{"id":126424,"date":"2022-04-04T14:50:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T14:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=126424"},"modified":"2022-04-04T14:50:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T14:50:50","slug":"starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/","title":{"rendered":"Starbucks employees at New York store vote to unionize"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business&#8217; Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up\u00a0<\/em><em>right here<\/em><em>. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><cite>London (CNN Business)<\/cite>Just three weeks ago, <span>Starbucks<\/span> <span>(<span>SBUX<\/span>)<\/span> announced that it had big plans to lavish its shareholders with new rewards. The company said it was reinstating its stock buyback program, touting a $20 billion commitment over the next three years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While our growth this year will not be linear, we are confident our approach supports a profit positive company today and over the long-term, creating value for all stakeholders, our partners, our customers and our shareholders,&#8221; Chief Financial Officer Rachel Ruggeri said in a presentation to investors.<br \/>\nBut that plan was thrown out of the window when Howard Schultz assumed the role of interim CEO on Monday, taking the reins of the company for a third time.<\/p>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Howard Schultz suspends Starbucks&amp;#39; share buyback program\" class=\"media__image\" src=\"\/\/cdn.cnn.com\/cnnnext\/dam\/assets\/220403161101-starbucks-buyback-program-large-169.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s happening: Starbucks has suspended its share buyback program effective immediately, Schultz said in a letter to employees. <\/p>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;This decision will allow us to invest more into our people and our stores \u2014 the only way to create long-term value for all stakeholders,&#8221; he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>What changed? Share buybacks are under the political microscope after reaching an all-time high of $882 billion among S&amp;P 500 companies last year. Handing cash to investors typically boosts share prices by reducing the number available, but critics say that money would be better spent on workers and other investments that can boost the broader economy.<br \/>\nLast week, US President Joe Biden proposed new rules intended to curb the practice.<\/p>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<p>A Starbucks spokesperson indicated that the decision was not about the political climate, however. The decision to suspend the buyback program was &#8220;Starbucks&#8217; agenda, and only Starbucks&#8217; agenda.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe other big factor, then, is workers. Since December, several Starbucks stores have unionized against the company&#8217;s wishes, my CNN Business colleague Danielle Wiener-Bronner reports. More are considering the option.<br \/>\nSchultz has tried to dissuade employees from unionizing, touting the importance of a &#8220;direct and shared relationship&#8221; with workers.<br \/>\nBut in the wake of the pandemic, employees \u2014 fed up with long hours, health risks and rising costs due to surging inflation \u2014 have more power than they used to. Job openings in the United States stood at 11.3 million in February, near the all-time high, as companies struggled to hire and retain workers.<br \/>\nThat&#8217;s given extra oomph to efforts to form unions. Last Friday, <span>Amazon<\/span> <span>(<span>AMZN<\/span>)<\/span> warehouse workers at a facility in New York City voted to form the first US union in the tech giant&#8217;s 27-year history.<br \/>\nBreaking it down: In this climate, generous share buybacks may be tougher for management to defend, and boards like Starbucks&#8217; may decide that money should go to staff instead. After all, stockholders had it pretty good during the pandemic.<br \/>\nShares of Starbucks fell almost 3% in premarket trading on Monday. While they&#8217;ve dropped 22% so far this year, they gained 33% across 2020 and 2021.<br \/>\nOn the radar: Senator Bernie Sanders drew a direct line between the excesses of buybacks and the need for unions in a recent statement after Schultz&#8217;s new role was announced.<br \/>\n&#8220;If Starbucks can afford to spend $20 billion on stock buybacks and dividends &#8230; it can afford a unionized workforce,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<h3>War bonds and NFTs: How Ukraine is funding its defense<\/h3>\n<p>The epicenter of the latest effort to raise money for Ukraine was a bare-bones office above a bakery in north London.<br \/>\nIsaac Kamlish, Nathan Cohen and Isaac Bentata \u2014 ages 23 to 25 \u2014 gathered around their laptops last week and helped launch the first-ever sale of one-of-a-kind digital collectibles by a national government.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"War bonds, NFTs and crypto: How Ukraine is funding its defense\" class=\"media__image\" src=\"\/\/cdn.cnn.com\/cnnnext\/dam\/assets\/220331160401-ukraine-support-phone-large-169.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>In 24 hours, Kyiv, using technology developed by the trio, sold more than 1,200 non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, raising about $600,000 to help fund its defense against Russia.<br \/>\nThe auction, which made novel use of blockchain technology as a lever of wartime financing, underscores how Ukraine&#8217;s government is using both new and traditional tools to generate the cash it needs to survive the crisis.<br \/>\nOne playbook has been old school. Kyiv has hauled in roughly $1 billion from war bonds sold to people and institutions in Ukraine, as residents show a willingness to lend to the government even if it&#8217;s not guaranteed they&#8217;ll get all their money back.<br \/>\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky&#8217;s administration has also encouraged would-be donors around the world to directly transfer cryptocurrencies, an effort that&#8217;s raised more than $56 million, according to analytics group Chainalysis. And the NFT sale last week saw collectors from Los Angeles to Barcelona rush to participate in what they saw as a major moment for Ukraine and crypto.<br \/>\n&#8220;The Ukraine war is devastating, and it will be in history books,&#8221; Ben Jacobs, the co-founder of Scenius Capital, a digital asset investment firm, told me. &#8220;This usage of crypto technology is also historical in its own right.&#8221;<br \/>\nJacobs, who is based in Venice Beach, California, bought two NFTs, spending a total of $1,100 including small fees related to the transactions. About $1,000 in ether \u2014 the cryptocurrency typically used for NFT sales \u2014 went to Ukraine&#8217;s government.<\/p>\n<h3>The London Metal Exchange is still in crisis mode<\/h3>\n<p>When a trade jumps by 250% in a matter of days, investors typically pop bottles of champagne. In early March, nickel futures did just that \u2014 soaring on the London Metal Exchange from about $29,000 to $100,000 per metric ton following the invasion of Ukraine. But the champagne remains corked and investors are threatening to sue.<br \/>\nOn Monday, British financial regulators said they were probing recent actions by the exchange, citing concerns about transparency.<br \/>\nSo what happened? My CNN Business colleague Nicole Goodkind dug into the chaos at the LME and its uncertain future.<br \/>\nOver the past century-and-a-half, the LME \u2014 known for its ring of red couches and barking brokers \u2014 has successfully trudged its way through world wars, meltdowns and defaults. But nickel, the metal used in stainless steel and the lithium-ion battery cells in most electric vehicles, might be what finally deals a fatal blow to the world&#8217;s largest market for base metals.<br \/>\n&#8220;The LME is now very likely going to die a slow self-inflicted death through the loss of confidence in it and its products,&#8221; tweeted Mark Thompson, executive vice-chairman at Tungsten West, a mining development company.<br \/>\nThe dramatic run-up in prices, triggered in part by a Chinese metal tycoon, led the LME to issue a sudden trading halt. Some trades were even canceled. As a result, many investors lost faith in the exchange and are looking to take their business elsewhere. But options are limited.<br \/>\n&#8220;There is no alternative at the moment,&#8221; said Nikhil Shah, an analyst at CRU Group. &#8220;There isn&#8217;t another choice out there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<h3>Up next<\/h3>\n<p>The ISM Non-Manufacturing Index, which tracks the US services sector, arrives on Tuesday.<br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2022\/04\/04\/investing\/premarket-stocks-trading\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business&#8217; Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up\u00a0right here. You can listen [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":126423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Starbucks employees at New York store vote to unionize - Fin2me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Starbucks employees at New York store vote to unionize - Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business&#8217; Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up\u00a0right here. You can listen [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-04T14:50:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Starbucks-employees-at-New-York-store-vote-to-unionize-.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/\",\"name\":\"Starbucks employees at New York store vote to unionize - Fin2me\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-04T14:50:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-04T14:50:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ad0e9920e03d3b41c7ad02a18375d76a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Markets\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/category\/markets\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Starbucks employees at New York store vote to unionize\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/\",\"name\":\"Fin2me\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ad0e9920e03d3b41c7ad02a18375d76a\",\"name\":\"Mark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39b72719fb75a2d3c7d7695026648602?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39b72719fb75a2d3c7d7695026648602?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Starbucks employees at New York store vote to unionize - Fin2me","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Starbucks employees at New York store vote to unionize - Fin2me","og_description":"A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business&#8217; Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up\u00a0right here. You can listen [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/","og_site_name":"Fin2me","article_published_time":"2022-04-04T14:50:50+00:00","author":"Mark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Starbucks-employees-at-New-York-store-vote-to-unionize-.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/","url":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/","name":"Starbucks employees at New York store vote to unionize - Fin2me","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-04-04T14:50:50+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-04T14:50:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ad0e9920e03d3b41c7ad02a18375d76a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/starbucks-employees-at-new-york-store-vote-to-unionize\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Markets","item":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/category\/markets\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Starbucks employees at New York store vote to unionize"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/","name":"Fin2me","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ad0e9920e03d3b41c7ad02a18375d76a","name":"Mark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39b72719fb75a2d3c7d7695026648602?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/39b72719fb75a2d3c7d7695026648602?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}