Union showdown: Starbucks’ Howard Schultz faces Bernie Sanders in the Senate

Sen. Bernie Sanders (left) will question Howard Schultz, who recently stepped down as Starbucks CEO, on the company’s resistance to its workers unionizing.

David Dee Delgado/Getty Images; Joshua Lott/Getty Images

David Dee Delgado/Getty Images; Joshua Lott/Getty Images

It could be a hearing for the history books: Billionaire Howard Schultz, the resolutely anti-union architect of Starbucks, gets questioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the outspoken mascot of the union movement in Congress.

Schultz was once a prominent Democrat hailed as a progressive corporate pioneer of better pay and benefits for service industry workers. On Wednesday, he will testify on allegations that Starbucks has been breaking labor laws as it fights its employees’ nationwide unionization push.

Schultz, fresh off his third stint as Starbucks CEO, is expected to deny any wrongdoing. But Sanders, a fixture at union rallies and town halls, will likely cite dozens of complaints against Starbucks filed both by workers and by federal labor officials since the first U.S. cafe unionized in late 2021.

The hearing at the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee — chaired by Sanders, an independent from Vermont — will begin at 10 am ET. After Schultz’s testimony, lawmakers will also hear from a current and a former Starbucks baristas.

Hundreds of unionized stores, but still no contract

Workers at nearly 300 coffee shops have now voted to join Starbucks Workers United, about 3% of the chain’s U.S. locations. The company has shuttered some unionized stores and fired some workers involved in organizing, citing misconduct.

Federal administrative law judges have found Starbucks violated labor laws in at least eight cases, which the company is appealing. Some ruled to reinstate fired workers and issue them back-pay. One said Starbucks engaged in “egregious and widespread misconduct demonstrating a general disregard for the employees.”

Starbucks and the union have also failed to negotiate any collective-bargaining contract for any of the unionized stores. Both sides accuse each other of undermining the process.

“You know the number one thing that I want to hear from Mr. Schultz? Is that he’s going to obey the law — not a very radical proposition,” Sen. Sanders told NPR on Tuesday. “And I hope that by the end of the hearing, what Mr. Schultz will say is that he is prepared to sit down with the union and negotiate a contract.”

Three-time CEO faced threat of subpoena

Schultz, in prepared remarks for his first appearance in front of Congress, maintains that Starbucks complies with labor laws. He touts Starbucks as a worker-focused and generous employer, with pay averaging $17.50 an hour and benefits that include college tuition and company stock.

“We are a different kind of public company that balances profitability with social conscience. Aspiring to achieve that vision has been my life’s work,” Schultz wrote, reiterating his view in favor of “a direct relationship” with workers — without a union in the middle.

Schultz last week stepped down from his third term as Starbucks CEO since the 1980s, staying on as a member of the board and a major shareholder. He had agreed to testify in the Senate after the committee prepared to subpoena him. Sanders rejected Starbucks’ offers of other representatives instead.

Schultz first led the coffee chain to huge expansion between 1986 and 2000, returning to the chief executive job from 2008 to 2017 and again last April. In 2019, Schultz grabbed headlines as he explored a presidential run against Donald Trump as an independent.

Last week at the Starbucks shareholder meeting, the new CEO Laxman Narasimhan did not signal any change in the company’s stance on unions.

NPR’s Greta Pittenger and Andrea Hsu contributed to this report.