Schultz: "We can no longer sit back and ignore the pressure our customers are under"

Some Howard Schultz quotes from today's shareholders' meeting
* "Starbucks Coffee Co. will not only survive but we will succeed during this environment. I promise you that."
* "We're being incredibly smart. We're doing everything we can to be sensitive to the needs of our customers. We can no longer sit back and ignore the pressure that our customers are under."
* Regarding Via instant coffee: "We have the early signs that we are onto something here that's quite significant and extraordinary."|| Read "Starbucks CEO promises company will thrive" ||| Stories from the Seattle Times and Post-Intelligencer ||| Read Starbucks' news release on the meeting

Comments

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

I think that having a -3.5 VTI shows how much Starbucks senior leadership actually cares about them. Imagine if you're husband, wife, or parent was there left but somehow it meant that they cared about you more? In the the game the Sims, the less interaction you have with people lower your rapport with them.
Starbucks unforunately, doesn't even have that figured out.

[jzojzo]

Starbucks Gossip, I just can't quit you!!

[SBUX Alum Bill]

to Jocko:
SBUX delayed my unemployment benefits after my lay-off too, but they eventually relented. I've heard many tales of SBUX delaying unemployment and severance payments, but everyone needs to know that you will get what you're entitled to if you're persistent. Please don't let them cheat you - don't let them off the hook until they've honored their obligations.

On a lighter note, here's an article about Jamba Juice's answer to the economic downturn:

Jamba Juice bets on a food strategy

[ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!]

So now the company is disputing unemployment and severance benefits? What’s next? Do they adhere to any core values? Do the think they can get away with anything?

@ CamSpi…I believe the company wants us to believe they care. Listen to their actions not their words. You sound like a nice, good person, a bit naive but nice.

[UselessDM (Formerly Will)]

-3.5% VTI proves Sbux doesn't care about their lower level employees. Word trickled down through RVPs to RDs to DMs to SMs, without any sort of qualification or remorse.

The anger was directed at SMs, with no one in middle or senior management taking any responsibility or hearing any complaints from partners.

I would think Howard or someone just below would have issued emails or something explaining the change, calling for sacrifice, and justifying taking money out of the partners who are doing the exact same job as before.

I saw those token emails telling us to "be lucky we have a job," blah blah, signed with the DMs name and a stupid vince lombardi quote. That's not good enough.

Someone explain to me why when my store is doing the exact same numbers, and im working just as hard, and our business is actually growing, why I'm being forced to do more with less?

Why don't the underperforming stores get the lower staffing levels, and let the stores that are shouldering the economy get the resources we need and deserve?

[Mysticboi]

Can anyone explain how Starbucks stocks climbed to $11? Is this for real? or did someone do something to push it that high for the moment just to satisfy the shareholders in the meeting?

[CamSpi]

@Areyouserious: I'm optimistic, not naive.

[Jakers dozen]

"We can no longer sit back and ignore the pressure that our customers are under."

Well of course they can't. At least not when there are still a few more partners left to abuse. That way they could ignore the presure that we're under.

[Ali Cat]

yes I have been -ugh-

[yep_soup]

Dear: mr. Schultz... too all customer please carefull went u zip on starbuck coffe,, i was choke on a plastic restained lip from cup in my coffe@ 300 strander blve Tukvila Washington...distict manager is liz ??

[yep_soup]

i hope they are responsible for the medical bill? they just say fax over the bill and they will review it

[Cut out the Heart]

I have not been on this site in a while but it is good to see that Howard is up to his normal hijinx. I wonder if they tape these shareholder meetings? You think Howard listens to himself? I would doubt it. Starbucks will be on the road to recovery when the current leadership steps aside.

[Papi Grandito]

Starbucks has been granted a postponement for the trial that was to begin today.
This latest announcement comes a couple months after Starbucks settled charges with the National Labor Relations Board over a wrongful termination of an IWW Starbucks Workers Union member in Grand Rapids. In that settlement, the Board allowed Starbucks to forgo a trial by agreeing to rescind the write-ups and termination of Cole Dorsey, the IWW member.
Starbucks offered $3500 to withdraw all charges from the beginning.
The Union has always maintained the only solution is full and immediate reinstatement of Dorsey to his former position.
Although the NLRB agreed Starbucks violated the law they did not require reinstatement.
That marked the third time, in two years, Starbucks signed a settlement with the NLRB claiming they would end "anti-union intimidation in Grand Rapids.
After an independent investigation the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration also found that Dorsey was wrongfully terminated for filing a safety complaint.
That trial is slated to begin
April 29, 2009 9 am.
Stay Tuned.

http://starbucksunion.org

For An Organized Fair Trade Future,
Grand Rapids Starbucks Workers Union
PO Box 6629
Grand Rapids, MI 49516
6168815263

This is the latest release from Chicago:

Starbucks Union Member Laid Off After Confronting CEO and Blogging About It

Union Immediately Hits Starbucks with Legal Action at National Labor Relations Board

Chicago, IL (03-18-2009)- The Starbucks Coffee Co. informed outspoken union member and barista, Joe Tessone, yesterday that it was laying him off, just two weeks after he confronted CEO Howard Schultz over the company’s squeezing of employees. Mr. Tessone’s blog post on the encounter entitled, “Howard the Coward: The Day My Boss Ran Away” quickly became an Internet hit among fast food workers and their supporters (online at: http://www.iww.org/en/node/4618).

"When I heard Howard Schultz was in town, I knew I had to get to the store and make my voice heard as a barista and union member," said Tessone, a 4 ½ year veteran of the company with an excellent performance record. "He said he’d speak to me after his interview with the Wall Street Journal only to scurry through the emergency exit the first chance he got. I told Schultz that it was time to dialogue with union baristas and that too many of us we’re living in poverty but he showed nothing but cowardice."

Shortly after his exchange with Schultz, Tessone was ordered into a one-on-one meeting with a Starbucks Regional Director rather than the store manager who would normally administer discipline. The director warned Tessone that he was out of compliance with Starbucks’ new “Optimal Scheduling” policy which pries open baristas’ availability to work without guaranteeing any work hours. The problem with the director’s rationale: Tessone’s availability was indeed in complete compliance with Optimal Scheduling requirements which are laid out in a written policy. The same rationale was erroneously deployed by Tessone's store manager yesterday when he was laid off.

"Starbucks' claim that I was out of compliance with the policy is a fantasy; I actually exceeded its requirements," explained Tessone. "I come to work on time and work hard everyday. It’s clear that my attempt to speak with Starbucks’ anti-union CEO and the escalation of union activity at the company is what caused my termination."

This isn’t the first time that Howard Schultz lacked the fortitude to discuss Starbucks’ animosity toward labor unions and its refusal to provide stable work hours to employees. In a remarkably similar situation in 2004, Schultz hurried out of a New York City Starbucks after union barista Daniel Gross challenged him to sit down at a table and talk face-to-face.

In addition to Tessone’s firing, the Industrial Workers of the World is currently challenging several unlawful responses by Starbucks to the increase in action by the union in Chicago. These charges include allegations that Starbucks increased surveillance against baristas at a Chicago store to which the union recently expanded and illegally laid off barista Tracey Dietrich. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union has thus far defeated the coffee giant in six labor cases across three cities.

"We will continue to ensure our members are protected," says Chrissy Cogswell, a Starbucks barista in Chicago and a union organizer. "Every time the company violates workers' rights, we will seek justice."

The IWW Starbucks Workers Union (StarbucksUnion.org) is an organization of almost 300 current and former Starbucks employees united for a living wage, secure work hours, and respect on the job. Founded in 2004, the union uses direct action, litigation, and advocacy to both make systemic improvements at Starbucks and take on the company over unfair treatment of individual baristas.

Open to all working people, the Industrial Workers of the World (iww.org) is a member-operated labor union dedicated to democracy in the workplace and global solidarity.

[whysbxwhy]

Is Joe in Chicago aka Papa Joe in OK?

[mike b]

don't u people ever shut up?! the negativity on this site is remarkable. it makes me sick. u are lucky to have good jobs for a company that recognizes its mistakes and is desperately trying to fix them. take a step back and realize that you are fortunate to work for starbucks. if you hate it so much than quit and let someone who would love to have your job take it for you. enough already. sure schultz has made mistakes. but what ceo hasn't? he has done so much for this company and for so many of you. in this economy, just about every company is struggling, not just starbucks.

[Conan]

Well said, Mike, well said. People are way too negative and eager to blame Starbucks for all of their problems. We r lucky to have a job...

[HubertD]

Papi Grandito-I'm sorry but is there a rule for Schultz to talk to union members? Is this an unwritten law no one else knows about? Don't worry, the guy isn't busy at all. He has more responsibility in one day than you've had your whole life. Get over yourself buddy.

[Papi-LongO]

There should be a rule as to where "Coward" should have the nads to sit down and speak to his "Workers" and not book out the back like a little rabbit...He's been avoiding a sit down face to face since 2004, but when I see him at a store...I promise you, he will never forget this "Worker"...

[hubert]

dear papi-longo- get a life and grow up... fool

[The Haimster]

"We're being incredibly smart."

That's rich. I guess could claim that I was incredibly smart by buying lots of stock in Starbucks @ $35.

What a joker.

I don't even buy Starbucks coffee in the supermarket anymore, I'm really just paying for partners health insurance.

There are options that are just as good for half the price if you look around a little.

[Virginia]

Starbucks in Riverside, CA had been having the same group of teenagers roam the store, distracting employees, waiting for the clear to steal the money offered for tips. When the same teenagers visited the store, tip money was missing…again. The barista called security and wrote up a report in which the whole incident and how it was handled was recorded on the store’s surveillance camera. Another fellow employee witnessed the incident as well. Later that day, the mother of the teenage boy returned to the store and offered her apologies for her son had confessed that he had stolen the tip money. The mother hugged the barista, for understanding during this embarrassing moment. The barista ended his shift for the day and went home. This incident happened on Sunday, June 20, 2009.
On June 22, the barista went in to work to cover a shift for a fellow employee, passed the Starbucks manager and her family in the parking lot, waved hello and entered into the store to begin his work day. When he arrived in the store he was told by a fellow employee, not the manager or anyone else, that he had been fired! The barista was never notified or explained the reason for his dismissal. Even when he saw the manager in the parking lot, she did not have the professionalism to address the dismissal. I believe Starbucks has a policy and procedure for terminating employees and I believe it was violated. The manager is a recent transfer from a closed store (previous manager on maternity leave) and has little history with employees. The barista has been actively seeking support in this matter, and gets no response from manager or regional manager. I am strongly contemplating picketing the Starbucks store for wrongful dismissal