Pusha T isn't 'lovin' it' anymore. Hear his new song for Arby's
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA - OCTOBER 28: Musician/Entrepreneur Pusha T speaks onstage during Panel 2: "Who We Are Now" as Pharrell Williams holds forum at Norfolk State University to discuss full potential of the cities of Virginia Beach and Norfolk in his home state of Virginia at Norfolk State University on October 28, 2021 in Norfolk, Virginia. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Pharrell Williams )
What's that long skinny thing a restaurant just tried sending to space?
Forget oil. Here's how Russia's war in Ukraine is jacking up food prices.
Faithful walk between sandbags and hedgehog anti-tank barricades to attend a blessing of traditional Easter food baskets on Holy Saturday, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Zhytomyr, Ukraine April 23, 2022. REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
Americans are tipping less in the wake of tipping fatigue
The fastest growing trend in adult beverages will surprise you
How AriZona Beverages has kept iced tea prices at 99 cents for 30 years
An employee cleans a self-ordering machine at the Russian version of a former McDonald's restaurant before the opening ceremony, in Moscow on June 12, 2022.
Russia's war in Ukraine threatens one of England's most famous dishes
Richard Bensinger, left, who is advising unionization efforts, along with baristas Casey Moore, right, Brian Murray, second from left, and Jaz Brisack, second from right, discuss their efforts to unionize three Buffalo-area stores, inside the movements headquarters on Oct. 28, 2021 in Buffalo, N.Y. The National Labor Relations Board is scheduled to count ballots Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, from union elections held at three separate Starbucks stores in the Buffalo area. Around 111 Starbucks workers from the three stores were eligible to vote by mail starting last month.
New York CNN Business —
Starbucks is planning to close 16 locations across various cities, citing safety concerns.
“After careful consideration, we are closing some stores in locations that have experienced a high volume of challenging incidents that make it unsafe to continue to operate,” a spokesperson told CNN Business in an email.
The stores are in Seattle; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Washington, DC, and Portland, Oregon. They will be closed by the end of July.
The decision comes as Starbucks works to change the company culture under interim CEO Howard Schultz — and as employees across the country vote to unionize.
In a Monday letter to employees, Debbie Stroud and Denise Nelson, both senior vice presidents of US operations, discussed safety in Starbucks stores.
Employees are “seeing firsthand the challenges facing our communities — personal safety, racism, lack of access to healthcare, a growing mental health crisis, rising drug use, and more,” they wrote, adding that “with stores in thousands of communities across the country, we know these challenges can, at times, play out within our stores too.”
Starbucks is closing locations over safety concerns. Aaron M. Sprecher/CHERA/AP
Stroud and Nelson said they “read every incident report you file,” adding, “it’s a lot.”
To make workers feel safer in stores, the company is offering active shooter training and other types of trainings, they wrote.
It’s also offering mental health benefits, access to abortion care, clarity around shifts and store policies, and more, the letter stated. The company also may close restrooms to the public, overturning a 2018 policy.
In cases where it isn’t able to create a safe environment in a store, Starbucks will close it permanently, the letter said. In those instances, the company will move employees to neighboring stores.
A new era for Starbucks
The moves are part of a broader effort to revamp the company, as outlined in a Monday letter from Schultz.
“We need to reinvent Starbucks for the future,” he wrote, noting that the company must “radically” improve employee experiences. He added that based on feedback from employees, the company will strive to create “safety, welcoming and kindness for our stores.”
Schultz stepped into the CEO role for the third time in April. Over the past several months he has spent time with employees, listening to their concerns and gathering feedback. He’s also been working to dissuade workers from unionizing, asking workers to steer clear of unions even before he formally returned to the company as chief executive.
But the unionization drive has only been growing.
As of June 24, the NLRB has certified unions at 133 Starbucks stores with more than 3,400 hourly employees among them, and certified decisions against unionization at 15 locations. Elections are underway at dozens of additional stores.
Even with the the pro-labor votes, unionized stores make up a only fraction of Starbucks’ roughly 9,000 company-operated stores in the United States. But Starbucks has made clear that it doesn’t want employees to join a union, and that it won’t guarantee certain benefits to those who do.
In a tweet, Starbucks Workers United Seattle questioned whether the decision to close one of the Seattle locations was made in good faith.
And in June, Starbucks workers at an Ithaca, New York, store claimed their location was being shut down in retaliation for their union activism. The worker committee said at the time that it was filing an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that Starbucks was making a “clear attempt to scare workers across the country.”
Regarding that store closure, a company spokesperson said at the time that Starbucks opens and closes stores as part of its regular operations, without offering specific reasons.
“Our local, regional and national leaders have been working with humility, deep care and urgency to create the kind of store environment that partners and customers expect of Starbucks,” the Starbucks spokesperson said in June. “Our goal is to ensure that every partner is supported in their individual situation and we have immediate opportunities available in the market.”
During its most recent fiscal year, Starbucks closed 424 US company-operated stores, or about 5% of its total, while opening 449 new locations.
— CNN Business’s Chris Isidore and Ramishah Maruf contributed to this report.