U.S.: Starbucks excluding unionized employees from its wage hike plan

On 03 May, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced wage increases for all U.S. employees, except those who have joined, or are in the process of joining a trade union. During a Wall Street analyst presentation, the founder of the coffee chain, which employs 240,000 in the United States, made the announcement as part of a one billion dollar investment plan in salaries, employees, and improving customer store experience. The CEO promised to raise the minimum hourly wage to $15 an hour by this summer. Employees who have been with the company for between 2 and 5 years will receive a 5% increase, and those with more than 5 career years will see their pay rise by 7%. In addition, the training time for baristas will be doubled, sick leave benefits will be increased and customers will be able to include a tip when paying by bank card. These various measures, however, do not affect the 46 cafés whose employees have voted to join the Starbucks Workers United union, nor the more than 100 other cafés that are scheduled to vote in the coming weeks on whether or not to join the SEIU services union subsidiary (c.f. article No.12850). Howard Schultz says that any raises must be part of the ongoing collective bargaining with the union and as such cannot be unilaterally applied. Starbucks Workers United representatives believe that management is trying to intimidate employees before they vote, and have sent a letter to the federal NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) stating that this unequal treatment of all employees violates the 1935 Labor Relations Act.