If Starbucks wants peace with the union that’s now actively trying to organize more than 150 stores, interim CEO Howard Schultz will have to back off and let baristas decide freely if they want to be represented, says the leader of the labor power backing the drive.
In an interview with Restaurant Business, Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry contended that Schultz squandered employees’ respect last year with his pushback against the baristas in Buffalo, N.Y., who started the nationwide union rally. Four units there would ultimately vote to become part of Workers United, an affiliate of Henry’s SEIU. One voted to remain union-free.
Schultz, the force that made Starbucks the powerhouse it is today, argued at the time that a union wasn’t needed—the coffee chain already heard and valued the employees’ input, contrary to the assertions of pro-union staffers. He wrapped up his argument with a bizarre comparison of the brand to the big-hearted Nazi concentration camp prisoners who shared their blankets despite the risk of freezing themselves.
“We should realize that Howard Schultz participated in the union busting activities in Buffalo,” said Henry. “If he wants to earn their respect, he needs to change what he says and does.”
Her comments came amid speculation about how Starbucks’ reaction to the unionization drive may change as a result of Schultz’s resumption of the CEO’s title. Last week the chain stunned the industry with an announcement that its well-known chief, Kevin Johnson, had decided to retire in two weeks. No successor was named, even though the board said it was alerted by Johnson a year ago that he intended to retire once the pandemic appeared to be subsiding.
Starbucks said Schultz would resume the CEO’s job, a position he’s held twice before, on an interim basis.
The announcement coincided with the release of a signed plea from 73 Starbucks shareholders that the company change the way it has been responding to the union drive.
The events stoked speculation that Schultz would seek some sort of accommodation with Workers United instead of letting the chain continue to be unionized store by store. Proponents of that theory have noted that Schultz prides himself on being pro-employee, and that he’d explored a run at the Democratic nomination for U.S. president as a progressive moderate. The party has traditionally been an ally of organized labor.
Henry discounted the chances of anyone or anything derailing the unionization drive underway in Starbucks. She spoke with RB after a seventh unit, in the brand’s hometown of Seattle, had voted unanimously to be represented by Workers United. Those seven are in addition to the 150 that have announced or filed plans to organize.
“All the other restaurant owners should take note because the Starbucks workers are winning in the face of efforts to bust the union,” she said.
She asserted the movement is going to win more converts within the industry’s workforce because of a confluence of factors, not the least of them being the mindset that took hold among employees during the pandemic.
“They’re saying ‘Enough is enough. We’re sick of having to go into work and risk our own health and the health of our families when there’s still this economic inequality by income level, by race, by gender,’” she said. “I would urge Howard Schultz to consider that as the basic thing that needs to be addressed, this ongoing inequality.”
In addition, “working people are leading a fundamental reorganization of power within their communities and their workplace,” says Henry, adding that the drive is particularly pronounced among young people.
“The next generation believes in collective power, in how we can work together to fix climate change, in how we’re going to fix economic inequality together,” the union leader asserted. “They’re putting their ethos into action, and they’re looking to use our union to help in achieving those goals.
“I bet those folks who are your readers share a fear that I have, of a growing inequality within our country racially and economically,” Henry says in concluding the interview. “I would invite them all to consider that.”
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