Senator, Bernie Sanders, announced that he will be
holding a vote to subpoena the head of Starbucks, Howard Schultz.
Also known as the union busting CEO of Starbucks,
of course if the subpoena passes, meaning if he's actually issuing the subpoena and
the hearing takes place, it would lead to a showdown, okay?
Between the best progressive in Congress, hands down Senator Sanders and
one of labor's biggest enemies.
Especially at the moment considering the labor busting, union busting,
efforts that we've seen from Schultz in recent months.
Now specifically the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee,
also known as the HELP committee, will be voting on the subpoena, right?
So that's what we mean when we say if the subpoena passes,
Bernie is in fact the head of that committee.
And here's what Bernie says, he says that the National Labor Relations Board,
NLRB has filed over 75 complaints against Starbucks for violating federal labor law.
And there have been over 500 unfair labor practice charges lodged
against Schultz's company.
The violations include illegal firing of more than a dozen Starbucks workers for
nearly a year.
He says that Bernie says,
I and many of my colleagues in the Senate have repeatedly asked Mr. Schultz to
respect the constitutional rights of workers at Starbucks to form a union.
And to stop violating federal labor laws, he has denied meeting and
document requests, skirted [LAUGH] congressional oversight attempts and
refused to answer any of the serious questions we have given him.
Unfortunately, Bernie says Mr. Schultz has given us no choice but to subpoena him.
Man it feels good to see a real progressive someone who really wants
to fight for labor, had an incredibly important Senate committee like this.
So Bernie also reintroduced the pro act, something that I feel
pretty much every other lawmaker has completely forgotten about,
the pro act would have bolstered the rights of labor in this country.
Now, if you've missed the reporting on the Starbucks unionization efforts,
I think it's important to fill you in on it.
And for everyone else to get a little bit of a refresher because they have good
reason to want to unionize and have a seat at the table let's watch.
>> The communication between higher ups and
our stores started to become non existent.
They introduced so many new things like components to drinks,
mobile orders deliveries.
We were never given the tools to make that happen properly,
we were doing all this extra work and
we weren't getting paid for what we think that we were worth.
>> Certainly sounds familiar a lot of American workers can relate to that but
some of the workers over at Starbucks decided we're gonna fight back.
Power in numbers, we're gonna unionize and
to be sure Starbucks executives have been trying to squash those efforts.
And when it comes to the stores that did succeed in unionizing,
they won't sit down and engage in good faith, contract negotiations,
which by the ways against the law.
And that's why Bernie wants to call Howard Schultz to a hearing subpoena him and
ask him some questions.
Now, here's the latest on the labor struggles at Starbucks,
Starbucks workers have succeeded in unionizing 278 stores, it's incredible.
Now the unionizing workers just got some support from some
of their colleagues on a corporate level.
So the corporate Starbucks employees have sent them an open letter.
And what they're arguing is that not only do they deserve the support, but some
of these corporate Starbucks employees are dealing with labor issues of their own.
So the four dozen who signed this letter of support to the unionizing workers
say that they're upset about the company's return to office policy.
And they're also upset about the rampant union busting now they say we
love Starbucks, but these actions are fracturing trust in Starbucks leadership.
Morale is at an all time low and the brand reputation and
financial value of this publicly traded company are at risk.
The letter follows an internal survey last year that showed corporate staffs,
faith in the company's ethics and social impact fell to historic lows amid
the union fight and return to office policies.
Now, one employee who signed the letter also said, quote, a lot of people just
want to have their grievances and their demands aired and hope for change.
If it doesn't lead to any meaningful change,
then the next step is obviously to think about possibly unionizing.
That's exactly right, and that's the reason why these companies,
these executives don't want the workers to unionize.
Because once you have some protection, once you have a union,
once you have a union that potentially has a strike fund that can sustain you,
if you do decide to strike against the company.
You've got a little bit of power, you got a little bit of leverage and
you have more of a say over your working conditions and also how much you get paid.
Now the workers also got another big win this week, Austin Locke,
who was one of the union organizers at his Starbucks store in New York,
was fired shortly after the company heard word of his organizing efforts.
But it turns out that he's been reinstated the authorities basically say no,
he was illegally fired, he must be reinstated.
And he was reinstated to his position with over $20,000 of back pay and
penalties, so this is what the NLRB does.
This is why the NLRB is important,
this is why Right Wing conservatives despise the NLRB.
Because when the NLRB works the way it's supposed to
the National Labor Relations Board.
It provides protections for workers who retaliated against for
practicing their rights in the workplace, including organizing their workplace.
That said the Starbucks workers have yet to reach a first contract with the company
because of course the company doesn't want to engage in those negotiations.
Starbucks representatives have walked out on dozens of creating sessions currently,
there's no federal law that punishes companies for negotiating in bad faith.
And meanwhile, Howard Schultz is making his shareholders real happy, real happy.
So according to company filings reviewed by More Perfect Union,
the first fiscal quarter of 2023,
the company repurchased $1.9 million 191.4 million.
Starbucks forecasted that it would return $20
billion 2025 between regular buybacks and
dividends, cuz that's what matters here.
The investors, not the workers who are generating the revenue on behalf of
Starbucks, the investors who park their money in the company, sit back and
expect to get a nice return for doing nothing more than providing capital.
That's how the system works they're apparently, more important than the very
workers who are generating the revenue in the first place.
The workers strike, how do you generate the revenue?
That's what the executives are concerned about but
you could prevent a strike by actually treating your workers well.
And whether Howard Schultz likes it or not,
this wave of unionizing has taken off and I hope it continues because really,
if you're waiting for lawmakers to protect you, it ain't gonna happen.
Sometimes you do have to take matters into your own hands there is power in numbers.
And when you look at this country's history and
the economic booms that this country experienced, especially in the fifties.
It was mostly because of unionized labor, it was because of labor power,
it wasn't because they happen to elect the right people in Congress.
You can elect all the right people in Congress, but
the system sucks them in [LAUGH] and they do exactly what you see progressives doing
in Congress right now, pretty much nothing.
With the exception of Bernie Sanders, you need an outside pressure campaign and
you get that through organized workers.