Starbucks CEO Agrees to Testify Before Committee Led by Bernie Sanders

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) talks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, July 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced on March 7 that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has agreed to appear before his Senate committee.

Sanders, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced that Schultz would appear before the committee on March 29.

“I’m happy to announce that Howard Schultz, the CEO and founder of Starbucks, has finally agreed to testify before the Senate HELP Committee,” Sanders said, according to a press release from his office.

“The HELP Committee was scheduled to vote tomorrow to subpoena him and I want to thank the members of the Committee who, in a bipartisan way, were prepared to do just that.”

Starbucks has been accused of preventing its workers from organizing unions and engaging in collective bargaining by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Sanders’s statement further highlighted that the NLRB had issued more than 80 complaints against Starbucks for violating federal labor laws.

Recently, an administrative law judge in New York ruled that Starbucks had engaged in “egregious and widespread misconduct” in a union organizing campaign that began in 2019.

Despite over 280 Starbucks coffee shops voting to form a union in the past year, Starbucks has allegedly refused to negotiate in good faith to sign a single first contract with its employees.

“Let’s be clear. In America, workers have the constitutional right to organize unions and engage in collective bargaining to improve their wages and working conditions,” Sanders said. “Unfortunately Starbucks, under Mr. Schultz’s leadership, has done everything possible to prevent that from happening.”

Schultz’s compliance with requests to testify came after repeated letters sent by Sanders and the HELP committee.

Schultz previously declined an invitation to testify from Democrats on the committee. That invitation followed three letters from Sanders to Schultz calling on him to end “egregious union-busting.”

The senator assured reporters during his March 7 press briefing that the committee will conduct an investigation into Starbucks’ and other large companies’ actions, including hearing from union leaders on the subject.

“The HELP Committee intends to make clear that in America we must not have a two-tiered justice system in which billionaires and large corporations can break the law with impunity, while working class people are held accountable for their actions,” Sanders said in his recent press relase.

“I look forward to hearing from Mr. Schultz as to when he intends to end his illegal anti-union activities and begin signing fair first contracts with the unions.”