Transcripts For CSPAN3 Current 20240705

Whats the question . Im gonna tie it in here. Name one policy because you already brought him up already every morning. Name one policy that thank you all very much for your patients. Its an important vote that we had to cast. We are now gonna begin the second panel and we are delighted to have an excellent panel. Which will include maggie carter, jason saxton, sharon block, bradley byrne, rachel kristol. Our first witness is maggie carter. Miss carter begin working at starbucks parttime four years ago. To get Health Benefits and pay while attending university of tennessee. Her story knoxville, tennessee, was the first our bookstore in the south to unionize. Since then, miss carter has helped workers of numerous other stories organized. Im delighted to have you here to talk about her experience. Miss carter. Thanks for being with us. Turn the mic on thank you so much, mister chairman. My name is maggie carter. Im a single mom to a beautiful eightyearold boy named colson. Being his mom is the absolute greatest gift of my life. He is why i ended up at starbucks. The only place to offer me parttime benefits and what i thought would be flexible scheduling while in school. As a lesbian, i was also drawn to starbucks by its reputation as a progressive employer. I started working at starbucks in jackson tennessee in may of 2019. I was paid 8. 35 an hour. Then in march of 2020 came. And it felt as if the world shut down. Just not at starbucks. I worked consistently from day one of the pandemic because as a single mom, i didnt have a choice. In april 2020, i told my manager i needed to move from jackson to knoxville. It wasnt until two months later she responded telling me i had only 48 hours to decide between quitting and being rehired in knoxville, losing all of my seniority and benefits or taking a leave of absence without pay and crossing my fingers to see if i would be transferred to a knoxville store. Because of covid, at the company had frozen the normally easy transfer process. I couldnt risk losing my benefits so i chose the second option. But it meant that i went without pay for three months. Luckily, i was able to begin work at a knoxville store in august 2020. The whole situation was a punch to the gut and the emotional impact of the disrespect i felt ultimately contributed to my belief in the need to organize a union. In october 2021, starbucks announce it starting pay with an increase to 15 an hour almost a year later. I scoured the internet searching starbucks wages, benefits, pay increases and i learned about starbucks workers organizing. I share this information with my coworkers and we decided to stand together to file for an election on christmas eve. We were proud to be the first or in the south. It wasnt without an epic fight because starbucks resisted us every step of the way. Just five days after announcing our union drive, our regional director drove to our story from out of state and was working alongside my partners, attorney to make drinks. Instead the first time and entire time of the company that made a regional director in person. Partners suddenly started getting discipline for minor dress Code Violations or being five or so minutes late. Every day, it felt as if there was a concerted effort to build a case against partners who showed even the smallest bit of support for the union. Days prior to ballots being that out for the election, miniatures closer store for our long periods. Most during peak operating times, to hold impromptu captive audience meetings. It felt like the company was suddenly paying full attention to us and were willing to throw absolutely anything at us to deter us from organizing. We won our vote when you are go today. March 29th, 2022. Since then, we made every attempt to try to bargain in good faith with the company. Starbucks walked out on our stores only scheduled bargaining session after just 30 minutes. On may 3rd, the Company Announced that partners who are organizing or had already unionized would not receive a series of important benefit increases the nonunion stores will be granted. My partners along with thousands of partners across the country still do not have access to these benefits. Nor do we have a company that is willing to sit across the table with us in park and for them. This is part of my Stories Campaign story but if you look to the 7500 plus members of starbucks workers united, you will find thousands of stories that detail similar or more grotesque accounts of starbucks behavior during their scorch earth Union Busting campaign. My coworker michel eisen stated perfectly when she testified before the house. It should not take an active bravery to ensure you have a voice at work. Data laws allow so much room for companies to harshly assert themselves. Unequal resources combined with a balanced Power Dynamics ensure that the companies voice will often be louder than the collective voice of workers. Schultz has made a career selling the idea of offering benefits to parttime workers because he wanted to operate a different kind of company. I am a single mother working in tirelessly for this company for four years and im certainly not alone in feeling nothing but left behind during a time where everything we knew about the world was uncertain. You cannot be pro partner and anti union. Its well past time for the company to bargain in good faith. Help us hold them accountable. Thank you for allowing partners to have a seat at this table alongside former ceo Howard Schulz because that is significantly more than he was willing to offer. Two starbucks new ceo, lacks you have an opportunity to try to different course. To truly make starbucks the different kind of company schultz promised but failed ethically to produce. This is a chance for your company to stop its Unprecedented Campaign of Union Busting and instead partner with us, your socalled partners, and our union to build a company that truly lives up to its stated progressive values. Thank you so much. Thank you, miss carter. Our next witness is jason saxton. Who is a former starbucks shift supervisor. Mr. Sachs and sort of working a starbucks in augusta georgia in 2019. He and his coworkers successfully unionized their store in april 2020 to an inch of i20 to, after today strike he was illegally fired by starbucks. Mr. Sexton, thanks for being with us. Thank you, chairman sanders. My name is jason thaxton. I am a wrongfully fired starbucks worker from augusta georgia. That sort of the company in 2019. Hired on as the ship supervisor. In time, i became to go to not only for baristas but management as well. I was recognized for made it occasion and hard work as well as the positive and Infectious Energy and environment i created for partners and customers. I even one partner of the quarter. My time at starbucks wasnt all what bad. I met my amazing wife who is now the mother of our twoyearold, eva. I got to be there for the customers who relied on us during the pandemic and support my coworkers whose families were also going through some really tough times. Being a disabled veteran with osteoarthritis of the spine from a time of the coast guard, i felt it was my duty to serve my country again. In order to make my workplace more equitable but also so that my work family could have what they needed to survive. We face many failed and broken systems working a starbucks when we begin to organize the union. We saw the starbucks failed we chose to live up to them and challenge the status quo. In late 2021, when we started to hear about starbucks workers in buffalo organizing a union, i thought we need this to. I reached out to starbucks workers united to see how we could get started organizing in our store. And began talking to my coworkers. We kept organizing despite increasing retaliation and surveillance. The company said hire a managers to restore and felicia was just to surveil us. The regional director who drove down from atlanta was in our store regularly with the district manager. We were disciplined for minor things that happened in the story like being written out for being two minutes late, which had never happened before. Terminations increased to. Partner who experienced Sexual Harassment from one of our managers was terminated after reporting it. They held captive audience meetings, they call them oneonones. For us to have all of the facts. But the partners were out numbered every time. In these meetings, partners were being threatened with losing their benefits of a joined the union. Which made them feel intimidated and scared. In february of 2022, we heard about the high profile case of retaliation in termination against a group of mostly workers of color. Theyre finding had a Chilling Effect on me and my coworkers as we saw the company portraying the value despite our fears, we were inspired by the courage and power of the memphis seven impelled for our election a month later in march 2022. A week after we filed, they were placed a sympathetic for miniature but it backfired as more people got on board with the union. In april, our store won our election by a landslide in 26 to 5. Despite all of the threats and intimidation. Starbucks retaliation and Union Busting ramped up even more after we won our election. We were constantly being watched in miniatures with an intimate conversations through our headsets. Store hours were constantly changing and ours kept getting cut. People were fired right on the shop for. They fired seven of our union members, two of them were shove supervisors. Two partners requested medical and maternity leave, management refused to sign off on their leave and they were terminated. Several people quit including my wife. Some of us were told that we should look for another job. In july, i met today unfairly will purchase strike and delivered our demands. A month later, i was fired for supposedly being disruptive. I did not receive any right of or discipline and there was no investigation. I was fired after organizing like so Many Union Leaders across the country. I have filed unfair labor practice charge. With the end of our bcc to be reinstated at starbucks. Starbucks and big corporations have a lot of power and money. And they are willing to pull out all the stops to deny workers a voice and a seat at the table in a union. Thats why im thrilled to be here today to have witnessed firsthand Howard Schultz being held to account for his companys illegal behavior. We are coming together to demand better pay, Affordable Health coverage, and a stronger safety procedures. I am proud to be a leader of this new labor movement. We are taking on Corporate Power in fighting for all of us. One day, my daughters gonna be able to look at her dead on the internet and find out that i fought for a Better Future for every starbucks worker and for all working people. I know shell also read that we took on one of the most powerful corporations and one. Thats why i keep fighting. And that makes everything worth it. Mr. Sexton, thank you very much. Our third witness is sharon professor executive director of the center for labor and its just hover law school. The 20, years shes held culebra policy positions across the legislative and executive branches of federal government including here at the Health Committee and in the mlr be. Thanks so much for being with us. Thank you, chairman sanders. Ranking member cassidy. For inviting me to testify today. It feels a little bit like coming home. I want to make clear that first im testifying in my personal capacity and not as a representative of harvard law school. In light of my long service with the nlrb i like to start my testimony by recognizing the great work done by the career staff with regard to the starbucks campaign. Handling hundreds of cases over the past 18 months. I know them firsthand to be consummate professionals and dedicated public servants. Next, i like to address the purpose of the National Labor relations act. So that we understand the consequences when an employer denies workers the rights guaranteed by the act. It does not guarantee that workers will be represented by a union. Or that if they are so represented, that they will secure particular outcomes at the bargaining table. Instead, it guarantees to them a fair process to decide for themselves whether they want to exercise these rights. It is always the workers who make these decisions. It is not the employers decision. Thought of in this way, you can say that the nra establishes the rule of law for the workplace. And so the question for this hearing is whether starbucks respected this workplace rule of law. Or has undermined the ability of workers to be treated unfairly in their quest to decide for themselves whether they want to union representation. Id like to make three main points in the remainder of my testimony. First, the scope of starbucks violations alleged and found so far is beyond the scope of the anti Union Campaigns that i have witnessed during my career at the labor lawyer. Second, that these violations should not be understood as isolated acts but rather should be viewed as a coordinated campaign to stifle Union Activity across the company. Finally, it is critical that this kind of egregious conduct is taken seriously. Because otherwise, it will send a message to workers across the economy that their rights are as disposable as a paper starbucks cup. First, all address the scope of the violations. As you have heard already, starbucks is facing more than 500 allegations that it is violated the nra. And already, career board agents have found merit in more than half of those charges. In addition, for Board Members from both Political Parties and seven career Administrative Law judges have concluded that starbucks has committed violations of the act. While its at least become quite common. For companies to respond hostility and often unlawfully to organizing campaigns by their workers. Im not aware of another company in recent years that has had this many allegations leveled against it or this many allegations found to have merit. The egregiousness of many of the violations also makes this campaign stand out. For decades, for firing a pro Union Workers during an organizing campaign as a whole mark violation. That is a violation that is likely to have significant impact, not just on the worker who was fired, but also on the organizing rights of coworkers. Already, the general counsel and ailed shades have found more than 20 starbucks employees have been fired because of their Union Activity. These discharges another hallmark violations found its conduct that goes to the very heart of workers rights under the act. In the words of the al j. Who reviewed starbucks and a Union Campaign in buffalo, starbucks has engaged in egregious and widespread misconduct demonstrating a general disregard for employees fundamental rights. That observation leads to my second point. What has happened at starbucks is not just a collection of individual violations. It looks more like a Company Campaign to stop the Workers Campaign in its tracks. Each time the company commits a new violation in new location or a new stage in the unions campaign, this communicating to all of us workers that the rights according to them by the law can be defeated. That the company is the resources, the whale and the stamina to undermine the exercise of their rights at every turn. Therefore, im also concerned about the wider message that starbucks into Union Campaign sends. Workers across the country especially low wage workers have also been inspired by what the starbucks priestess have achieved over the past 18 months. But what do these workers and the public think when they see that starbucks is willing to break the law that protects these rights hundreds of times. I commend the committee for holding this hearing to show that you take seriously workers rights to organize and to sit at a bargaining table if they choose. Even if their employer is a huge company that really doesnt want them to have a union. Its a bedrock of our democracy. That the law applies to everyone including the most powerful. I believe that much is at stake in ensuring that starbucks workers rights to unionize are protected and respected. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Senator cassidys voting. I am going to introduce his witnesses. Former representative, bradley burns, served four terms in congress and has more than 40 years of experience as a labor and employee for a private practice. Mr. Byrne, thank you for being with us. Thank you senator sanders. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I have submitted a written statement. I wont read that to you. I do not represent starbucks. I did not have a position about whether they have or have not committed unfair labor violations. I do not have a position on whether they should or should not be organized. I believe it is up to the workers. I trust the wisdom of the workers at the top stories to make those decisions in a properly conducted election. Im here because i represent a whistleblower, a longtime professional employee at the National Nation labor who has gone forward at the Inspector General to information that there have been significant irregularities, violation of the neutrality of the organization of the agency during at least one such election. A lot of that matter . The process that we follow in these elections is very important. And the previous speaker said, it is to make sure that the employees make a free and uncoerced decision. It is not to protect the management of the company, it is not to protect the union. It is certainly not to protect the nlrb. The nlrb is required to conduct what we call Laboratory Conditions from the time a petition is filed to the time we have an election. That means you have got to make sure that the voting environment is free. There is not any coercion. Most especially during this case that the nlrb is not putting its finger down on one side of the other. They should not favor the employer. They should not favor the union. They should be professional unusual in all cases. In my experience, the vast majority of employees that nlrb do exactly that. Unfortunately, we know that in at least one case that was violated. I was violated egregiously. A hearing officer found for different violations. Now, here is the problem with all of that. If you do something that challenges the integrity of the process, you have challenge the integrity of the vote. If you challenge the integrity of the bill, then you have challenged the integrity of the entire system. Remember, it is there to give the employees final decision. Not the company, certainly not the union. What i would like for this committee to do is to use its oversight authority, which is considerable, to look into what happened, not just in this one case but to determine if there is a pattern in practice at the nlrb a violating their neutrality obligation. If there is a pattern of practice, is that pattern or practice being directed from people in the higher echelon of the agency . I am very concerned by public statements, public positions taken by the general counsel of the nlrb. The general counsel is a political appointee. There is nothing wrong with that. Its true when you have republican president s to legacy through when you have a democratic president. If you are a democratic appointed nlrb general counsel, or republican appointed, you have an obligation to maintain that neutrality. You have an obligation to follow the law. What this general counsel has done is attacked the process for elections altogether. She wants to do away with elections. That greatly disturbs me. It flies in the face of long settled law. And also flies in the face of what ive been hearing a lot about recently which is workplace democracy. Workforce democracy. If we believe in workplace democracy than we all to give employees the right to vote as to whether or not they want a union. If they do, as i have done in some of the starbucks elections. That is the law, they get to have a union representative. In many cases they vote no. In the vast majority of cases where i represent the employees chose not to having union represent. Fine. Whichever way they vote is good they ought to have the right to hear both sides of the story which they wont have that they dont have an election. They ought to have the ability to walk into a secret place and cast a secret vote so that no one is coercing them to vote whichever way they want them to vote. I asked this committee and congress to look at this very carefully because of the seriousness of the situation. It should be all of our concern that we make sure that we have true integrity in these elections so the result is final and fair. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. I look forward to your questions. Mr. Burns, thank you very much. Rachel presses lure is a Senior Research fellow of economics the heritage foundation. She previously served as a senior economist at the joint Economic Activity of congress. Mrs. Chrysler, thank you very much for being with us. Good morning, good afternoon, thank you for the opportunity to be here. Theres your microphone on . Hold it closer. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. First i want to recognize the Important Role that unions outplayed in u. S. History and securing important Worker Protections just wages and giving workers a previously unheard voice. Many of the things that unions fought for are now protected by law. In a globally competitive economy has empowered individual workers. Ultimately weakens units advantages. When the only cars americans could buy where those produced in the u. S. , the United Auto Workers union could oppose above market compensation. Law that benefited Union Workers in the short run, it meant more expensive cars, fewer people being able to afford them, and fewer workers needed to produce them. One foreign competition entered and unions maintained their excessive competition demands, automakers began shuddering their doors. Domestic auto production today is 1 30 32 decades ago. In addition to shifting more Service Oriented jobs, American Workers have become more educated more mobile. The average worker changes jobs 12 times throughout their career, which means pensions built on decades of service are less desirable. Rigid pay scales me work for 9 to 5 jobs where everybody produces 20 which is today. Few jobs today or so routine. Most workers want to be paid based on what they contribute to. Consequently, union advantages have been waning. Since 2007, nonunion wages have increased 56 . While union wages have increased only 41 . Union pensions have recklessly promised 676 billion dollars in pension benefits that they have not set aside to pay. Instead of adapting to provide new services that workers value, unions have turned to Political Force and inciting animosity. Depicting cavity management as 12 foot to seized rats is dehumanizing and destructive. Most people want to be part of a team, not a battle. In fact, positive workplace relationships are the biggest indicator of employees that a faction. Most people also dont want their money taken to pay for things that they dont value. Many unions been more money on politics than they do were planting workers. A recent study found that only 16 of Teachers Union dues go to the local union that bargains on their behalf the rest goes to the state unionization had an alltime low 10. 1 last year. In part because employers can be more responsive and accommodating to workers desires without a union dictating what they can and cannot do. Instead of ruling workers, unions are trying to forcibly reverse the decline through laws that would take away workers privacies, their secret ballot election, the right to work without paying union, and their ability to be their own boss. Instead of forcing workers into one size fits all unions the alternative work benefits could for example Major League Sports bargain collectively for some things but workers are able to negotiate their own salaries. Freelancers union provide educational services, and they bring workers together to pull benefits. Worker choice models would allow more workers who want to be in a union to have that option while not forcing anybody who doesnt want to be in the union. The employees rights act would secure fundamental rights such as privacy, seek about elections, they would elevate the voices of many union and nonUnion Workers alike. They would also protect the livelihoods of 59 million americans who participate and independent work. It would ultimately preserve the Small Business franchise model. The recents shortage of workers and the longer decline in workforce participation is troubling for the economy and civil society. To help more people find meaningful and productive work, policy makers should expand apprenticeship opportunities, enable more benefits, and an unnecessary elation that prevent employees from offering more flexible and generous benefits. Additionally, it is the nlrbs job, not congresses, to investigate unfair labor practices and to render consistent and impartial decisions. It is also the job of the nlrb to protect fairly actions and to protect workers free speech rights. I do not know of any unfair labor practices at starbucks or of the roughly 18,000 files at the nlrb, but i do know that my were advocating for work like flexibility that starbucks has been a leader and extend benefits like paid family leave, High College Tuition the fact that their turnover rate is less than half an Industry Standard so yes they are doing something right. Running a business and attracting and retaining workers is not easy. Employers shouldnt have to fear congressional harassment if they dont want a union coming between them and their workers. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let me begin my questioning with miss carter and mr. Saxton. You have heard, i suspect, mr. Short saying that he obeys the law. He respects the rights of workers to organize if that is what he wants. Starbucks does not engage in Union Busting. Miss connor, what is your observation of that . My observation is that this is not my experience while working in a store that was unionizing. Thank you for your question, chairman. So, we were forced to go through multiple captive audience meetings in our store. Our store was the only one to stay open throughout the entirety of the pandemic. Unfortunately, because of the captive audience meeting, a member of management who traveled to a store from, i dont know where, cave multiple partners covid during this meeting. We had a shut down for five days. That is a little bit of Union Busting and outside experience but kind of crazy did workers have any option about whether or not they would undergo this meeting with the starbucks executive . We were scheduled for that meeting. It was actually a very first one. We were not told at this point in time that we didnt have to attend. It was very much not an option. Let me get to mr. Saxton. You heard what mr. Schultz said, what do you think . Thank you for your question, senator. That has not been my experience. In my master, when we filed they fired our store manager. He was a very well liked store manager. He helped in our organizing effort once he was fired. After that they brought in and interim store manager any through our Management Team to make our store more efficient. Making our store more efficient resulted in us constantly coming into work with everything moved around. Everything obey we have to relearn where everything was. Without the interim store manager would take notes about what she would hear or see on the floor. She would write down partners names. We didnt find out until after we had our election that the name she had written down were going to be written up, and or, fired. So what im hearing from you is you didnt quite expect mr. Schultz view that he hasnt engaged in anti Union Activity . They have definitely engaged in anti Union Activity. Let me get to mr. Bloch. If i heard you correctly you indicated that what you are seeing in starbucks is unprecedented . And that in modern history what starbucks is doing is also sending a signal to the corporate world that, in a sense, if they can get away with it other corporations can, as well . Am i right on that . Yes. I think that that is a fair interpretation of how this campaign may be perceived. In my mind, most importantly, among other low wage workers who work for large corporations that have the resources to engage in this type of drawn out, long, the litigation over their activity during an organizing campaign. What is the purpose, do you think, of these long neverending efforts on the part of company . Why do they do that . I try not to speculate on other peoples motives but, you know, i am concerned that we are seeing, now, fewer petitions being filed by other starbucks employees. There can be lots of reasons for that. Time will tell but as other witnesses and other members of the committee have indicated there is, necessarily, a huge power imbalance between workers and the company. There is the ability to play thing out over a long time. It just exacerbates that kind of power imbalance. Senator cassidy . Thank you mister chairman. Mr. Burke, we represent a constituents of mine who has bravely provided information to the nlrb Inspector General. Misconduct that she witnessed during the election of starbucks. Specifically at a hearing the officer found there was substantial disparity between the communication that was shared with starbucks in the communication a region shared with the union. What makes this an issue . You are supposed to be neutral. If you are having communication with a union about the issue, we need to have communication with management, as well. If you are not having that even communication you are clearly favoring one side to the other. Some of the communication to me seem fairly benign. Again, im not a lawyer. I gather has to be even keel. Whatever you do for one you have to do for the other. Thats correct. One of the things that came out is the labor board agent actually allow the union to bring two people to vote at the boards office. This was a mailin election where you had a stipulated agreement communications werent just small things. They were big things. I. E. , the boat the stipulation that you shell mailin is really kind ironclad. What may seem like an accommodation, really they shouldve said no. You have to go down the street and put it in a mailbox. Something like that . A stipulated agreement is a law case. They have to stipulated. If you want to change this employer about a ploy. You dont have gladly do it after having a conversation with a union we havent had any conversations with the company. The guy who forgot to mail. It forget to mail bills all the time. It would take out that variable about whether they forgot to put in the mailbox. Or dont have stands at home. Whenever the variable would be. I kind of get that. Let me ask you this. Can you tell us about records brought forward by your client that implicates a pattern and practice that the union received accommodations from nlrb and other regions, not just kansas . Senator, let me be careful how you say this. There has been a subpoena issued to my client by the house committee. We are in the process of reviewing that and complying with it. I cannot say without going into details about that there are documents in there that would indicate that sort of thing that happened at this particular election has happened in other elections, as well. There is a basis to determine whether or not there have been a pattern of practice, not just and star books cases. Although the house was limited to starbucks cases. But if it happened in starbucks cases, is it happening in other cases across the country . Much has been made about the number of filings of unfair label practices by icy people seeking to unionize against starbucks. Yet, nlrb in a letter that i submitted for the record earlier with other documents, has stated that more than half of unfair labor practices are dismissed. As a labor lawyer, can you speak to the tactical use of unfair labor practice completes in an organizing campaign . Union filed an unfair labor charges are in every election. It is part of their strategy for handling them. As you said, the vast majority of them are thrown out. They dont even get to the point of having a hearing. Theres no basis to it in the first place. It is a pattern that the union followers to try to intimidate the employee. 20 feet up time during the election. Miss greszler, republicans made it clear that we support the right to unionize. You point out that label oz we have are sometimes 100 years old. You promote reforms that would modernize, if you will. You mentioned, for example, major league baseball. A special case but mayor dick takes wages along with a bit on the benefits. If we were to come together on a bipartisan basis, what would you recommend to do that we have people who seek teen eyes and update the whole concept . I think the focus has to be on the workers and their choices. They may choose to have an organizational structure that allows and a poll together. The certain benefits are important all of us. We want to have the same level as them. We want to be able to negotiate more flexibly. That could also happen across a big company and big stores in different states facing different conditions. I think that the importance there is letting the workers have the choice to do that. Work, right to work states allow this. They also allow representation on everybody. Even if the worker isnt paying into the union they were presented by the union. The union would say that that is a free rider problem. Youre gonna eliminate that by saying the union does not represent you if you are not paying them. If you want that representation to pay. If you dont want you can be on your own and negotiate you can have a separate type of negotiation. Having the choice focus on the worker themselves. Got you. With, the yield. Senator smith . Thank you, chair sanders. And ranking member. Welcome to all of you. Im glad to see you here i want to thank you. In particular the starbucks organizers for being here. Ms. Carter, i understand that you organized one of the first stories in the south for the starbucks workers. I wanted to ask you something. Mr. Schultz talked repeatedly with morning about this Partner Relationship that he says he has with his employees. Im wondering from your experience, how do you have a partnership with hundreds of thousands of people . When you are doing the organizing, when you are doing your organizing, what did you find . Why did people want to be part of a bargaining unit . Thank you so much for your question, senator. It is about the rules and regulations that are in place. How we are servicing the customer. Throughout covid we really saw a decline in maintenance in our stores. We saw decline in upkeep. Frankly, when you report these continue manager really feels like you are talking, sometimes, to a wall. As if you are not getting any response. That was a huge catalyst about what we wanted to organize. Also the wages. The rent rising in our state. It is just not something that worked for us. Benefits are too expensive to actually be able to use. Rather than forego a paycheck we just choose not to have Health Insurance. That is a lot of the reasons why we chose to organize. I would say that Howard Schultz does not feel like a partner to me, as well. Mr. Sachs and was there anything . I would like to know what you would like to add to this. Im particularly interested in the challenges that folks have dealing with schedules that are uncertain and unpredictable. You have a promise of some hours that you maybe dont get how would being part of a bargaining unit deal with the challenges such as those as being a worker . Santa the first question some of the challenges that we faced when i talk to some of my coworkers, they overwhelmingly were talking about the training. The training is one week, we learned everything. One week where you practice everything. If here are a shift supervisor you go through the same barista training. You do the shift supervisor training which functions the same way. Scheduling was a huge thing. This kind of goes into your second question. I currently have, in my store, someone who worked 25 hours a week. They are a very, much so, a supporter of our union. They have been reduced down to five hours a week. I think that that speaks for itself, you know . They really want to be partners with us they would hear those concerns. They would make those changes. Starbucks has a that they leave at their shareholders. They have an empty seat and hear what we have to say. Miss block, earlier this morning when we were talking to mr. Schultz, several of us were pressing him on this disparity. Disparity in which unionized forks were being treated versus the nonorganized people were treated. Out particular talking about the unionist shops to be able to access the credit card tipping mechanism. Mr. Schultz said that his understanding of the law was he could not do that. When i questioned him he shifted a little bit. He said, well actually, it is our preference not to do that. Could you address this issue . You absolutely. Thank you for the question. I think, as mr. Schultz eventually circled around, once the union waived its right to bargain over those particular benefits, it would not have been unlawful first our books. At least what i can tell from the information that have become public, it would not have been unlawful for starbucks to grant those benefits to the stores that had unionized there is another dimension and the allegations that by withholding those benefits was, itself, an unfair labor practice. That goes to the question of why they made that judgment. If it isnt accurate that the law precluded them from providing those benefits, then what was the reason . If the reason for withholding those benefits was to retaliate against workers were having a union. To intimidate them and how they exercise that right, then that crosses the line of not just being inaccurate into the area of being an unfair labor practice. That is the question that will now be before the chair. Thank you, senator smith. Just a few more questions. Recently starbucks raised their minimum wage, and i suspect, in response to union organizing. Tell me, it is not just people working in starbucks, what is it like to try to get by on 15 16 an hour . Number one. Picking up on senator smiths question on scheduling, do people know if they are going to have 40 hours, 30 hours, or 20 hours . If i go to work, how many hours am i gonna be working . Miss carter . Thank you for your question, chairman sanders. To address your first question 15 an hour is not enough to pay bills and actually survive in the world today as we know it. We often struggle. One of the main thing i hear from my partners is i cant pay my life bill and put gas in my car at the same time. Or i cant put gas and get groceries. Having to ration the most important things you need to survive day and day out. Another point that im really glad you brought up is the our requirement in order to obtain benefits. In my four years at the company i have never had a problem for qualifying for benefits until now, suddenly. I was just taken off a starbucks benefit policies because i have not been scheduled the appropriate hours. Or, anywhere close to my availability for the better part of explain it to the world that here. What does that mean . If i am your supervisor, i can reduce your work week . Because i have reduced your work week you know lose your benefits . Is that what youre saying . Yes sir. We have an hour requirement for week. 20 hours per week. The threshold was lowered due to covid. That has now since, i believe, been removed. Because of that my hours were cut. Basically since around, a little bit before christmas last year. I actually just recently lost my benefits because of that our requirement. Having your benefits tied to your hours when you dont get to determine the hours you work is not really conducive in my opinion. Let me go to mr. Saxton. People have to pay rent, they have to deal with the needs of their families. How do you do a budget if you dont know exactly how many hours youre going to be working and what kind of paycheck you get at the end of the month . You simply cannot do a budget when you dont know. Like i said, there is a partner at my store as ours went down from 25 to 5. They now had to get a second job. Even with the, the scheduling around their second job and starbucks, how do you have a second job if you just dont know . Starbucks puts out its new schedule every three weeks. One week you could have 25, the next week you could have ten, that week after that that is theoretical. Is that common, to happen . Its common. It is very common. How do you know if you are gonna be able to pay your rent . You get a second job. You do doordash, many of the partners must arrive had to do. Tell me about health care. I dont want to miss quote mr. Schultz. He said something about comprehensive Health Benefits. When i hear that i think people have universal health care they can walk into a doctor or not have to take out their credit card. What is going on with health care . With health care, i had health care with starbucks. I had myself, my wife, and my daughter covered. Think about the coverage is it is offered in two years. Gold, silver, and bronze. These two years you still have to pay your copays. To take a card when you go to your doctor. How much is copay . Nor does it depend it depends on the level epic. So what i be correct in assuming that if im working ten hours a week first of all a work ten hours a week. 15 out a week. I dont get the benefit, is that correct . Correct. I am working 20 hours a week, im not making enough money to make the copayment of the payment, right . Correct. Do you want to elaborate on that . It didnt sound like maybe it is quite the hot brands of benefit it is not very comprehensive, at all. With every wage increase the increase how much you have to pay into the Health Insurance. That means that more of your check is coming out for Subpar Health insurance doesnt cover everything. I have been reduced to going back to just the va. To my firing that starbucks Health Insurance would not cover. It would seem to me that if i were sitting where you were sitting in fighting for union one of my demands would be consistent and reasonable scheduling that i have some input into. Think you senator sanders. Yes, that is absolutely one of our proposals. To have better consistent scheduling just making sure that i dont want to misspeak about the bargaining proposals but i do know that having that consistent schedule is different something we are fighting for in this movement. If our benefits are tied to it we need to know that we can get those hours. Not have to have this ridiculous availability which, like jason said, keeps you from pursuing a second job or some other form of income . What does this availability mean . I dont want to miss quote the time but this was instituted, it doesnt apply union stores. For nonunion stories i believe you have to have 180 of your hours available on top of the availability that you have. Say, for sample, you want to work 12 hours a week you have to have 18 hours available. About matt blowout me to seize that example. That explains a. [laughs] anything more that you would like to and . Mr. Saxon . Mr. Carter . Okay so on behalf of the committee let me thank all of our panelists for your testimony. We appreciate it very much. This is the end of our hearing. For any senators who wish to add additional questions, they will be due in ten business days. I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record to statements from a stakeholder groups in support of starbucks workers in their fight to join