Media that empowers working people – that's how we build a More Perfect Union.

Don't Miss a Video!

Access our exclusive reporting and rapid response actions directly in your inbox, so you don’t miss a beat in the fight for working people nationwide.

Be a part of a community backing up independent journalism with action.

Ideas

Have a story to tell or idea to share?
Email [email protected]
© 2021 More Perfect Union Action

Together we can build power for working people.

We’re asking questions that really matter, and telling the stories of people who really need to be seen and heard.

You can support our work by donating today.

Amount

Make It Monthly

Don't Miss a Video!

Access our exclusive reporting and rapid response actions directly in your inbox, so you don’t miss a beat in the fight for working people nationwide.

Be a part of a community backing up independent journalism with action.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s History of Union-Busting

Schultz has been battling the Starbucks unionization movement since the 1980s.

Starbucks’ union movement has pushed CEO Kevin Johnson into retirement. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is being brought back to take his place as interim CEO. Schultz is a union-buster with a record spanning decades.

Howard Schultz has been virulently anti-union since the 1980s. Schultz created Starbucks by merging two coffee chains. One was unionized — that’s why employees have decent benefits. Schultz made life hell for workers, ran a union-busting campaign, and got them to disband the union.

His 1999 memoir, Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, directly addresses his disdain toward unionization. “I was convinced that under my leadership, employees would come to realize that I would listen to their concerns. If they had faith in me and my motives, they wouldn’t need a union,” Schultz writes.

In the late 90s, Starbucks workers tried to unionize again. That brought a ferocious campaign to stop them — which they overcame to win their election at a single store. It was a short-lived success because of the threats and intimidation that followed.

Schultz’s Starbucks continued to fight workers that wanted to organize over the next 20 years. In 2004, a number of cafes tried to unionize. Starbucks ran with many of the same union-busting tactics they’re using today. Back then, they worked. His anti-union vitriol decimated unions organized with International Workers of the World, Operating Engineers Local, and a local branch of United Food and Commerical Workers, respectively.

After Barack Obama became president, it looked as if Democrats were going to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have made unionizing much easier. Schultz lobbied against it over and over again, tried to offer worse options, and helped kill it.

More recently, Starbucks has been found by the NLRB to have illegally fired workers who wanted to unionize. And when Schultz left Starbucks to float his third “centrist” presidential run, he famously said, “unions are not the answer.”

Last November Schultz traveled to bust the powerful union drive in Buffalo. There Schultz’s infamous speech went awry when he compared Starbucks workers to Holocaust victims sharing their blankets at concentration camps. “So much of that story is threaded into what we do at Starbucks is share our blanket,” Schultz said to a ballroom of Starbucks workers.

While the comparison created discomfort for Starbucks workers, it only motivated the unionizing workers more. Now there are six unionized Starbucks and 130+ more voting this spring.

The Latest

YouTube Thumbnail
The Man Corporate America Is Most Afraid Of
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
“I’m A Doctor: Corporate Greed Is Killing Your ER”
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
What Happened to Boeing?
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Chicago’s Radical Solution to End Homelessness
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
In This Town, Only The Rich Get Water
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
The Evil Company Buying Subway (And The Rest Of Your Favorite Chains)
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Ban Airbnb? This Town Found a Solution to the Housing Crisis
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
I Work For the King of Beers. I’m Paid Like a Peasant
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
EV Factory Jobs Are Worse Than You Think
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Corruption is Driving Up Your Electricity Bill
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
We Talked To Air Traffic Controllers. What We Heard Will Shock You.
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Why Day Care Costs More Than College
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Whistleblower Exposes Toxic Culture At Rivian
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Elizabeth Warren Warns of National Abortion Ban if GOP Wins in 2024
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
What Liberals Get Wrong About Trump Voters
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Legal Weed Is Being Ruined By Corporate Greed
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Why Going to the Pharmacy Sucks Now
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
5 Questions with AOC: Trump, Child Labor, Worker Uprisings
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
I build cars for a living and I can’t afford to buy one.
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
The End of Overdraft Fees Is Finally Happening
Read More