All that unions are about is not complicated. It is people coming together to fight for a contract which guarantees them certain basic rights.

There is a class war going on, whether we want to recognize it or not.

The first part was to issue a subpoena to Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, to ask him why he thought his company could violate labor law, Federal labor law, with impunity.

Federal labor law still contains racist and sexist exclusions rooted in Jim Crow. We need to write new rules that protect all workers--Black, brown, and white--to ensure we can all thrive.

There is a class war going on, whether we want to recognize it or not.

Congress must level the playing field by: funding the NLRB, ending corporate tax breaks for union-busting, holding CEOs accountable for their actions, and passing the PRO Act, so that every worker has the right to join a union.

It's ridiculous that the future for tens of thousands of workers in a company like Starbucks is up to the whims of just one person--Howard Schultz--who continues to oversee a company that breaks the law without sufficient consequence.

Today, you got three people on top who own more wealth than the bottom half of American society.

Unions are the single most powerful tool we have to demand fair, just, and equitable treatment of workers.

We need to pass the Richard Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act as soon as possible to protect collective action.

I would hope at the same time, we would also consider it to be unacceptable that heads of corporations go up to workers and say, you vote for this union, we are going to take your job to China or to Mexico, or we are going to shut down.

It is no coincidence that labor standards have plummeted as the percentage of people in unions has declined in America.

That is perverse and wrong.

the NLRB has issued over 80 complaints against Starbucks, which the company has ignored.

Supporting workers' right to organize, free from union-busting, is not only the morally and ethically sound choice; it has practical benefits for employers.

Employers spend $340 million per year on law firms and consultants to help them intimidate workers.

What common sense suggests, you don't have to be the president of a union or the former head of the NLRB to understand this, is that if a worker alone is in trouble, he or she does not have a lot of power to ask for better wages.

Federal labor law still contains racist and sexist exclusions rooted in Jim Crow. We need to write new rules that protect all workers--Black, brown, and white--to ensure we can all thrive.

Mr. Schultz and Starbucks decided that he would appear and we will have a discussion with him on the 29th of March.

This is why we need to pass the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act as soon as possible--to protect collective action, remove the barriers to worker voice and hold employers accountable when they violate workers'…

This Committee, by the way, must do everything possible to raise the minimum wage to a living wage.

We cannot let them buy the basic rights of working people.

All that unions are about is not complicated. It is people coming together to fight for a contract which guarantees them certain basic rights.

The response of companies like Starbucks... has been to turn around and throw a litany of dirty tactics at these employees.

the original purpose of this hearing was twofold.