Starbucks Audit Finds Chain Isn’t Using ‘Antiunion Playbook’ (2)

Starbucks Corp., contending with unionizations at hundreds of its US stores, should bolster guidance on how it disciplines workers and measures compliance with collective bargaining rights, a third-party assessment of the company’s labor practices found.

The assessment — which shareholders requested in March against the company’s recommendation — found no evidence of an “antiunion playbook” suggesting “surreptitious means of interfering with employees’ freedom to choose.” It also ascribed “missteps” in how Starbucks has engaged with unionized workers mostly to the company’s lack of preparation for a wave of organizing, and to mistakes by local staff with no experience dealing ...