COLUMBUS – A downtown Columbus Starbucks could be the latest store in the coffee chain where workers will be represented by a union.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) visited the Starbucks location at 88 E. Broad Street Monday to show support for hourly workers who have asked the National Labor Relations Board for a union vote.
The employees also sent a letter to Starbucks founder and new interim CEO Howard Schultz stating that decisions Starbucks’ leadership made since the beginning of the pandemic have failed employees who were “told to serve without regard for the safety of themselves and other customers,” according to a release from Brown’s Washington office.
The letter also declared that employees would now seek to work with the company as “equal partners, not exploitable laborers,” Brown said.
Analysts and experts have speculated that Schultz was being brought back to help the company fight a rising worker rights campaign.
Workers at more than 100 Starbucks stores nationwide have said they want to unionize.
Schultz announced Monday that the coffee chain was suspending its share repurchase program to “invest more profit into our people and our stores.”