Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced on March 1 that the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will vote on issuing a subpoena for Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
The vote could also authorize a committee investigation into the Starbucks corporation’s alleged labor law violations.
Sanders, who is the HELP Committee chairman, asserted that Schultz “must understand that he and his company are not above the law.”
“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 his company,” Sanders said in the press release. “These violations include the illegal firing of more than a dozen Starbucks workers.”
Sanders asserted that he and his colleagues in the Senate have asked Schultz to “respect the constitutional right of workers at Starbucks to form a union,” but the company has not yet responded satisfactorily.
The Vermont lawmaker claimed Schultz has “denied meeting and document requests, skirted congressional oversight attempts, and refused to answer any of the serious questions we have asked.”
Sanders and his committee plan to vote on the subpoena and investigation on March 8 at 10 a.m. ET, which will be followed by a hearing on the constitutional rights of workers to organize a union and collectively bargain.
The hearing will feature AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, and Teamsters President Sean O'Brien.
According to Sanders, Schultz previously declined an invitation from Democrats on the HELP Committee for the CEO to testify. That invitation followed three letters from Sanders to Schultz calling on him to end “egregious union-busting.”
“Please consider this letter an invitation to testify before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) on March 9, 2023,” the senators wrote. “We look forward to seeing you. We greatly appreciate your assistance to the HELP Committee.”
Sanders’s recent press release cites a December 2021 Buffalo Starbucks store’s reported union busting, saying that since that time workers at over 350 stores in 40 states have voted to unionize. The groups are pushing for better working conditions, better wages, better benefits, and more reliable work schedules.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Schultz has given us no choice, but to subpoena him,” Sanders said. “A multibillion-dollar corporation like Starbucks cannot continue to break federal labor law with impunity. The time has come to hold Starbucks and Mr. Schultz accountable.”
Starbucks did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment.
