Starbucks Corporation is pushing for vote-by-mail to be suspended in union elections, citing alleged irregularities, but the company is a prominent advocate of vote-by-mail in ordinary political elections, including the upcoming 2022 midterms.
National Public Radio reported Monday:
Starbucks is accusing National Labor Relations Board employees of secretly coordinated with union organizers in the Kansas City area — and it wants the agency to halt all mail-in votes nationwide until a full investigation has been conducted. But labor organizers immediately called the move an extension of a broader anti-union campaign.
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Starbucks alleges that NLRB regional staff repeatedly crossed the line of neutrality, alleging that despite ordering a mail-in election, the agency arranged for some voters to cast their ballot in person without informing Starbucks representatives.
It also says NLRB workers shared real-time information with organizers about whether certain ballots had been received. And the company said it believes similar actions took place in at least two other NLRB regions.
Meanwhile, Starbucks and its CEO, Howard Schultz, continue to push for vote-by-mail in U.S. elections, despite concerns among some voters that it, too, may be subject to irregularities and a lack of oversight.
In a 2021 press release, Schultz urged employees (“partners”) to participate in voting, directing them to “StarbucksPartnersVote.com so you can register, request a mail in ballot, and learn more about the issues that matter to you and your loved ones – all in one place.”
The StarbucksPartnersVote.com website includes information about vote-by-mail. The website is “powered” by Democracy Works, a non-profit that is funded by left-of-center donor foundations.
Other companies with left-of-center political views have also expressed irritation with vote-by-mail — when it is used to unionize their own employees.
Last year, Amazon.com tried to prevent vote-by-mail in union elections to preserve “vote fidelity.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.