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Take a seat, Mr. Schultz

Posted 4/15/22
It’s a tidal wave of organizing, and not even Starbucks’s notoriously anti-union CEO Howard Schultz appears able to keep it from advancing. 

In an ideal world, he would recognize the prevailing sentiment and take his seat among the numerous collective bargaining tables being set at his coffeehouses. But Schultz, who on April 4 embarked on a third stint as head of the Seattle-based monolith, views the unionizing effort as a “disruption,” and said during a recent session with employees (whom he calls “partners”) he was not “anti-union,” but rather “pro-Starbucks, pro-partner, pro-Starbucks culture.”

The company, he implied, didn’t become worth upward of $52 billion or make a profit of $4.2 billion last year by collectively bargaining. 

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