New Starbucks CEO Gets a Powerful Welcome Message from Pro-Labor Groups: No More Union Busting

More than 40 progressive organizations, including the AFL-CIO, Sierra Club, Women’s March, and GreenPeace, have voiced their support for unionizing Starbucks workers in a letter to the company’s new CEO, Laxman Narasimhan. That letter, published Tuesday, urges Narasimhan to “create and build a healthy working relationship with unionized partners” rather than “continuing on the current path Starbucks has taken,” which has involved union-busting practices that have earned the company multiple violations of federal labor law.

“As our nation’s leading advocacy, environmental, civil rights, gender justice, and labor organizations, who represent nearly 62 million members and supporters, we stand by workers exercising their fundamental and constitutional right to form a union,” the letter reads. “Unions are good for workers, businesses, our economy, and our democracy.”

The letter coincided with a Global Starbucks Union Day of Action, in which Starbucks Workers United, Workers United, SEIU 32 BJ, and other organizations sent 1 million messages to the coffee company in support of union workers. More than 296 Starbucks stores, covering more than 7,500 workers, have voted to unionize. Read more in Fast Company!