Ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz defends billionaires in fiery Congressional hearing
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz passionately defended billionaires and their childhoods in federal housing during a fiery congressional hearing on Wednesday.
The hearing, called by Democratic Socialist Sen.
Bernie Sanders, was meant to focus on Starbucks and allegations that it illegally fired pro-union baristas or spied on workers during a labor mobilization campaign.
In a clip that has since gone viral on social media, Schultz was asked about his bargaining tactics with unions by Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith, who suggested he was taking advantage of an “extreme” power imbalance as ” multimillionaire”.
“This billionaire nickname, let’s get to it,” Schultz responded. ‘I grew up in federally subsidized housing. My parents never owned a home. I come from nothing. I thought my whole life was based on achieving the American dream.
‘Yes, I have billions of dollars, I earned it. Nobody gave it to me and I have constantly shared it with the people at Starbucks’.
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz (pictured) passionately defended billionaires and their childhoods in federal housing during a fiery congressional hearing on Wednesday.
At that point, Sanders cut off the rest of Schultz’s testimony in an attempt to move on to another questioner.
Schultz was visibly upset and wanted to continue the idea that Sanders hated billionaires.
He retorted: ‘It’s your nickname, constantly, unfair.’
Sanders went ahead, saying he needed to get more testimony and more questions from other senators.
The former CEO of Starbucks, now worth $3.8 billion, according to Forbes – grew up in The Bayview public housing project in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn, in what was founded as a “moderate income” development, according to the washington post.
However, those who lived there tried to derisively describe it as “the blueprints country club,” and a neighbor asked Schultz to “stop referring to us as poor or destitute, because it’s insulting and we don’t feel that way at all.” “. .’
Even those who were proud that Schultz had come this far were frustrated by his description of the projects.
“Howard Schultz makes it sound like a slum, but you can’t be poor to live there,” said a former neighbor. ‘Don’t let Howard fool you – it was brand new, a beautiful new place with new kitchens, new plumbing. We’re excited for him to show up, but he yells at the TV when he says these things.
A spokesperson for Schultz cited the $100-a-month rent, which his family often struggled to pay, saying that “any suggestion that Howard did not grow up in an economically distressed environment is more a comment on the state of our policy than It’s about your family’s finances.
The hearing, called by Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (pictured), was meant to focus on Starbucks and allegations that it illegally fired pro-union baristas or spied on workers during a labor mobilization campaign.
In a clip that has since gone viral on social media, Schultz was asked about his bargaining tactics with unions by Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith, who suggested he was taking advantage of an “extreme” power imbalance as ” multimillionaire”.
Schultz was visibly upset and wanted to keep hitting the idea that Sanders hated billionaires.
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Schultz also responded to Smith’s accusation that his team refused to bargain with union organizers and his distaste for unions.
Schultz also responded to Smith’s accusation that his team refused to bargain with union organizers and his distaste for unions.
“I was the CEO of the company and I have the preference and the right to communicate to people what is right for Starbucks.”
Sanders focused heavily on the fact that Schultz, once touted as Hilary Clinton’s potential labor secretary when she ran for president in 2016, was consistently against the organization.
“Over the past 18 months, Starbucks has waged the most aggressive and illegal anti-union campaign in the modern history of our country,” Sanders, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said as the session began. .
He accused the company’s former CEO, Howard Schultz, of leading the anti-union effort.
And he said that ‘the people at the top have never had it so good’ keeping the working class in its place.
Of late, this has been an uphill battle for Starbucks’ reputation as it fights unionization at all stores.
Nearly 300 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize and have been certified by the NLRB so far. There are about 9,300 company-operated Starbucks stores in the US.
This has of late been an uphill battle for Starbucks’ reputation.
He is said to have displayed “egregious and widespread misconduct” in his dealings with employees involved in efforts to unionize the Buffalo, New York, stores, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge said, Michael Roses.
Rosas said the “relentless” effort to send high-level executives to Buffalo-area stores likely “left a lasting impact as to the importance of voting against representation.”
Starbucks previously said it is “considering all options to obtain further legal review,” adding that “we believe the decision and the remedies ordered are inappropriate given the record in this matter.”
Nearly 300 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize and have been certified by the NLRB so far. There are about 9,300 company-operated Starbucks stores in the US.
The businessman worth $3.8 billion pictured above with his wife Sheri Kersch Schultz
The billionaire once scoffed at a run for president, vowing to run as an independent and has criticized Republicans and Democrats for failing to address the nation’s $21 trillion in debt.
Schultz, 69, served as Starbucks chief executive until 2017 before stepping in as interim in 2022 to fix the company’s deteriorating “values” as employees protested for better wages and benefits for part-time employees.
He flirted with running for president as an independent in 2020 but faced protests in his hometown of Seattle, where some resented Starbucks’ treatment of workers and because he had sold the city’s NBA team, the Supersonics, to a group that moved them to Oklahoma City.
In 2001, Schultz led a group of investors in the purchase of the WNBA Sonics and Seattle Storm for $200 million. Due in part to an unfavorable lease and the small size of the KeyArena, where the team played, the Sonics were losing millions of dollars a year.
After being rejected by the Legislature in his efforts to win public funds to redevelop the venue, Schultz sold the team for $350 million to the group that moved it to Oklahoma City and renamed it the Thunder.
The Sonics were Seattle’s oldest professional sports franchise and the first Seattle team to win a national title since the Seattle Metropolitans won hockey’s Stanley Cup in 1917.
In a Seattle Times op-ed, Schultz apologized.
“I was so focused on getting myself and others out of a losing money situation that I made a bad decision and didn’t follow the principle that helped me grow Starbucks, which is trying to balance profit with humanity,” he wrote. . ‘Selling the Sonics is the biggest regret of my professional life. …I don’t expect my actions to be forgiven or forgotten.’
Union workers hope that the new CEO, Laxman Narasimhan, will be more open to the union than Schultz had been.
“It is our hope that Laxman Narasimhan will chart a new path with the union and work with us to make Starbucks the company we know it can be,” Michelle Eisen, a Starbucks worker and union organizer, said in a statement this week.