US Senator Bernie Sanders is dead serious about carrying out his threat to subpoena outgoing Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ:SBUX) CEO Howard Schultz, to compel him to testify at a Senate hearing on what Sanders, a pro-union Vermont independent, has called union-busting activity at the company’s coffee shops.
Starbucks reiterated on Thursday that it has no plans to send Schultz, who is stepping down this month, to a US Senate committee hearing set for March 9.
Sanders, who is chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said he was "shocked” that Schultz would continue to defy a request made by a majority of members on the Senate HELP Committee.
He said a vote will go ahead on March 8 at 10 am ET on whether to issue a subpoena for Schultz to appear.
“While Howard Schultz is a multi-billionaire who runs a very profitable multi-national corporation, he must understand that he and his company are not above the law,” Sanders said in a statement.
“The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed over 75 complaints against Starbuck for violating federal labor law and there have been over 500 unfair labor practice charges lodged against his company. These violations include the illegal firing of more than a dozen Starbucks workers.”
Starbucks noted that Schultz is stepping down as CEO later this month and said he was not the right witness.
It says that its Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer AJ Jones was best positioned to address the workforce matters. Starbucks has also offered to send May Jensen, vice president for partner and labor relations, and Zabrina Jenkins, acting executive vice president and general counsel.
According to the NLRB, nearly 290 company-owned Starbucks cafes in the US have voted to unionize as of mid-February. Some say that Schultz has pushed back aggressively against unionization, leading to scrutiny from pro-union lawmakers such as Sanders.
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