urging Starbucks to cool it with the anti-union tactics. Schultz’s meltdown indicates that advice didn’t exactly stick.
But Schultz would do well to realize that his strategy of talking terse with workers may ultimately backfire. It’s unlikely that baristas will see any level of relatability in Schultz, who has an estimated net worth of nearly $4 billion and once used his spare cash to mount a run for President of the United States. Plus,
Starbucks’s workforce is young, and these Gen Z baristas don’t seem to scare easily. They’re picketing outside of Starbucks locations, spreading the word on TikTok, and plainly stating their demands for better wages. At this point in the Great Resignation,, and that’s not exactly good news for Starbucks’s hardline stance against worker organizing.
When all is said and done, it’s likely that many Starbucks locations will end up with a union, and that means the company will have wasted possibly millions of dollars on anti-union consultants and lawyers and complaints levied by the National Labor Relations Board when they could’ve just done the right thing — sitting down to negotiate with their workers as they are obligated to do by law — in the first place.
He is terrified.
Starbucks employees have it pretty good for what they do. The drive to unionize doesn't help any of the parties involved.
If a CEO of any company so aggressively fought against something that most of their customers support, he/she would be recognized as a lunatic and shown the door. 69% support unionization. His sclerotic, old thinking could be the end of a good company.