Starbucks leader grilled by Senate over anti-union actions

Longtime Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz insisted the coffee chain hasn’t broken labor laws and is willing to bargain with unionized workers during an often testy, two-hour appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

But he also was firm in his stance that the Seattle coffee giant already provides good wages and benefits and doesn’t need a union. And he pointed out that only around 1 percent of Starbucks’ 250,000 U.S. employees have elected to join a union.

“We’ve done everything that we possibly can to respect the right under the law of our partners’ ability to join a union,” Schultz said. “But conversely, we have consistently laid out our preference, without breaking any law, of communicating to our people what we believe is our vision for the company.”

At least 293 of Starbucks’ 9,000 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since late 2021, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Starbucks Workers United, the labor group seeking to unionize stores, has yet to reach a contract agreement with the company at any Starbucks store.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Independent who has been a vocal supporter of Starbucks labor organizers, accused the company of stalling. He said multiple federal courts and administrative judges at the NLRB have found Starbucks guilty of hundreds of labor law violations , including firing labor organizers and illegally closing unionized stores.