Starbucks’ Schultz to testify to Senate panel

Starbucks interim chief executive Howard Schultz agreed to testify March 29 before a key U.S. Senate panel, averting a planned Wednesday committee vote to compel him to answer questions on alleged labor violations.

Schultz’s decision averts a formal subpoena and follows a months-long battle with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.), who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. The longtime Starbucks leader refused Sanders’s earlier invitation to testify about complaints filed to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board that the coffee chain had violated federal labor laws. NLRB prosecutors have issued complaints accusing Starbucks of illegal anti-union tactics including threats, store shutdowns, and terminations of about 50 activists. Federal judges have ordered the company to reinstate some of those fired employees.

Starbucks has said that all claims of anti-union activity there are “categorically false.”