Starbucks Says It Won’t Enter Labor Neutrality Agreement (2)

Starbucks Corp. said it won’t enter into a neutrality agreement with workers seeking to unionize, as it awaits the results of a shareholder proposal about its labor practices.

“We will not be entering into a neutrality agreement,” Starbucks Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer AJ Jones said during Thursday’s annual investor meeting. “It would prohibit the ability for us to talk openly and freely with our partners, provide them with the information that they need about the value and importance of direct relationship with us and how it could change under union representation.”

Neutrality, Jones said, would allow baristas to unionize without a secret ballot ...