President Joe Biden invited union activists to the White House on Thursday for a symbolically significant meeting that reinforced the president’s bona fides as a union man. The photo-op excited progressives who want the administration to do everything it can to support union organizing and rejuvenate the labor movement.
Starbucks was less thrilled about it.
The group of worker-activists in the Oval Office included Laura Garza, an employee from Starbucks’ New York roastery who is part of the chain’s growing union campaign.
Starbucks executive AJ Jones II penned a letter Thursday to Steve Ricchetti, the president’s counselor, asking that the White House hold a separate meet-and-greet for other representatives from Starbucks.
In the span of just a few months, more than 50 stores have voted to join the union Workers United, making it one of the most closely watched organizing efforts in decades. Starbucks has so far failed to stop the wave of organizing in its corporate-owned stores, despite waging an aggressive countercampaign.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and labor activists on Thursday in the Oval Office. (Photo: Adam Schultz/White House)
Jones said in his letter it wasn’t fair that only a union worker was there to share views on the company. (The full letter can be read here.)
“We believe this lack of representation discounts the reality that the majority of our partners oppose being members of a union and the unionization tactics being deployed by Workers United,” Jones wrote.
He ran through a litany of the company’s employee benefits and claimed that Starbucks has a “drastically more positive vision for our partners and our company than Workers United.” He requested that a “diverse, representative group” of Starbucks workers be invited to the White House for a separate gathering.
Starbucks already seems to have good access in Washington, having spent $480,000 on lobbying so far this year, according to Open Secrets.
The union campaign, known as Starbucks Workers United, told HuffPost in a statement that “equal time” was one of the “core principles” it has asked the company to adhere to during the organizing effort: “If Starbucks now believes in this principle, and grants us equal company time to talk to partners for every anti-union meeting they hold, we’d be happy to have them tag along next time we get invited to the White House.”
Biden's photo-op with activists fired up progressives who want the administration to do everything it can to support union organizing.
The group said Garza, who has been with the company for 22 years, shared her story with White House officials about “what it’s like to be intimidated and harassed by a company she has devoted her working life to.”
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Starbucks letter shows how workers like Garza have compelled Biden and other Democrats to show their support for unionizing workers even though it may rankle powerful corporations, including those close with the Democratic Party.
The meeting Thursday featured Christian Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Union, which recently made history by forming the tech giant’s first U.S. union, at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York. In a tweet after the White House meeting, Smalls said Biden told him he had gotten the president “in trouble” with his successful organizing, underscoring the political dynamic at play.
The White House labor get-together also included workers from the gaming company Paizo, the animation studio Titmouse, the Baltimore Public Library and outdoor retailer REI, all workplaces where unions have been organizing. Biden was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.
The campaigns at Starbucks and Amazon have turned into political stories, as workers and their allies call on lawmakers for public support. The same day workers met with Biden and other White House officials, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) held a Senate Budget Committee hearing in which Smalls pilloried Amazon for its anti-union tactics and sparred with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) over corporate America’s treatment of workers.
The organizing campaign at Starbucks has led to a raft of unfair labor practice charges against the company, with Workers United having accused management of retaliating against union activists and threatening to withhold pay raises and benefits from workers who organize.
Officials at the National Labor Relations Board have found merit in some of the union’s allegations, filing a complaint against Starbucks at the labor board and seeking an injunction in federal court to have fired activists reinstated. Starbucks maintains that it fired the workers because they had violated company policies.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
Starbucks union leader describes
'overwhelming and humbling'
White House meeting
Laura Garza, a union leader at Starbucks’ New York City Roastery, met with the president, vice president, and labor secretary on Thursday at the White House, and described the event as a huge boost to the nascent unionization movement.
"First and foremost, it was a completely overwhelming and humbling experience to represent partners that are organizing to unionize their stores," Garza told Yahoo Finance in a phone interview. "I think the main goal of the meeting yesterday [with] Secretary Walsh and Vice President Harris, and as well as President Biden, when he jumped in, all recognized everyone's right: a fundamental right to organize and also recognize that all workers across the country have a dignity to work."
Garza said the discussion was a round-table event, giving guests the opportunity to share "our stories of organizing and the success that has come from organizing successfully."
She also said the administration heard "how organizing can be an extremely lonesome and isolating experience, especially with aggressive anti-union busting from our places of employment like Starbucks and like Amazon."
Arizona State University law professor Michael Selmi, who’s written about employment discrimination and civil rights litigation, told Yahoo Finance that "even though these meetings were really symbolically important, it's not clear that there's gonna be much legislative follow up from them. I suspect and in part, because legislation with respect to even changing minimum wage, which every [person] widely supports has gotten nowhere for now a couple decades going back."
Selmi added that "this whole union movement is so hard to analyze at this point it's still so early."
Starbucks 'deeply concerned' by snub
Starbucks (SBUX) criticized the meeting with several union organizers from around the country — including a barista from Starbucks Workers United — as unionization efforts within the coffee giant's stores gain momentum.
In a letter, AJ Jones, Starbucks Senior Vice President of Global Communications and Public Affairs, wrote to White House counselor Steve Ricchetti about how the decision to not invite representatives from the company was "deeply" concerning.
"We are deeply concerned that Workers United, which is actively engaged in collective bargaining with us and trying to organize all our stores and our +240,000 partners (employees), was invited to the meeting while not inviting official Starbucks representatives, to discuss our view on the matter," Jones wrote.
"We believe this lack of representation discounts the reality that the majority of our partners oppose being members of a union and the unionization tactics being deployed by Workers United," he added. "As you know, American workers have the absolute right to decide for themselves to unionize, or not to unionize, without any undue influences."
Jones requested to meet with the Biden administration in order to introduce "a diverse, representative group of Starbucks partners from across the country to the White House so that they can share points of view and experiences that are vastly different from those presented by Workers United."
The White House did not respond to Yahoo Finance's request for comment.
'That just doesn't seem like a good business model'
Starbucks workers have been organizing at stores at a rapid speed — over 70 stores have voted in favor of unionization since December, and a flurry of union election filings are added daily. Seven stores have voted against the measure, while five stores remain undetermined, according to the NLRB records.
Starbucks recently announced a $1 billion investment to increase workers' pay, offer additional training, and improve stores. Crucially, these benefits may not apply to unionized stores.
On Friday, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Yahoo Finance Live (video above) that three-time Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz should invest "in all of his workforce," not just the stores without unions.
“I don't think he can just invest in the people, the dozen shops that organize. That just doesn't seem like a good business model," Walsh said. "I commend him for investing in their salaries, and I also would recommend that the stores that organize to sit down and have a conversation with them.”
Garza noted she wanted to sit down with Schultz, who took over as interim CEO last month, and other Starbucks executives to work out various issues.
"We want to sit down and have them hear our stories and come to the bargaining table really with an open mind and an open heart," she said. "We believe that we can work together in creating and in the continuation of the whole idea of the third place. Starbucks is a very progressive company and we want to share that vision with them as well."
Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @daniromerotv
Starbucks asks White House for equal time after Biden met with union leaders
Fri, May 6, 2022,
By Hilary Russ and David Shepardson
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Starbucks Corp has asked for a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden's administration after unionized workers talked to White House officials on Thursday, saying in a letter that most of its employees do not want to be members of a union.
Separately, an official with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a complaint on Friday describing allegations of misconduct by Starbucks toward union members that constitute violations of U.S. labor law. Starbucks said the allegations in the complaint are false and lack merit.
In the letter to the White House, dated Thursday and released Friday, Starbucks said it was "deeply concerned" that Workers United, which is organizing hundreds of U.S. Starbucks locations, "was invited to the meeting while not inviting official Starbucks representatives."
The White House declined to comment.
On Thursday Biden met with workers and labor organizers seeking to represent workers at Amazon.com Inc, Starbucks and other employers.
Attendees included Christian Smalls, who heads the Amazon Labor Union, and Laura Garza, a Starbucks employee working with Workers United.
During the meeting, Biden said: "When I ran for president, I made a commitment that I would be the most pro-labor, union president in the history of America," according to video excerpts released by the White House Friday.
Starbucks said in the letter that its lack of representation "discounts the reality that the majority of our partners oppose being members of a union and the unionization tactics being deployed by Workers United." The coffee chain refers to its baristas and other employees as partners.
Workers at more than 50 U.S. Starbucks cafes have elected to join Workers United, while five stores voted against the union, out of roughly 240 altogether that have sought to hold elections since August. Workers United is an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.
"We have a drastically more positive vision for our partners and our company than Workers United," Starbucks asserted.
Workers United tweeted a statement from Garza who said it was "heartbreaking to read Starbucks' response." She said she was honored to represent all Starbucks partners at the meeting, "union or not."
In a complaint, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters, the NLRB's regional director for Buffalo, New York, listed allegations brought to the agency by Workers United, including charges that Starbucks threatened, fired and conducted surveillance on union members in the state.
Starbucks' conduct, as described in the allegations, violates the National Labor Relations Act, the complaint by Regional Director Linda M. Leslie said. An NLRB judge will hold a hearing over the allegations on July 11, the complaint added.
Starbucks said in a statement that the complaint involves important issues but "does not constitute a finding by the NLRB."
It added: "It is the beginning of a litigation process that permits both sides to be heard and to present evidence. We believe the allegations contained in the complaint are false, and we look forward to presenting our evidence when the allegations are adjudicated."
(Reporting by Hilary Russ; additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Rosalba O'Brien and Cynthia Osterman)
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