Starbucks Senate hearing: Former CEO questioned about alleged union-busting

Sen. Bernie Sanders wasted no time opening the hearing that would allow him to grill former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz on Wednesday. Democratic senators sparred with Schultz, while Republicans flattered him; Republican senators sparred with Democrats and called for an investigation of the National Labor Relations Board, of Bernie Sanders, of the Biden administration’s relationship to Venezuela. Earlier this month, the National Labor Relations Board found “hundreds of unfair labor practices” and “egregious and widespread misconduct demonstrating a general disregard for the employees’ fundamental rights.” Sanders, who led the panel of 11 Democrats and 10 Republicans, pressed Schultz on the NLRB ruling. After Sanders pressed Schultz as to whether or not he was “aware that NLRB judges have ruled that Starbucks violated federal labor law over 100 times over the past 18 months, far more than any other company in America,” Sen. Rand Paul began the Republican questioning by invoking Ayn Rand. It’s extraordinary how wealthy we are!” Republican Mitt Romney lamented that Schultz had to be “grilled by people who have never had the opportunity to create a single job.” In a botched attempt to prove that not being in a union is better than being in one, he pointed out that nonunion employees at Starbucks were given a raise while union ones were not—one of the alleged union-busting actions that has Schultz and Co. in hot water at the NLRB.