By Waylon Cunningham and Juveria Tabassum
March 30 (Reuters) – In a triumph for Starbucks’ board of directors over a coalition of labor-focused shareholder groups, investors this week overwhelmingly reelected two directors accused by the groups of turning a blind eye to risky labor relations.
The tallies were disclosed on Monday.
Negotiations between the company and its unionized baristas, which represent 6% of U.S. stores, broke down a year ago, but both sides recently announced they are in talks to resume bargaining soon.
The coalition of shareholder groups, many with affiliations to organized labor, had urged investors to vote against the reelection of board members Jorgen Vig Knudstorp and Beth Ford over fresh concerns about the board’s recent dissolution of an independent committee dedicated in part to overseeing the company’s labor relations, including its approach to the union.
Proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis also flagged concerns about the dissolution of the “impact committee,” citing a recent New York City settlement over employee scheduling, and Glass Lewis recommended shareholders vote against Ford.
Starbucks in filings earlier this year said oversight of labor relations now belongs to the full board of directors – which is under the control of chairman and CEO Brian Niccol – and that the committee was dissolved to simplify its board structure.
A spokesperson for Starbucks, Jaci Anderson, said in a statement this month that the board has “the necessary skills and experience to effectively oversee our strategy, including human capital management.”
Starbucks’ board of directors created the “Environmental, Partner, and Community Impact Committee” in 2023 under pressure from many of the same shareholder groups that lost the vote this week, including Trillium Capital, the New York State Comptroller and the union-affiliated SOC Investment Group.
These groups won a vote in April 2023 – roughly a week before Niccol’s predecessor Laxman Narasimhan took the reins as CEO – that forced Starbucks to hire an outside auditor to review its approach to the union. The auditor’s findings prompted the board under Narasimhan to create the independent impact committee.
Niccol became CEO in September 2024, and the impact committee was dissolved in November 2025.
Ford and Knudstorp, the current and former chairs of the board’s governance committee, had also served on the impact committee.
Starbucks’ top shareholders include Vanguard Group, Capital World Investors, and BlackRock, according to LSEG data.
(Reporting by Waylon CunninghamEditing by Rod Nickel)
