Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz passionately defended billionaires and his childhood spent in federal shelters during a heated testimony before Congress on Wednesday.
The hearing, called by Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders, was set to focus on Starbucks and allegations that it illegally fired pro-union baristas or spied on workers during a labor mobilization drive.
In a clip that has since gone viral on social media, Schultz was asked about his bargaining tactics with unions by Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith, who suggested that as a “billionaire,” he was exploiting an “extreme” power imbalance.
“That nickname billionaire, let’s just get to that,” Schultz replied. “I grew up in subsidized housing. My parents never had a house. I came out of nowhere I thought my whole life was based on making the American dream come true.
“Yes, I have billions of dollars, I made them. No one gave it to me and I kept sharing it with the Starbucks folks.
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz (pictured) passionately defended billionaires and his childhood spent in federal shelters during a heated testimony before Congress on Wednesday
At this point, Sanders cut the rest of Schultz’s testimony to move on to another interrogator.
Schultz was visibly upset and wanted to further elaborate on the idea that Sanders hated billionaires.
He replied, “It’s your nickname, all the time, unfair.”
Sanders went further, claiming he needed to get more testimony and more questions from fellow senators.
The future Starbucks CEO was born in Brooklyn in 1953 to Ashkenazi Jewish parents, Fred and Elaine Schultz, and grew up in the Bayview public housing project in Brooklyn’s Canarsie neighborhood.
His father, a truck driver, Schultz has described his upbringing as poor, but this is disputed by those who knew the family.
The Canarsie buildings were derided locally as the “Country Club of Projects,” and a neighbor asked Schultz, “please stop calling us poor or destitute because it’s offensive and we didn’t feel that way at all.”
Even those who were proud that Schultz had come this far were frustrated by his description of the projects.
“Howard Schultz makes it sound like a slum, but you can’t be poor to live there,” a former neighbor told the Washington Post. “Don’t let Howard fool you: it was brand new, a beautiful new house with new kitchens, new plumbing. We’re glad he’s running (for the presidency), but I yell at the TV when he says something like that.
The future Starbucks CEO was born in Brooklyn in 1953 to Ashkenazi Jewish parents, Fred and Elaine Schultz, and grew up in the Bayview public housing project in Brooklyn’s Canarsie neighborhood
Schultz graduated from Canarsie High School in 1971 and attended Northern Michigan University (NMU) from 1971 to 1975 with a BA in communications
Buildings in the Bayview Houses can be seen in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, where Schultz grew up
A spokesman for Schultz, citing the $100-a-month rent – which his family often struggled to pay – said: “Any suggestion that Howard did not grow up in a troubled economy is more a comment on the state of our politics than it’s about the economy of his family.’
Schultz spent some time after school at the Boys Club of New York, for which he has since received a Lifetime Membership Card.
He graduated from Canarsie High School in 1971 and attended Northern Michigan University (NMU) from 1971 to 1975, where he received a BA in communications.
He returned to New York as a salesman for Xerox and was hired by Swedish kitchenware manufacturer PAI Partners in 1979 as general manager of its US subsidiary Hammarplast.
At Hammarplast he managed the US business of the coffee machine manufacturer. As part of his work there, he visited Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle, eventually joining in 1982 as director of retail and marketing.
The hearing, called by Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (pictured), was set to focus on Starbucks and allegations that it illegally fired pro-union baristas or spied on workers during a labor mobilization drive
In a clip that has since gone viral on social media, Schultz was asked about his negotiating tactics with unions by Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith, who suggested exploiting an “extreme” power imbalance as a “billionaire.”
Schultz was visibly upset and wanted to further elaborate on the idea that Sanders hated billionaires
Schultz also responded to Smith’s allegations that his team refused to negotiate with union organizers and his dislike of unions
Before the Senate Thursday, Schultz was also grilled over allegations his team refused to negotiate with union organizers and his dislike of unions.
“I was the CEO of the company and I have a passion and a right to tell people what’s right for Starbucks.”
Sanders focused heavily on the fact that Schultz — once pushed as Hilary Clinton’s would-be Secretary of Labor when she ran for president in 2016 — was consistently opposed to organizing.
“Over the past 18 months, Starbucks has waged the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in our country’s modern history,” said Sanders, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, at the beginning of the session.
He accused the company’s former chief executive Howard Schultz of spearheading the anti-union effort.
And he said the “people at the top have never had it so good” to keep the working class in place.
This has been an uphill battle for Starbucks’ reputation lately as it fights against unionization in all of its stores
To date, nearly 300 Starbucks locations have voted to organize and have been certified by the NLRB. There are approximately 9,300 Starbucks stores operated by the company in the United States
This has been an uphill battle for Starbucks’ reputation lately.
It is said to have shown “egregious and widespread misconduct” in dealing with employees involved in efforts to unionize stores in Buffalo, New York, said National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge Michael Rosas.
Rosas said the “relentless” effort to send senior executives to deals in the Buffalo area likely “left a lasting impact on the importance of voting against representation.”
Starbucks previously said it was “considering all options to obtain further legal review,” adding that “we believe the decision and the remedies ordered are inadequate given the records on this matter.”
To date, nearly 300 Starbucks locations have voted to organize and have been certified by the NLRB. There are approximately 9,300 Starbucks stores operated by the company in the United States.
The $3.8 billion businessman pictured above with his wife Sheri Kersch Schultz
The billionaire once ran for the presidency, promising to run as an independent, and has criticized Republicans and Democrats alike for failing to address the nation’s $21 trillion debt
Schultz, 69, was Starbucks CEO until 2017 before stepping in on an interim basis later in 2022 to fix the company’s deteriorating “values” as employees protested for better pay and benefits for part-time workers.
He flirted with running for president as an independent in 2020, but faced protests from his hometown of Seattle, where some objected to Starbucks’ treatment of workers and that he had sold the city’s NBA team, the Supersonics, to a group , which she relocated to Oklahoma City.
In 2001, Schultz led a group of investors in buying the WNBA’s Sonics and Seattle Storm for $200 million. Due in part to an unfavorable lease and the small size of the KeyArena the team played in, the Sonics were losing millions of dollars annually.
After being rebuffed by the Legislature in his efforts to attract public funding to remodel the venue, Schultz sold the team to the group for $350 million, who relocated it to Oklahoma City and renamed it the Thunder.
The Sonics were Seattle’s oldest professional sports franchise and the first Seattle team to win a national title since the Seattle Metropolitans won the Stanley Cup in hockey in 1917.
In a Seattle Times op-ed, Schultz apologized.
“I was so focused on getting myself and others out of a money-losing situation that I made a poor choice and failed to follow a principle that helped me build Starbucks, which is to try to make a profit and to reconcile humanity,” he wrote. “Selling the Sonics is the biggest regret of my professional life. … I do not expect my deeds to be forgiven or forgotten.’
Unionized workers are hoping that new CEO Laxman Narasimhan will be more open to the union than Schultz was.
“We hope that Laxman Narasimhan will embark on a new journey with the union and work with us to make Starbucks the company we know it can be,” said Michelle Eisen, a Starbucks worker and union organizer. in a statement this week.