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NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Starbucks Corp has asked for a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration after unionized workers talked to White House officials on Thursday, saying in a letter that most of its employees do not want to be members of a union.
In the letter, dated Thursday and released Friday, the company said it was “deeply concerned” that Workers United, which is organizing hundreds of U.S. Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) locations, “was invited to the meeting while not inviting official Starbucks representatives.”
The White House declined to comment.
On Thursday Biden met with workers and labor organizers seeking to represent workers at Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Starbucks and other employers.
Attendees included Christian Smalls, who heads the Amazon Labor Union, and Laura Garza, a Starbucks employee working with Workers United.
During the meeting, Biden said: “When I ran for president, I made a commitment that I would be the most pro-labor, union president in the history of America,” according to video excerpts released by the White House Friday.
Starbucks said in the letter that its lack of representation “discounts the reality that the majority of our partners oppose being members of a union and the unionization tactics being deployed by Workers United.” The coffee chain refers to its baristas and other employees as partners.
Workers at more than 50 U.S. Starbucks cafes have elected to join Workers United, while five stores voted against the union, out of roughly 240 altogether that have sought to hold elections since August. Workers United is an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.
“We have a drastically more positive vision for our partners and our company than Workers United,” Starbucks asserted.
Workers United tweeted a statement from Garza who said it was “heartbreaking to read Starbucks’ response.” She said she was honored to represent all Starbucks partners at the meeting, “union or not.”
On Thursday, Senate Budget committee chairman Bernie Sanders held a hearing on Amazon’s labor practices and last month praised Starbucks employees seeking to unionize.
