Starbucks Corp. Interim Chief Executive Howard Schultz agreed to testify March 29 before a key US Senate panel, averting a planned Wednesday committee vote to compel him to answer questions on alleged labor law violations.
(Bloomberg) — Starbucks Corp. Interim Chief Executive Howard Schultz agreed to testify March 29 before a key US Senate panel, averting a planned Wednesday committee vote to compel him to answer questions on alleged labor law violations.
Schultz’s decision wards off a formal subpoena and follows a months-long battle with Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. The longtime Starbucks leader refused Sanders’ earlier invitation to testify about complaints filed to the US National Labor Relations Board alleging that the coffee chain used illegal tactics to thwart union organizing efforts.
The March 29 testimony from Schultz, who will appear solo, will allow the company to first get through its annual shareholder meeting this month and also a planned CEO transition, Andrew Trull, a Starbucks spokesperson, said Tuesday.
Laxman Narasimhan will take the reigns from Schultz starting April 1, and will be faced with the union push at some of Starbucks’ US cafes that first began in 2019.
“It is clear to everybody that Mr. Schultz who sets the policy of that company,” Sanders said at a news conference. “He’s been clear about it, and it is he who has got to defend his actions and not send some subordinate.”
Sanders added that he will demand that Starbucks management end “stalling tactics” in the face of union organizing drives. While workers at more than 280 Starbucks locations have voted to form a union in the last year, the company hasn’t signed a single contract, Sanders said.
“They understand that it is cheaper to break the law than to follow it,” Sanders said.
US National Labor Relations Board prosecutors have issued complaints accusing Starbucks of illegal anti-union tactics including threats, store shutdowns, and terminations of about 50 activists. Federal judges have ordered the company to reinstate some of those fired employees. Last week a group of white-collar Starbucks employees and managers released an open letter condemning the alleged union-busting, increasing the pressure on executives.
Starbucks has said repeatedly that all claims of anti-union activity there are “categorically false.”
–With assistance from Leslie Patton and Josh Eidelson.
(Adds Sanders’ comments starting in fifth paragraph)
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