A month after his return to Starbucks as interim CEO, Howard Schultz has announced new benefits, including expanded training, improved sick leave and credit card tipping for some 240,000 Starbucks employees at more than 8,800 stores across the country — but not for those that are unionizing.
"We do not have the same freedom to make these improvements at locations that have a union or where union organizing is underway," Schultz said on a conference call with shareholders on Tuesday.
Starbucks said all employees, including those at stores that are unionizing, would receive the wage hikes that were first announced last October. On August 1, employees will get either a 3% raise or $15 dollars hour, whichever is higher, and tenured hourly employers will get even bigger raises.
The announcement comes as more than 230 Starbucks stores have filed petitions for union elections and about 50 stores have voted to join the national union Workers United since December, making it one of the most significant union drives in America.
Schultz hinted that Starbucks might move to exclude unionized stores from new benefits in comments to store managers over a video call in mid-April. At the time, he said he had just learned that Starbucks is not permitted by law to offer new benefits to a store that voted for a union while they are in the collective bargaining process.
Workers United called Schultz's assertion "dead wrong" and filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor...
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