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- Sen. Bernie Sanders announced he's holding a vote on issuing a subpoena for Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
- The Senate HELP chairman wants Schultz to testify on his company's fight against unionization.
- The company reiterated Schultz's declination last month to voluntarily testify.
Sen. Bernie Sanders announced he's holding a vote on issuing a subpoena for Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to provide testimony on his company's fight against Starbucks employees' unionization efforts.
Sanders, the new chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, also wants the committee to authorize an investigation into major corporations' labor law violations.
"For nearly a year, I and many of my colleagues in the Senate have repeatedly asked Mr. Schultz to respect the constitutional right of workers at Starbucks to form a union and to stop violating federal labor laws," Sanders said in a statement. "Mr. Schultz has failed to respond to those requests."
The votes next week follow Schultz's decision last month to decline a request from Sanders and committee Democrats to voluntarily testify and the company says they haven't changed their position.
A company statement, responding to the announcement, says: "This is a disappointing development, but we will continue our dialogue with Chairman Sanders' staff and are optimistic that we'll come to an appropriate resolution. Our response to the Chairman's initial request still stands."
Sanders says the National Labor Relations Board has filed more than 75 complaints against Starbucks for violating federal labor law and more than 500 unfair labor practice charges have been lodged against the company, including the firing of more than a dozen workers.
Since 2021, workers at more than 35 Starbucks locations in nearly 40 states have held votes to unionize, citing concerns about safe working conditions, better wages, and reliable schedules, but no union contracts have been signed, according to Sanders' office.
Schultz rejoined Starbucks as interim CEO in April 2022 and will transition out of the role this month, the company wrote to Sanders in February. "We believe another senior leader with ongoing responsibilities is best suited to address these matters," wrote Zabrina Jenkins, Starbucks acting executive vice president and general counsel. The company offered its chief public affairs officer, AJ Jones II, to testify instead of Schultz.
With a 51-seat majority, Senate Democrats now have subpoena power they weren't able to use last Congress when the Senate was evenly split.
Sanders said Schultz has denied the committee's requests for documents and meetings. The subpoena and investigation votes will take place during a committee meeting on March 8, followed by a hearing on defending the rights of workers to organize a union and collectively bargain.
"A multi-billion dollar corporation like Starbucks cannot continue to break federal labor law with impunity," Sanders said.
In her letter to Sanders, Jenkins wrote that "Starbucks has been extensively engaged in good faith bargaining at more than 200 locations" where NLRB elections have been certified with a single exception. She notes that NLRB decisions are often reviewed by courts of appeals, and in some cases, the US Supreme Court.
"Significantly, to date, Starbucks has not been found to have violated the law as part of any enforced Order of the NLRB," she wrote.