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.

Watch: Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Illegally Threatens Workers During Earnings Call

A labor law expert explains how Howard Schultz violated federal labor law.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz

by Jordan Zakarin

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz violated federal law when he promised to provide new benefits only to non-unionizing employees, a labor law expert tells More Perfect Union.

Schultz publicly promised to increase wages and training during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday. But his pledge came with an exception. “We do not have the same freedom to make these improvements at locations that have a union or where union organizing is underway,” Schultz claimed.

“If they give benefits to unorganized workers and not to organizing ones, then that’s an unfair labor practice,” said Kate Broffenbrenner, the Director of Labor Education Research at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Specifically, by dividing benefits the way Schultz proposed, Starbucks would violate section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act.

“They are clearly doing this in a retaliatory manner,” Broffenbrenner added.

New promises of higher wages, improved training, and “coffee excellence” were prompted by the growing unionization drive within Starbucks, which Schultz returned to the company to combat. 

“The union contract will not even come close to what Starbucks offers you,” Schultz declared on the earnings call. He claimed that “federal law prohibits” the company from extending new benefits to workers in stores where “Starbucks is required to engage in collective bargaining.”

That is a misrepresentation of the law, Broffenbrenner says.

“Once workers are unionized, they have to bargain over changes. So if Starbucks says they’re offering new benefits, they have to offer them to union workers and give them an opportunity to say whether they want them or not,” Broffenbrenner explains. “They can give it to nobody or give it to everybody.”

In a statement, Starbucks Workers United said that its negotiators “will demand that these modest improvements be given immediately to all the partners.” The union also said it’s filing charges with the National Labor Relations Board “seeking an order that these benefits be given to all employees.”

Schultz has previously warned that unionizing employees could lose out on benefits in multiple internal communications with workers since he returned as CEO one month ago. The company’s website for workers is chock full of anti-union rhetoric and misleading information about potential loss of benefits. 

The changes reflect an increasingly aggressive approach to union-busting at Starbucks since the billionaire’s return, with more angry public denigration of unionizing workers and insistence that the company can offer better compensation through benevolence than in a negotiated contract agreement.

The company has adopted the tactic of telling workers to reconsider organizing until they see what emerges from negotiations with Starbucks Workers United over a first contract in two Buffalo stores. 

Members of the bargaining committee representing those stores tell More Perfect Union that the company has dragged its feet in negotiations, evidently hoping to extend them as long as possible in order to discourage further unionization. There have been few meetings and little in the way of substantial bargaining, workers say. The lack of progress further delays the negotiating process in the 50 other Starbucks locations that have voted to unionize. 

On the earnings call, Schultz claimed that Starbucks is negotiating “in good faith” with employees, a statement undermined by his publicly stated efforts to prevent unionizing workers from getting certain benefits.

Contract delays could also veer into labor law violations, Bronfenbrenner says, but the current rules makes it difficult to stop a company with deep pockets and animosity toward its workers.

“There is no ‘actionable’ under the National Labor Relations Act, except to post a notice,” she says. “Under our current law, you file a charge and the board says ‘go bargain in good faith’ and you file another charge, the board says ‘go bargain in good faith.’ There is no penalty other than ‘bargain in good faith.’”

Workers at more than 50 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize, with more than 200 additional stores awaiting their elections. 

Related Stories

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s History of Union-Busting
Read More
EXCLUSIVE: Starbucks Hit With Charges Over Sweeping Illegal Union-Busting Scheme
Read More

The Latest

YouTube Thumbnail
Why Barnes & Noble Workers Formed Their First Union
Read More
Workers and Activists Force Dollar General to Address Workplace Safety Issues
Read More
Gas Pipeline Deal Follows Donations to Congressional Leaders
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
This Could Be The Biggest Strike In U.S. History
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
We Talked To Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar About Universal School Meals
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
The ‘No Labels’ Third Party Bid That Could Sabotage Trump and Biden
Read More
Pharma & Crypto Among Winners as Revolving Door Spins From Congress
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Medicaid Work Requirements: We Exposed the TRUE Cost of Republicans’ Top Priority
Read More
Poll: The Public Overwhelmingly Supports the Writers’ Strike
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
How America Can Stop Dangerous Train Derailments
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
How Milton Friedman Broke The American Economy
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
How Food Delivery Apps Are Trying to Kill a Worker Uprising
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Public Education Is A Mess. This Candidate Has A Plan to Clean It Up.
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
How CEOs Manipulate the Stock Market
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
How Starbucks Just Broke the Law (Again)
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
DHL Express Workers Expose Gruesome Working Conditions
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
How Right-Wing Grifters Are Destroying Public Schools
Read More
Inside UPS’s New Business Strategy: Executive Pay Skyrockets As Infrastructure Investment Dwindles
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Inside a Major Climate Fight in Oil Country
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Sun Country Airline Workers Vote To Unionize—Management Fought Back
Read More