Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the new chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, slammed Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Wednesday for declining to testify before the Senate about labor problems at the coffee giant.
“It is disappointing, but not surprising, that Howard Schultz, the CEO and director of Starbucks has declined an invitation from a majority of members on the HELP Committee to testify at a U.S. Senate hearing to answer why the National Labor Relations Board has lodged over 75 complaints against Starbucks for violating federal labor laws,” Sanders said in a statement.
Sanders noted that every Democrat on his committee signed a letter to Schultz on Feb. 7 inviting him to testify at a March 9 meeting on Starbucks’ compliance with federal labor laws.
“Apparently, it is easier for Mr. Schultz to fire workers who are exercising their constitutional right to form unions, and to intimidate others who may be interested in joining a union than to answer questions from elected officials,” he said.
Sanders also sent three letters to Schultz last year calling on him to end what the progressive senator has characterized as Starbucks’ “union-busting campaign” against its own workers.
In addition, Starbucks has not provided documents Sanders requested in a Jan. 18 letter.
Sanders asked the company to sharer written guidance to store managers and regional directors about how to handle labor organizing efforts as well as documents showing what legal fees and other expenses it incurred by opposing efforts by workers to organize.
His office noted that workers at more than 350 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since December of 2021.
Asked if his committee might subpoena Schultz, Sanders told reporters, “we’re working on it — as you know, the chairman alone doesn’t make that decision.”
Zabrina Jenkins, an acting executive vice president and general counsel at Starbucks, replied to Sanders in a letter dated Feb. 14 saying that Schultz will fully transition out of his role as interim CEO in March and would not be the best person to appear before the committee “given the timing of the transition.”
She said that AJ Jones II, Starbucks’ executive vice president and chief public affairs officer, would be available to attend the March 9 hearing instead.
“It should be noted that Starbucks has been and continues to be a model employer and the categorical leader across industries for its comprehensive compensation, and partner forward benefit packages and incentives,” Jenkins wrote in a letter to the HELP Committee.
A spokesperson for Starbucks said the company believes it has a better relationship with workers without the intervention of a union.
“We’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed,” the spokesperson said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate HELP Committee, said “Schultz should testify.”
“What’s he got to hide? He doesn’t want any accountability. He doesn’t want his own employees to be able to ask him questions,” she said.
“In places where the workers have been able to organize they’ve had real trouble getting Starbucks to actually come to the table and negotiate,” she said. “Schultz thinks he can sit in his far-off tower protected by his billions of dollars but he runs a real business with real workers and he needs to be accountable to them.”
Updated at 3:57 p.m.