https://sputnikglobe.com/20220411/schultz-to-unionizing-baristas-if-you-dont-like-starbucks-you-can-get-out-1094685925.html
Schultz to Unionizing Baristas: If You Don’t Like Starbucks, You Can Get Out
Schultz to Unionizing Baristas: If You Don’t Like Starbucks, You Can Get Out
Sputnik International
Starbucks stores across the country are starting to vote on union membership, part of a growing trend that includes Amazon warehouse workers, farmworkers... 11.04.2022, Sputnik International
2022-04-11T22:51+0000
2022-04-11T22:51+0000
2022-04-11T22:53+0000
howard schultz
starbucks
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During his cross country tour talking to Starbucks employees, interim CEO Howard Schultz allegedly got into a tense discussion with pro-union employees on Friday, saying “If you hate Starbucks so much, why don’t you go somewhere else?”The line brings to mind the common conservative rallying call of telling critics of American policies to leave the country if they don’t like how the nation is being run.The confrontation took place at a Long Beach Airport conference center, where 25 year-old barista Madison Hall was invited to join roughly 20 other Starbucks workers from the area in what was described to them as “an opportunity to meet with senior-level management.”The event began with a video replay of the hour-long speech Schultz gave to the company via a livestream on April 8, in which he repeatedly attacked unionization efforts, saying that the Starbucks Workers Union are “outsiders trying to take our people.”Hall says she first tried to ask Schultz about unionization, but was shut down. “We’re not going to talk about that,” Schultz reportedly replied.When asked about complaints filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and after he was challenged on if Starbucks offers the best benefits in retail, Hall says Schultz went on a “rant” about how he was once poor.In response, Hall says she asked Schultz more unionization questions. “‘You say you’re not anti-union, but on July 1, 2021, [Starbucks was] found guilty of retaliation in Philadelphia,” but was again told that they would not be talking about that.The NLRB ruled that Starbucks illegally spied on and then fired two baristas in Philadelphia that were talking about unionization efforts.It is unclear by the recounting in More Perfect Union when the “If you hate Starbucks so much, why don’t you go somewhere else?” line was uttered by Schultz, but Hall says it was in response to one of her unionization questions.In response to questions about the event, a Starbucks spokesperson told More Perfect Union that “Howard and others in the room requested to get back on track and shift the focus back on the whiteboarding sessions and what they were working on together.”In addition to Schultz’s comments, the CEO has a long history of busting up unions. Starbucks was originally two different franchises that Schultz combined to form the company. One of those franchises was unionized and Schultz convinced them to disband the union.He also fought against unionization efforts in Starbucks in the 1990s and lobbied Congress to prevent the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have made unionization efforts easier.Despite his attempts, unionization has been gaining steam in Starbucks: six stores in upstate New York recently voted to unionize, and another 130 are planning votes in the coming months.
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howard schultz, starbucks, union
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Schultz to Unionizing Baristas: If You Don’t Like Starbucks, You Can Get Out
22:51 GMT 11.04.2022 (Updated: 22:53 GMT 11.04.2022) Starbucks stores across the country are starting to vote on union membership, part of a growing trend that includes Amazon warehouse workers, farmworkers, meatpacking plants and Hershey factory workers.
During his cross country tour talking to Starbucks employees, interim CEO Howard Schultz allegedly got into a tense discussion with pro-union employees on Friday, saying “If you hate Starbucks so much, why don’t you go somewhere else?”
The line brings to mind the common conservative rallying call of
telling critics of American policies to leave the country if they don’t like how the nation is being run.
The
confrontation took place at a Long Beach Airport conference center, where 25 year-old barista Madison Hall was invited to join roughly 20 other Starbucks workers from the area in what was described to them as “an opportunity to meet with senior-level management.”
The event began with a video replay of the hour-long speech Schultz gave to the company via a livestream on April 8, in which he repeatedly attacked unionization efforts, saying that the Starbucks Workers Union are “outsiders trying to take our people.”
Hall says she first tried to ask Schultz about unionization, but was shut down. “We’re not going to talk about that,” Schultz reportedly replied.
When asked about complaints filed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and after he was challenged on if Starbucks offers the best benefits in retail, Hall says Schultz went on a “rant” about how he was once poor.
In response, Hall says she asked Schultz more unionization questions. “‘You say you’re not anti-union, but on July 1, 2021, [Starbucks was] found guilty of retaliation in Philadelphia,” but was again told that they would not be talking about that.
The NLRB ruled that Starbucks illegally spied on and then fired two baristas in Philadelphia that were talking about unionization efforts.
It is unclear by the recounting in More Perfect Union when the “If you hate Starbucks so much, why don’t you go somewhere else?” line was uttered by Schultz, but Hall says it was in response to one of her unionization questions.
In response to questions about the event, a Starbucks spokesperson told More Perfect Union that “Howard and others in the room requested to get back on track and shift the focus back on the whiteboarding sessions and what they were working on together.”
In addition to Schultz’s comments, the CEO has a long history of busting up unions. Starbucks was originally two different franchises that Schultz combined to form the company. One of those franchises was unionized and Schultz convinced them to disband the union.
He also fought against unionization efforts in Starbucks in the 1990s and lobbied Congress to
prevent the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have made unionization efforts easier.
Despite his attempts, unionization has been gaining steam in Starbucks: six stores in upstate New York recently voted to unionize, and another 130 are planning votes in the coming months.
