It’s taken less than a year for 220 Starbucks stores across the country to vote to form a union for better pay, benefits and working conditions.[1] What is Starbucks’ response?

CEO Howard Schultz has declared that he will not recognize or negotiate with the Starbucks Workers United union.[2] Starbucks, under Schultz’s leadership, is engaged in a company-wide pattern of union-busting including illegally firing union organizers, worker intimidation, and essentially “bribing” workers to not join the union.

Unfortunately, much of this blatant union-busting is not only legal, but also tax deductible! Right now, corporations spend at least $340 million a year on anti-union activities, which they can write off when calculating their taxes. These union-busting activities include pressure tactics, hiring anti-union consultants, anti-union advertising, so-called “captive audience meetings,” and even violations of the National Labor Relations Act.

The No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act would change that. As the bill’s lead sponsor, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) said, “corporations shouldn’t be able to write off union busting as a run-of-the-mill business expense.”

Even as Starbucks is able to write-off this blatant union-busting, they’ve seen their tax rates slashed from 28% to 18% and paid an effective federal tax rate of just 5.8% and 3.3% in 2020 and 2018, respectively, according to a new report from Americans for Tax Fairness.

In 2021 Starbucks received $4.1 billion in profits while its CEO Howard Schultz saw his fortune grow by $1 billion during the pandemic. Starbucks’ CEO compensation last year was 1,600 times more than the average employee, the 11th worst CEO-to-worker pay ratio among S&P 500 corporations. And, while the Starbucks board of directors showered themselves and their wealthy shareholders in millions of dollars in corporate stock and $12 billion in stock buybacks, employees received an average raise of less than $300 last year, bringing their median income to just $12,400.

It’s critical that our federal laws prevent corporations from deducting the cost of their union-busting activities from their taxes each year. Click “ADD YOUR NAME” to become a grassroots co-sponsor of the No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Act (S.4192 and H.R.8448) today to call on Congress to stand with working people, not greedy union-busting corporations.