Sanders Calls on Starbucks CEO to Testify About the Coffee Giant’s Labor Practices

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks in Washington in a file photograph. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and every Democrat member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions invited Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to testify about his company’s compliance with federal labor laws.

The invitation was sent on Feb. 8 via a letter signed by members of the committee that Sanders chairs.

“Please consider this letter an invitation to testify before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) on March 9, 2023,” the senators wrote.

“We look forward to seeing you. We greatly appreciate your assistance to the HELP Committee.”

According to Sanders’ press release, workers at more than 350 Starbucks locations across nearly 40 states have held votes to unionize since the first store in Buffalo voted to do so in December 2021.

The employees have cited a variety of concerns, including safer working conditions during the pandemic and better wages, as well as better benefits, and more reliable schedules.

The lawmaker goes on to claim that the $122 billion company has fought its employees every step of the way, including by using delay strategies, hampering tactics, and a significant uptick in union busting.

The press release reports that 500 claims of unfair labor practices have been made against Starbucks and its subsidiaries.

In response to these allegations, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed 75 complaints with the federal courts, and five requests for emergency preliminary injunctive relief.

In the past year, Sanders has written three letters to Schultz urging him to put an end to the company’s “egregious” campaign of union-busting against its own employees. The most recent letter Sanders wrote to Schultz was in January 2023.

“It has been nearly 400 days since the first Starbucks union was certified by the NLRB, and yet you and your company have refused to bargain a first contract in good faith,” Sanders wrote in a recent letter.

“Mr. Schultz, my request to you is simple: Obey the law. Sit down with your workers and bargain in good faith. Agree to a first contract that is fair and just. Stop shutting down pro-union shops and reinstate workers who have been fired for union organizing.”

The Vermont lawmaker has made his opinion of the Starbucks CEO apparent.

In August 2022, Sanders posted a tweet saying, “If Howard Schultz, the Starbucks CEO, who is worth $4 billion can afford a $145 million, 254-foot super yacht with a helicopter pad, you know what? He can afford to negotiate a fair first contract with Starbucks workers who voted to form a union in over 230 locations in America.”

Schultz has not yet responded to Sanders’s recent letter or delivered the documents the lawmaker requested.

In addition to Sanders, the letter was signed by senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), and Ed Markey (D-Mass.).