In a video addressed to the company’s employees on Monday, Starbucks Corp. (SBUX.O) Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz said there have been “a lot of false promises over the last few years” and promised his employees that those “days are over.”
“We’re going to make real commitments and tackle the problems that exist in your stores,” Schulz said in a video provided to Reuters on Friday.
Schultz, who took over as CEO for the third time this month, is grappling with a burgeoning labor movement in American cafes.
He also stated that he intends to focus on issues identified by employees during their “co-creation sessions,” such as the need for more training, guaranteed hours, ice machine problems, and maintenance and repairs not arriving on time.
“I’ve learned there have been numerous short-term actions that have resulted in negative consequences. We’re going to change that “According to the CEO, who has been nearly synonymous with the corporation since taking over in 1987.
Since August, baristas at more than 170 Starbucks stores in the United States have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for union elections, with at least 10 sites voting in favor of the Workers United union.
Starbucks was charged by a federal labor board last month with improperly retaliating against two employees at a Phoenix, Arizona, cafe who attempted to unionize their workplace.
On the same day, a group of investors representing $3.4 trillion in assets under management requested the corporation to stop disseminating anti-union materials to its employees and to adopt a neutral stance toward labor unions.