Starbucks Workers Testify Before Senate HELP Committee as Scrutiny of Coffee Giant’s Illegal Union-Busting Campaign Intensifies
Scores of baristas from coast-to-coast travel to DC hearing, demand accountability from former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Contact: Casey Moore, starbucksmedia@workers-united.org, 302-985-1417; Shannon Garth-Rhodes, shannon.garth-rhodes@seiu.org, 832-545-1851
Washington D.C. – In a jam-packed hearing room, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Wednesday heard testimony from Maggie Carter and Jaysin Saxton about the illegal retaliation they faced for organizing with Starbucks Workers United and grilled former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz about his role in leading one of the most vicious union-busting campaigns in U.S. history.
Scores of Starbucks workers from across the country traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the hearing, where Schultz was forced to answer for the company’s illegal retaliation against workers who joined together to organize a union in their stores. Schultz only agreed to testify under threat of subpoena.
In a Senate office packed with baristas wearing Starbucks Workers United shirts, Georgia Starbucks worker and U.S. Coast Guard veteran Saxton shared his experience being terminated after leading the union drive at a Starbucks store in Augusta, Georgia – an act identified as illegal retaliation by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
“Starbucks and big corporations have a lot of power and money and they are willing to pull out all the stops to deny workers a voice and a seat at the table in a union. That’s why I am thrilled to be here today–to have witnessed firsthand Howard Schultz being held to account for his company’s illegal behavior,” said Saxton. “We are coming together to demand better pay, affordable health coverage, and stronger safety procedures. I’m proud to be a leader of this new labor movement. We’re taking on corporate power and fighting for all of us.”
Tennessee Starbucks worker and single mother Carter echoed Saxton’s experience, recounting the repeated threats and retaliation she faced while leading her store’s organizing effort. Both Carter and Saxton also shared their demands for Starbucks and what they hope to see under new CEO Laxman Narasinham’s leadership.
“To Starbucks’ new CEO, Laxman Narasinham, you have an opportunity to chart a different course, to truly make Starbucks the ‘different kind of company’ Schultz promised, but failed, epically, to produce,” said Carter. “This is a chance for your company to stop its unprecedented campaign of union busting and instead partner with us, your so-called partners, and our union to build a company that truly lives up to its stated progressive values.”
HELP Committee members echoed workers’ concerns and grilled Schultz on Starbucks' union-busting campaign, forcing him to answer for the organization's unlawful retaliation against workers.
“Over the past 18 months, Starbucks has waged the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country,” said U.S Sen. Bernie Sanders. “On the one hand, these workers are out there struggling today to achieve dignity and justice on the job. That’s what they’re trying to do and I applaud their efforts. On the other hand, we have a corporation worth $113 billion, largely controlled by an individual worth some $4 billion, who are using their unlimited resources – legal and illegal – to deny these workers their constitutional right to form a union. The fundamental question is whether we have a system of justice that applies to all or whether we have a system where billionaires can violate the law with impunity.”
Under fire from senators, Schultz repeatedly said he prefers the company to have a direct relationship with employees without a union getting in the middle, and asserted Starbucks is a model employer, but failed to respond when senators asked him if he understood workers have a right to organize, regardless of the company’s preference. He insisted over and over that Starbucks has not broken the law, even when Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) highlighted repeated and systemic instances where the National Labor Relations Board has found Starbucks broke the law, incredulously comparing the company to someone who racked up 100 speeding tickets and argued the cops were wrong every time.
“You’re a billionaire,” said U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minnesota). “And they are your employees. The imbalance of power is extreme and that is why people want to come together to form a union.”
The hearing came the week after thousands of baristas went on strike in scores of cities nationwide and held a major protest outside the company’s headquarters to demand basic rights like livable wages with consistent scheduling, safe and respectful workplaces, and the right to organize free from fear and intimidation.
“The American people are watching,” said U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts). “I see you squeezing the people who have made you rich with blatant disregard for the law. Perhaps, because you think if you can hire the lawyers and pay the union busting consulting firms, you can get away with violating other people’s rights, disregarding their dignity and silencing working people in America.”
Trouble Brewing for Starbucks
Today’s Senate HELP Committee hearing and last week’s strike and protest are the culmination of years of organizing efforts. Since December 2021, more than 7,000 Starbucks workers have organized over 280 stores, demanding Starbucks respect workers’ fundamental right to organize and bargain a fair contract with their workers.
In this same time period, regional offices of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) have issued more than 70 official complaints against Starbucks, prosecuting the company for over 1,300 specific alleged violations of federal labor law, including accusations that former CEO Howard Schultz personally threatened a worker who expressed support for organizing. To date, NLRB Administrative Law Judges have issued nine decisions, eight of which collectively found that the company has committed 130 violations, including illegally monitoring and firing organizers, calling the police on workers, and outright closing a store that recently attempted to organize.
Two weeks ago, U.S. Senator Cory Booker and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) sent a letter to Schultz lambasting the company’s “blatant anti-union behavior” and calling on him to bargain in good faith with his workers.
Starbucks Workers United earlier this month sent a letter to shareholders urging them to vote for a third-party assessment of the company’s commitment to uphold workers rights, arguing Starbucks’ anti-union actions run counter to the company’s International Labour Organization commitments. Two proxy advisory firms, International Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, have already recommended Starbucks shareholders vote in favor of the proposal from Trillium Asset Management, the New York City Pension Funds and other investors.
And last month, Starbucks baristas filed dozens of complaints with New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, alleging violations of the city’s Fair Workweek law.
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