Starbucks Stands Firm in Union Battle as US Applies Pressure

On the surface, it may appear Starbucks Corp.’s drawn-out fight with labor activists pushing to unionize its US cafes isn’t going well.

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled multiple times that the coffee chain has broken the law. (The company denies any violations.) Senator Bernie Sanders is accusing the coffee giant of union busting, calling on interim Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz to testify at a hearing. And the fight has tarnished Starbucks’s carefully cultivated status as a progressive employer, developed over decades.

But changes in the company’s strategy are unlikely, experts say.

Starbucks workers strike outside a Starbucks coffee shop in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Nov. 17, 2022.

Photographer: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

“There will likely ...