Starbucks Corp. workers at more than 100 stores across the nation are striking to demand an end to the company’s union-busting practices, Starbucks Workers United said Wednesday.
The strike includes a rally at the company’s Seattle headquarters at noon Pacific time, plus strikes at dozens of other stores from coast to coast, according to the union. The actions come after Starbucks’s
SBUX,
new chief executive officially took the helm this week ahead of schedule, and a day ahead of the company’s annual general meeting. On Thursday, the company’s investors are set to vote on a shareholder resolution seeking a third-party audit of the company’s commitment to workers’ freedom of association and collective-bargaining rights.
“Wednesday’s day of action will also serve to welcome the company’s new chief executive, Laxman Narasimhan, and send him a message that the transition in the C-suite provides an opportunity for the company to stop its unprecedented campaign of union busting and instead partner with its workers and our union to build a company that truly lives up to its stated progressive values,” the union said in a news release.
Narasimhan is taking over from Howard Schultz, who is scheduled to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee next week over the union-busting allegations. Under Schultz, the company has repeatedly said that it would prefer to have direct relationships with its employees, though it also has said it respects its workers’ rights to organize.
A company spokesperson repeated that stance Wednesday, saying that the Starbucks’ board of directors and executive leadership are “aligned” in that belief.
“Rather than publicizing rallies and protests, we encourage Workers United to live up to their obligations by responding to our proposed sessions and meeting us in person to move the good-faith bargaining process forward,” spokesperson Andrew Trull said Wednesday.
The company and union are accusing each other of bargaining in bad faith. Starbucks has said the union is insisting on hybrid bargaining sessions, while the company wants in-person meetings. The company has filed more than 100 unfair-labor-practice charges against the union over the issue, while Starbucks faces hundreds of allegations of union-busting practices filed with the National Labor Relations Board and has been found to have engaged in illegal labor practices in some cases.
