Conflict Between Starbucks And US Baristas Is Developing, Howard Schultz To Testify Before Senate Committee
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There is an increase in support for workers' organizations. Baristas voted to form the first union in one of the US coffee giant's 50-year history. The vote was a success for employees, and Starbucks has struggled ever since.
Schultz vs Sanders
Starbucks interim chief executive Howard Schultz has agreed to testify before a Senate committee over an 18-month standoff between the company and American baristas seeking to unionise.
Sanders, an independent who is chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Work and Pensions, accused the company of disregarding federal employment law, allegations the company denies. Sanders claimed that Starbucks under Schultz "did everything possible to prevent" unionization and collective bargaining.
The company and Starbucks Workers United have held dozens of store-level negotiation sessions since October last year, but have yet to agree on a deal. Both sides said they remained in disagreement over how negotiations should take place.
Sanders has criticized Starbucks for not yet ratifying a union agreement in any of its stores and wants his committee to investigate Starbucks' employment law practices.
Starbucks said in a letter to the committee last week that Schultz delegated decisions on union matters to a circle of executives and instead focused on the company's broader recovery plan.
Unionization at Starbucks
The push for unionization at Starbucks first appeared in Starbucks stores in Buffalo, New York in August 2021 and has spread nationwide. The union action had preoccupied Starbucks executives for months and attracted the attention of chain employees outside of Buffalo. One Starbucks store in Mesa, Arizona, filed a petition to unionize in November 2021, supporting baristas working with the same Workers United union and claiming to be inspired by Buffalo's effort.
The result was a victory for coffee shop workers who petitioned for a union vote in August 2021 to have a direct negotiating channel with the company, and a blow to Starbucks, which spent months urging Buffalo-area baristas to vote against it.
At Starbucks, baristas asked for better working conditions, as well as higher pay and more benefits.
Starbucks has asked its nearly 250,000 baristas in U.S. branded stores to stick to the chain and address their concerns, not form unions. Last year, the company said it was increasing wages and benefits for U.S. baristas, but cut benefits for workers at stores that didn't vote to unionize.
The pace of new union petitions at Starbucks has slowed since the first half of 2022. Since last July, the National Labor Relations Board, the federal body that oversees unionization in private companies, has registered about 11 union petitions a month from Starbucks stores, according to agency records.
Complaints against Starbucks
Starbucks said it had filed around 90 allegations of unfair labor practices against Workers United in response to problems arising from negotiation sessions with unions and baristas.
Meanwhile, the NLRB issued 81 complaints against Starbucks over allegations that the coffee giant broke federal labor laws. The company denied that it had broken rules overseeing union organizing and said it respected workers' right to organize.
Starbucks share prices
Since November 2022, the shares of the giant coffee - Starbucks have increased significantly from 84.68 to above 100.00. In February, the stock was close to 110.00, but since the second half of February it has fallen below 105.00. Most recently, the stock closed at 103.34.
Source: wsj.com, finance.yahoo.com
