Photo credit: Flickr user Cherrysweetdeal
With six days to go before January 1st and both Clinton tax rates and the spending sequester takes effect, some in Washington are desperate to cut a deal, even if it’s a bad deal that involves painful cuts to Social Security benefits.
CNN reports that Starbucks CEOAi??Howard Schultz has written a letter to his chain’s 120 stores in the Washington, D.C. area to ask employees there to write “Come Together” on coffee cups on Thursday and Friday.
“Rather than be bystanders, you and your customers have an opportunity — and I believe we all have a responsibility — to send our elected officials a respectful but potent message, urging them to come together to find common ground,” Schultz wrote in his letter to the stores. He also apparently cited Fix The Debt, the powerful corporate front group that has been pushing for an agreement to cut Social Security benefits and lower corporate tax rates for months.
In a statement to CNN, the company stressed that these messages are voluntary.
But by even asking employees to voluntarily influence lawmakers to reach an agreement, Schultz is inappropriately pressuring them to take a political stand they may not agree with. For example, some of these employees may benefit from veterans or Social Security benefits that are at risk of being cut in a bad deal.
Starbucks employees should be able to decide for themselves what politics they endorse and should not be asked to write these messages as a part of their employment.
UPDATE: Read the full letter from Schultz here. It claims, without evidence, that the United States is experiencing a debt “crisis.” Schultz also pivots from sympathy for the Sandy Hook massacre to the need to come together to address this so-called “crisis.”
UPDATE II: I talked to a Starbucks employee in the D.C. area. This is what they had to say about being asked to take part in this campaign:
[It’s] absolutely stupid. I don’t get paid nearly enough to write that on all the cups. It’s like I’m being punished in elementary school, except instead of a chalkboard, I have hundreds of cups. The message is Starbucks doesn’t care about their “partners.” They will be forced to do more work that is necessary or good, and not compensate them for it, and try to put out their message even if the “partner” doesn’t agree with it. … Compromise would get something done, but it’ll leave a [bad] deal for the working poor and the middle class.
I am happy to say that I do NOT buy my coffee at StarBucks anymore. I used to go daily but no more. I think this is really out-of-line for ANY EMPLOYER to do…SO, is StarBucks going to fire or layoff if an employee doesn’t comply? They will be out in the same category as Papa John’s and the rest of them.
Screw starbucks I refuse to buy their product if they can’t stand up to what is right.
Being from Seattle, I’ve watched Starbucks go from being a good neighbor and local business to a blood-thirsty competition destroyer, on a worldwide scale. Personally, I never really liked their coffee that much, I preferred their competitors’ roasts. SBC (Seattle’s Best Coffee) was giving them a run for their money with their milder, smoother coffees, so Starbucks bought it and screwed the SBC franchisees out of their businesses. An they used to treat and pay their employees well, now they screw them, too. So I’m not surprised Schultz is now aligned with Fix The Debt, hoping to screw the lower and middle classes to make his filthy rich self richer.
How is this “evil”, it’s freedom of speech, when we Democrats do it it’s fine? But someone asking his/her employees to voluntarily write, “Come Together” which is saying, “HEY do what is BEST for the country.” is evil?
I don’t get it. When the Beatles sang “Come Together” were they sellouts or trying to convey some nasty anti social song or were they trying to promote peace through that song?
It is evil because this CEO is using his power and influence in order to bully his employees into to promoting a message that in the end will most likely be harmful to them. Schultz is just another rich ass sitting behind a desk asking his foot soldiers to do even more work that they may not agree with doing. if you have ever worked in a shitty corporate service job you would understand that “voluntary” can easily mean mandatory.
So how many Starbucks managers will be making note of which employees choose to not “volunteer” in this project, and what is going to happen to these people a couple weeks from now?
How are we not experiencing a debt crisis? The government is spending way more money than it is taking in. In my book that is not only a crisis but absolutely stupid. Cut the spending or we will not be able to pay the bills. Something has to give. Not SSI or Veterans benefits but all the rest of the entitlements and all the stupid government spending needs to stop.
Actually interest rates are pretty low, the U.S. debt level is pretty manageable, and it will get much better as the economy recovers and revenues come back
http://www.forbes.com/sites/pascalemmanuelgobry/2012/10/19/no-the-united-states-will-not-go-into-a-debt-crisis-not-now-not-ever/
The debt crisis is pretty manufactured, that’s not to say we don’t have bad policies that create debt (wars, tax cuts, corporations gouging our health care system)
Most of the debt is from unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the crash precipitated by the actions on Wall Street.
Europe has tried to solve the financial crisis by making spending cuts and their problem worsened.
This IS the time to spend on roads, bridges, and other infrastructure and, at the same time, be providing jobs with paychecks that will go back into the economy to ease the recession.
When the economy is better, the debt can be addressed.
I own Starbucks stock but I must say I am not happy with Starbucks CEO for being involved with that Fix the Debt BS. I do not approve of asking employees to volunteer to lobby for something that may not be in their interests. I certainly do not want any deal which may result in a chained CPI no matter what Schultz wants.
It ought to be illegal for Schultz to lobby for the Chained CPI, Fix the debt is an organization of the 1%, which is focused on the debt, which is the opposite of what economist say we should do!
I am from Seattle, and have also watched Starbucks become a ruthless corporation. They have run smaller competitors out of business. In our area, there are often Starbucks across the street from each other. Do not be fooled by this man. He has political ambitions.
No more Starbucks for me!