On an investor call, Starbucks interim CEO Howard Schultz said the company was investing $1 billion to raise wages, enhance benefits and modernize stores. But unionized stores won't get some of that.
A month after his return to Starbucks as interim CEO, Howard Schultz has announced new benefits, including expanded training, improved sick leave and credit card tipping for some 240,000 Starbucks employees at more than 8,800 stores across the country — but not for those that are unionizing.
Schultz hinted that Starbucks might move to exclude unionized stores from new benefits in comments to store managers over a video call in mid-April. At the time, he said he had just learned that Starbucks is not permitted by law to offer new benefits to a store that voted for a union while they are in the collective bargaining process.
But unlike many other food and beverage chains, Starbucks has long prided itself on being a standout employer, offering health care, retirement, stock options and free college tuition to full-time and part-time employees, referred to as partners at Starbucks. Indeed, the generous benefits and socially progressive culture are a big part of what has drawn many workers to Starbucks, which has some 9,000 stores nationwide.
"These young people have completely valid concerns given today's uncertainty and economic instability," he said."They look around, and they see the burgeoning labor movement as a possible remedy to what they are feeling."
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