John,
Shareholder resolutions are a tool to hold a company’s management accountable to their shareholders. But they usually fail when management opposes them.
So yesterday, while Starbucks tallied the votes on our proposal for the company to conduct a third-party assessment of its labor practices (at the same time that former CEO Howard Schultz spent hours in the hot seat on Capitol Hill), we didn’t know what the results would be.
The results are in: shareholders want the rights of Starbucks workers respected.
Our shareholder proposal, filed by the NYC pension funds (which represent union workers) with a coalition of other investors, called on the board to oversee an independent assessment of the company’s response when its workers exercise their right to organize.
Starbucks claims that it respects its workers “freedom of association.” But too often, it doesn’t even follow the law. Workers at nearly 300 Starbucks stores in the United States have voted to join a union over the last two years. Starbucks has responded aggressively, and in some cases illegally. Federal labor officials have issued scores of complaints and the company has been found to have violated labor laws in at least eight of cases so far. Starbucks has been ordered to reinstate fired workers and issue them back-pay.
The Comptroller’s office, on behalf of the New York City pension funds and in partnership with other investors, has filed 7 shareholder proposals pushing companies to respect the rights of their workers to join unions this year.
Other companies have been less confrontational than Starbucks. Earlier this winter, we reached an agreement with Apple [[link removed]] to accept an external audit of its labor practices. Microsoft has adopted proactive principles [[link removed]] that respect its workers rights to organize.
But Starbucks refused to engage constructively with investors about their workforce practices and allegations of union-busting. So we took the resolution to a vote – and shareholders sent a strong message to management and the board.
As the Starbucks Workers United wrote [[link removed]] on Twitter: “A vote like this is UNPRECEDENTED and highlights just how worried shareholders are about Starbucks' behavior towards our union under Howard Schultz’s leadership…Between workers, customers, US Senators, federal judges and now shareholders, Starbucks is beginning to be held accountable.”
The success of this vote is a sign of a growing movement of investors who see respecting workers’ rights as a basic standard for responsible employers. So watch out for more shareholder resolutions soon.
When I ran for Comptroller, I promised you that this was the type of responsible investing I would take the lead on. If you agree, would you contribute to my campaign to send a signal that New Yorkers support corporate accountability? [[link removed]]
Let’s keep putting in the orders – grande, venti, and tall – for workers rights,
Brad
P.S. When GOP politicians try to outlaw “ESG (environmental, social, governance) investing,” shareholder actions like this are quite literally what they’re targeting. Don’t buy their faux populist nonsense. They don’t have the interests of workers or pensioners in mind – just their own interests, and those of their fossil fuel and corporate donors. Help me stand up strong for responsible investing. [[link removed]]
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