(Reuters) – Former Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz will defend the company’s labor talks before a U.S Senate Committee on Wednesday, according to written testimony seen by Reuters.
“Starbucks has engaged in good faith bargaining,” Schultz’s testimony says arguing “union representatives have improperly demanded multi-store negotiations, delayed or refused to attend meetings, and insisted on unlawful preconditions.”
Democratic lawmakers accuse Starbucks of illegally firing pro-union employees and shuttering freshly unionized stores, which the company denies.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chairman Senator Bernie Sanders said earlier this month that “despite the fact that over 280 Starbucks coffee shops have successfully voted to form a union over the past year, Starbucks has refused to negotiate in good faith to sign a single first contract with their employees.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Hilary Russ; editing by Chizu Nomiyama)