Clapping Back at Howard Schultz
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Tensions flared during a meeting between Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and workers in Long Beach, CA on Friday, closing out a tumultuous first week for the returning executive.
Madison Hall, a 25-year-old barista and union organizer, says that the 68-year-old billionaire repeatedly bristled at and cut off their questions about Starbucks’ handling of the growing union movement within the company. “If you hate Starbucks so much, why don’t you go somewhere else?” Schultz told Hall, they recalled.
Hall, who has been leading the unionization effort at the Second and Covina store in Long Beach, was offered a last minute invitation to the gathering by their manager on Thursday evening. The event took place in a conference room in a building near the Long Beach Airport, and was pitched to them as “an opportunity to meet with senior-level management,” with little other context. There were about 20 workers from various stores in the Long Beach area in attendance, along with management-level Starbucks employees. The event began with a full replay of the hour-long speech that Schultz gave to the entire company via live stream on Monday. The CEO attacked Starbucks Workers United several times throughout the speech, calling them “outsiders trying to take our people” and part of a nationwide “assault” on corporations. Schultz then arrived to participate in a moderated two hour session that included several activities and a Q&A with workers. Some baristas were in awe of Schultz; others were more skeptical, Hall says.
It gets better:
In response to a question asking how Starbucks could rebuild trust between management and workers, Hall says that they posted a note that said “Sign the Fair Election Principles and be honest and transparent about what’s happening to pro-union workers around the country.” Several other workers added stickers to denote agreement with the sentiment, but when Hall tried to bring it up during a group discussion about honesty and transparency, Schultz refused to comment. “You are constantly telling us that you are not anti-union, you’re constantly saying that you respect our right to unionize,” Hall says they told Schultz. “We’re not going to talk about that,” Schultz replied.
The friction continued to grow. Hall says that when they mentioned the several federal complaints filed by the NLRB against the company for illegally harassing and firing pro-union workers, a number of other baristas began murmuring, seemingly unaware of the charges. Hall says they tried to explain the NLRB’s actions, but was again cut off by Schultz. A challenge over whether Starbucks offered the best benefits in the retail industry was also interrupted. “Then he went into a long rant about the history of Starbucks and how he used to be poor,” Hall reports.
Hall says they pursued the line of questioning, only to encounter more hostility.“I said, ‘You say you’re not anti-union, but on July 1 2021, [Starbucks was] found guilty of retaliation in Philadelphia,’” Hall relays. “That was when he got super-defensive and cut me off, saying ‘We’re not talking about this.’“It was very, very bad. He was getting very aggressive with me,” Hall adds. “And then he went on another rant, and he told everyone else that he’s sorry that this was brought up, that this isn’t what [the event] was about, and he had his hand pointed towards me like I was a problem.”
What is the best part about a union? Is it the higher wages? Is it the benefits? No, it is not. It’s being able to tell your powerful boss that he’s an asshole and a terrible person. To stand up to power like this is incredibly freeing. Once you have told off a billionaire and made him red in the face, what can’t you do? Of course many workers are going to be intimidated in the face of someone like this. To be brave enough to just say no and ask him questions about his unionbusting and hypocrisy and live to see another day, I mean that is the definition of empowering. Amazing stuff.
I’ll at least note as well that there were rumors that Hillary Clinton was seriously considering Schultz as Secretary of Labor had she won….