Starbucks interim CEO Howard Schultz will testify before a Senate committee about the company’s labor practices on March 29, a reversal of Schultz’s previous refusal.
“I’m happy to announce that Howard Schultz, the CEO and founder of Starbucks, has finally agreed to testify before the Senate HELP Committee,” Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt) said in a statement Tuesday. Sanders chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which had planned to vote on whether to subpoena Schultz to testify on Wednesday.
The coffee company has been fighting a growing wave of unionization under Schultz’s leadership. Since Schultz rejoined the company as interim CEO in April of last year, and even before, he has said repeatedly that he doesn’t think Starbucks workers should unionize.
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“I look forward to hearing from Mr. Schultz as to when he intends to end his illegal anti-union activities and begin signing fair first contracts with the unions,” Sanders said.
Schultz in February declined Sanders’ request to testify before the committee, noting that Schultz will hand over CEO duties to incoming CEO Laxman Narasimhan in April. Starbucks said at the time that it would send that its chief public affairs officer and executive vice president, AJ Jones II, instead.
But “after constructive discussions with Committee staff, we have agreed that interim chief executive officer Howard Schultz will testify on behalf of Starbucks,” Starbucks’ chief counsel Zabrina Jenkins said in a letter sent to Sanders and the rest of the committee on Tuesday, which was provided to CNN by Starbucks.
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