Thursday, October 17, 2024

Stressed Starbucks Baristas Decry ‘Skeleton’ Crews in Test for New CEO







Daniela Sirtori
Thu, October 17, 2024

(Bloomberg) -- On his second day at the helm, Starbucks Corp. CEO Brian Niccol said he was looking into complaints about understaffing. A previously undisclosed internal survey shows just how big of a problem employee shortages pose to worker morale.

Only 33% of workers who responded to a survey of the chain’s 10,000 US company-operated locations say stores consistently have sufficient staffing, according to results seen by Bloomberg News.

Staffing levels ranked as the issue with the lowest approval rating in the 45-question poll, which was conducted in April and shared internally in July.

“We are constantly only given a skeleton staff,” one worker said in comments collected as part of the survey results reviewed by Bloomberg. Employee names were withheld.

Making early strides to address workers’ concerns will be crucial for Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, who took over on Sept. 9. Speeding up service will be key to reversing two straight quarters of sales declines that precipitated his predecessor’s departure.

Workers say understaffing leads to backlogs at their stores. Less than half of the workers polled say their store’s equipment is reliable, compounding the problem.

Employees asked Niccol about the issue at a companywide forum on his second day on the job, according to a transcript of the event seen by Bloomberg News.

“The team is already working on it. You are being heard,” Niccol said in response to the question. He pledged to give baristas the “tools and time” they need to do their jobs in an open letter that same day.


Starbucks is refining the model it uses to allocate staffing to make sure it more precisely meets each store’s needs, a spokesperson said, building on work that had started before Niccol came on board. The company has bolstered staffing levels in 3,500 stores in the past year.

It has also added appliance upgrades aimed at making their jobs easier, including portable blenders introduced around mid-2023 to whip up cold foam, a popular topping. Earlier this year, Starbucks revamped the process to prepare popular beverages such as lattes and added a barista to tackle bottlenecks during the busiest times.

Manager Bandwidth

Three managers who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter say they have little bandwidth left for administrative tasks such as making schedules or coaching workers because they’re spending more time making drinks.


One of the managers said baristas and supervisors in their store are regularly skipping breaks and meals to keep up with the flurry of orders. At times, because of staff shortages, one worker has to cover multiple stations at once — from taking orders at the drive-thru to taking cash and warming food — which slows down service.

Managers, who unlike baristas are salaried employees, have been asking the company about staffing levels since at least early 2023, according to copies of dozens of messages posted to an internal message board where workers can pose questions to corporate headquarters about store operations.

The survey viewed by Bloomberg was administered to the more than 200,000 baristas, shift supervisors and store managers working at US company-operated stores and about 80% responded. The poll doesn’t include workers at locations run by third parties such as those located at airports or grocery stores. Starbucks conducts the poll twice a year and also collects feedback from workers through regular meetings.

Starbucks said in a statement that the survey shows “consistent improvement” in key areas of worker experience. The share of workers who said stores were adequately staffed rose since the last employee poll was conducted in October 2023. A bigger percentage of employees also said they were getting paid appropriately for their work in the most recent survey.

The company said in its most recent earnings report that turnover was at the lowest rate since the pandemic and more workers were getting the hours they want.

Still, the share of retail staff who would recommend Starbucks as a great place to work fell three percentage points in April from a year earlier, to 64%. Another statement, that Starbucks decisions “are made with partners in mind,” had a slightly smaller number in agreement in April compared with October, when fewer workers participated.

At the chain’s upscale Starbucks Reserve and Roastery locations in the US, just 25% of workers say staffing is adequate, while only half recommend Starbucks as a great place to work.

Those six locations in Seattle, New York and Chicago are supposed to be the pinnacle of the brand, with curated menus featuring Italian-style delicacies and creative drinks such as whiskey barrel-aged cold brew. But workers at some of the store are too stretched and struggling to deliver on the experience, a corporate staffer who works alongside store employees said.


Some at Starbucks are hopeful that the former Chipotle CEO will improve the worker experience. At the burrito chain, Niccol prioritized adding a second food assembly line for digital orders that relieved pressure on staff. Earlier this year, the burrito chain limited the number of online orders that could come in over a given period so workers wouldn’t get swamped. He also enhanced training for frontline employees.

But he also oversaw Chipotle during a tense period of union organizing. In addition, in 2022, Chipotle agreed to a $20 million settlement to resolve an investigation of whether it had violated New York City law governing scheduling and paid sick leave. Chipotle declined to comment.

“He needs to rally the troops,” Kevin McCarthy, a portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman, said shortly after Niccol was appointed. “He needs to make sure that he’s got buy-in from the rank and file.”

--With assistance from Josh Eidelson.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.




US judge orders Boeing, DOJ to detail diversity policy before deciding on plea

 54th Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris · Reuters

Tue, October 15, 2024 
By David Shepardson and Mike Spector

(Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Boeing and the U.S. Justice Department to detail the impact of diversity and inclusion policies on the selection of an independent monitor before he decides whether to accept the planemaker's plea deal.

U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor held a hearing Friday as he considers whether to approve Boeing's agreement to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud regulators. The deal would include oversight for three years by an independent monitor.


The order is the latest hurdle Boeing faces to avoid a potentially embarrassing trial and plead guilty to misleading the Federal Aviation Administration and violating a 2021 deferred prosecution agreement.

O'Connor on Tuesday told DOJ and Boeing to answer questions by Oct. 25 about the DOJ policy of selecting a monitor in keeping with the government's commitment to diversity and inclusion.

A DOJ spokesperson said the government "will comply with the judge’s order and respond before the court’s deadline." Boeing did not immediately comment.

While ordering DOJ and Boeing to respond to a series of questions about the diversity and inclusion policy and how it might affect the selection of an independent monitor, he also pointed out that it was not a disputed facet of the plea agreement.

"Critically, Boeing did not voice any objection to this provision," the judge said in his order.

O'Connor also wants the planemaker to detail how its existing diversity, equity and inclusion policies "are used in its current compliance and ethics efforts."

The planemaker agreed to pay up to a $487.2 million fine and spend at least $455 million on improving safety and compliance practices over three years of court-supervised probation as part of the plea deal.

O'Connor Friday pressed the Justice Department to justify the terms of Boeing's agreement to plead guilty to fraud in the wake of the two fatal 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019 that killed 346 people.

Attorneys for Boeing and DOJ argued Judge O'Connor should accept the plea deal, while lawyers for relatives of the crash victims urged him to reject it. Boeing agreed in July to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud regulators.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Mike Spector and Sheila Dang; Editing by Stephen Coates)



Mayor and 15 others killed in Israeli strike on Lebanon council meeting

LEBANON HAS THE RIGHT TO SELF DEFENSE

2 days ago
Joel Gunter
BBC
Reporting from Beirut
AFP
Nabatieh's governor said the number of dead could rise as the rubble was still being searched

The UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon has criticised Israel after air strikes on municipal buildings in the southern city of Nabatieh killed the mayor and 15 other people.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert called the killing of mayor Ahmad Kahil “alarming” and said any violations of international humanitarian law were “completely unacceptable”.

At least five of those killed in Wednesday's strike were municipal staff co-ordinating aid for civilians remaining in the area, Nabatiyeh Governor Howaida Turk told the BBC.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati condemned the attack, saying it had "intentionally" targeted a council meeting.

The attack was the most significant against a Lebanese state building since the latest escalation in fighting, which began about two weeks ago, and has raised concerns about the safety of the country’s state infrastructure.

A spokesman for the Israeli military said its forces had launched raids targeting dozens of Hezbollah targets in the area and destroyed a tunnel used by the Iran-backed group.

"We know that Hezbollah many times takes advantage of civilian facilities," Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon said at a meeting of the UN in New York City on Wednesday.

Turk, the governor, said that while the majority of Nabatieh residents had already left the area following heavy Israeli air strikes, the mayor and other municipal employees had stayed behind to help those who remained.

“This is just like strikes all over Lebanon,” she said.

“They [Israel] have hit civilians, Red Cross, civil defence. Now they have targeted a government building. It is unacceptable. It is a massacre.”

Previous strikes on Nabatieh over the past few days have destroyed historic buildings, including an Ottoman-era market dating to 1910.

Reuters
Wednesday's attacks on Nabatieh have raised concerns about the safety of state infrastructure in Lebanon

Israel also launched at least one air strike against Beirut on Wednesday.

The strike, which hit the southern suburb of Dahieh, was the first on the Lebanese capital in five days. It came after a reported intervention by the US in which it urged restraint over the bombing of the capital.

Residents of Dahieh had begun to return to the area over the past few days, taking advantage of the apparent pause in bombing to check on their homes and retrieve clothes and other possessions.

Several told the BBC on Wednesday that the area resembled a ghost town, with rubble and debris from buildings littering the streets.

The strike on Dahieh came just hours after a US state department spokesman Matthew Miller publicly expressed concern over the “scope and nature” of Israel’s bombing of Beirut.

Mr Miller said the state department’s concerns had been "made clear to the government of Israel".

An Israeli military spokesman said that prior to striking Beirut, “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including advancing warnings to the population in the area”.

Israel has faced criticism this week over its warnings, which Amnesty International has called “inadequate” and “misleading”.

The human rights charity said the warnings did “not absolve Israel of its obligations under international humanitarian law”.

Israel has expanded its air campaign in recent days, launching an unexpected strike in the far north of the country on Monday.

The strike, which destroyed a large residential home that had been rented by a displaced family in the Christian village of Aitou, killed 23 people, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Twelve of the dead were women and two children, the ministry said.

The UN human rights office called for an investigation into the Aitou strike, saying it raised "real concerns" with respect to international humanitarian law.

UN urges probe into deadly Israeli strike on north Lebanon


US gives Israel 30 days to boost Gaz

Republicans Tell Trump That Elon Musk’s Super PAC Is Blowing It

Asawin Suebsaeng, Miles Klee and Andrew Perez
Wed, October 16, 2024






Donald Trump has largely outsourced his 2024 campaign’s get-out-the-vote operation to a Super PAC bankrolled and directed by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man — and one of its most awkward. In recent weeks, several Republican operatives and other figures in the national party have bluntly and directly informed Trump they fear Musk’s organization is falling down on the job of mobilizing voters to cast their ballots for the Republican nominee.

According to two sources familiar with the situation and another person briefed on it, these close Trump allies have told him that they are worried that America PAC, an outside group that Musk created to boost turnout for Trump, is failing in critical battleground states that are likely to be won by razor-thin margins, with only weeks left to go before Election Day. Some partly blame, including when they’ve spoken to Trump, the group’s lead strategists, who are linked to the failed 2024 primary run of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“We were upfront about our concerns,” says a GOP operative close to the former president and 2024 Republican nominee, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations with Trump. Rolling Stone was shown a screenshot of written communications further corroborating that these sentiments were conveyed to Trump himself.

This source adds that they relayed to Trump that they have been in touch “constantly” with conservative activists and other top Republicans based in key swing states, and few of them have had any positive comments lately about the Musk-supported America PAC’s impact in their respective states. Some say they are seeing a relatively small GOTV presence on the ground, despite the Super PAC’s massive spending to boost Trump — $75 million since Joe Biden withdrew from the Democratic ticket in July.

Moreover, the sources say, several members of Trump’s inner circle have grumbled for weeks, including in discussions with Trump, that the Musk operation is being led by senior officials from Ron DeSantis’ embarrassing 2024 effort. In the 2024 GOP primary, the Florida governor and his allies waged a hugely expensive campaign to snatch the nomination from Trump — only to be roundly humiliated by the former president, again and again.

Despite some public displays of unity between Trump and DeSantis — including during the 2024 Republican National Convention, where DeSantis spoke on the arena stage — there remains intense hatred and distrust between the two camps, multiple members and alums of each side say. Many in the upper ranks of Trumpland view Team DeSantis as woefully incompetent and out of touch, and they wonder, as one Trump adviser put it recently to Rolling Stone, “Why in the world would we trust them with anything?”

Some of the private airing of grievances in Trumpworld revolve around the fact that the Super PAC still appears to be building its field operation. Multiple other Republican consultants and mega-donors have pointed out to Rolling Stone in recent days that America PAC still had open postings for canvassers on its website.

“Why isn’t the army already in place?” a high-roller Trump donor asked, rhetorically.

On the Democratic side, which has been tracking the work and progress of the Musk operation, those working to defeat Trump are similarly skeptical. For instance, a 2024 Kamala Harris campaign official tells Rolling Stone the vice president has a larger staff, as well as more than 350 field offices, built up across the swing states, and argues their side has significantly outdone and outpaced the ground-game infrastructure constructed by Team Trump.

America PAC’s spokesperson did not provide comment on this story.

Trump, who has previously publicly feuded with Musk, has recently trashed Musk behind his back as weird, “boring,” and irritating, as Rolling Stone has reported. But he desperately needs the billionaire’s support, now more than ever, given that Harris is massively outraising his 2024 campaign. Trump even campaigned alongside the Tesla CEO earlier this month.

During these conversations with the several anxious allies, the sources say Trump has repeatedly dismissed their warnings about America PAC’s ground game and battleground-state outreach.

“I can tell you from personal interactions with him that Donald Trump loves what Elon and his operation are doing in the battleground states, and nobody trying to convince him otherwise lately has had any effect,” says a Trump political adviser. “As you can see, Trump has been saying at rallies how much he loves Elon and the work he’s putting in … Elon is going all in where it truly matters, especially in Pennsylvania, where his efforts are most visible.”

Moreover, according to multiple sources on or close to the Trump campaign, a number of aides leading Team Trump often view the former president’s allies’ harsh criticisms of the Musk apparatus as a way of trying to turn Trump against his campaign leaders, who largely outsourced the ground game to outside organizations, including the group run by Musk.

And even if Trump did share any of his allies’ concerns, he’s effectively stuck with the Musk show: It is too late for his campaign to aggressively ramp up its own GOTV operation in bitterly contested swing states to make up for any possible Musk-related shortfall.

In the final stretch of a relentlessly close, “trench warfare”-style race between Harris and Trump, Musk has given at least $75 million to America PAC.

This amount comes on top of millions already funneled into the Super PAC by Musk allies in Silicon Valley, including Shaun Maguire, Joe Lonsdale, and Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. But Musk was the group’s only reported donor between July and September.

Musk, who established the Super PAC earlier this year, did not formally endorse Trump until after an attempt on the candidate’s life at a July rally in Pennsylvania. But The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the billionaire’s support of right-wing groups dates back further.

At least $50 million in donations from Musk funded an ad campaign from Citizens for Sanity during the 2022 midterms, including spots that attacked Democrats in battleground states by demonizing immigrants and transgender people. The PAC, incorporated that same year, includes board members from the America First Legal Foundation, founded by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who is known for pushing far-right anti-immigration policy. According to the Journal, the money was routed through a dark money group led by consultants tied to DeSantis.

Musk also contributed at least $10 million through the conservative group Faithful & Strong Policies to support DeSantis’ failed 2024 presidential bid.

America PAC is led by two veterans of that DeSantis run: Phil Cox, formerly of the Never Back Down Super PAC, and Generra Peck, who served for a short time as DeSantis’ 2024 campaign manager. Peck was reportedly among those who advocated for DeSantis to launch his challenge against Trump in a live-streamed audio event on the Musk-owned platform X (formerly Twitter) that was marred by technical glitches. Cox leads a sprawling consortium of consulting and lobbying firms; Peck is the president of one of the companies.

As with the DeSantis campaign, which ended with the governor failing to win a single state primary, America PAC is heavily focused on canvassing. Never Back Down ran into problems by bringing in paid canvassers; America PAC is similarly paying its canvassers. Such presidential election fieldwork is typically primarily carried out by unpaid volunteers and organized by the actual campaign, not outside groups.

Yet America PAC is now in large part responsible for Trump’s swing-state ground game. The Trump campaign has effectively delegated the bulk of its field operation to the Super PAC, which can accept unlimited donations, thanks in large part to a Federal Election Commission decision this spring that allowed campaigns and outside groups to coordinate their canvassing operations. (The decision was the latest blow to the idea that outside groups are expected to operate independently from candidates.)

Another potential factor in America PAC’s perceived struggles has to do with the Trump campaign’s reliance on a smartphone app called Campaign Sidekick, which is often nonfunctional in rural areas with slower internet where the group is trying to reach low-propensity voters.

Some of the concerns and complaints about the Musk-led operation have already trickled out publicly. GOP operatives and activists in toss-up states are saying they have seen little trace of America PAC’s canvassers at work. The group has switched canvassing vendors twice in the closing months of the campaign and, according to its website, the Super PAC is still looking to hire door-knockers just three weeks before Election Day.

In an interview with the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro last week, Trump was either unwilling or unable to address concerns about his team’s GOTV strategy when Shapiro suggested he’d been hearing lackluster reviews about the Team Trump ground game in tipping-point states.

Beyond any logistical shortcomings, America PAC exhibits Musk’s unmistakable sense of cringe meme humor in its ads. The group has also started featuring screenshots of Musk’s X posts and pictures of Musk in its ads on Facebook. Some of the ads are just plain sloppy: One Facebook ad calling on Pennsylvanians to “STOP THE INVASION” features a photo of refugees who were detained in Greece over a decade ago.

Meanwhile, the Super PAC is apparently devoting considerable resources to collecting 1 million signatures on a purely symbolic petition supporting the First and Second Amendments, paying people $47 for every registered voter they refer who adds their name to the petition. It’s unclear how this would have any discernible effect on voter turnout.

The ex-president could still, of course, win back the White House in November, with or without quality help from Musk. Various high-quality polls — both in internal surveys and public data — show a stubbornly close race between Harris and Trump in the battlegrounds that will decide the election.

Several longtime Trump advisers and confidants tell Rolling Stone they are mildly anxious about Musk trying to take credit for a Trump 2024 victory, if he wins, even though they are confident Musk will not accept the blame if Trump loses.

Apart from America PAC, Musk is certainly doing his part to try to put the twice-impeached former president and convicted felon back in the Oval Office. The billionaire has done what he can to turn X into a right-leaning, MAGA-fied social network, even amplifying misinformation produced by Trumpworld and coordinating with the Trump campaign to temporarily block links to an allegedly hacked, internal opposition research file on his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance.

Musk appeared at a rally with Trump earlier this month in Butler, Pennsylvania, at the site where a gunman’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear in July, and is reportedly spending the final weeks of the campaign in the critical swing state.

Despite this show of enthusiasm, and his hands-on direction of America PAC, Musk’s level of financial commitment to Trump — who has talked about appointing the Tesla CEO to a role in the federal government — has been a matter of ongoing confusion.

Musk denied pledging $45 million a month to help Trump, as was reported in July; around the same time, Trump boasted that Musk was donating that much. Trump additionally claimed to an associate that Musk is pouring $500 million into America PAC.

Now we know that Musk donated $75 million to the pro-Trump Super PAC between July and September — or $25 million per month on average.

 Rolling Stone