Starbucks founder and former CEO Howard Schultz ran for President in 2020 as a Democrat. At the time, Starbucks was the ideal liberal company, providing benefits to employees, and supporting LGBTQIA+ rights. While Schultz didn’t ultimately make it – he dropped out of the race in 2019 – he was viewed as a liberal at the time. That all changed later two years later in December 2021 when the first Starbucks store voted to unionize.
We now know that it was because of a former Rhodes scholar who was paid by Workers United to work at a Starbucks location in Buffalo, New York and begin what has ultimately become an almost 300-store movement to unionize Starbucks.
Throughout this campaign by store leaders, Starbucks has become anti-union even going so far that they were accused of union busting and Schultz had to speak before Congress. That was last week.
Where does Starbucks stand on the scales of liberalism? It’s too soon to say but it begs the question, where does Schultz stand now that he’s stepped down as CEO at Starbucks?