than 80 complaints against Starbucks for violating federal labor laws, and judges have found that Starbucks broke the law 130 times across six states since workers began organizing in the fall of 2021, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., reported
Specifically, an NLRB panel...
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