Source: Politics<\/p>\n
A top Democratic consulting firm with deep ties to the Biden administration was working on behalf of Starbucks until last month, even as the coffee giant was pushing back against union efforts at several of its locations.<\/p>\n
SKDK, a public affairs and political consulting shop co-founded by longtime White House adviser Anita Dunn, has listed Starbucks as a client for years<\/a>. More recently, it was part of a larger campaign, including Starbucks and other entities, to invest in Black-owned businesses and close the racial wealth gap. The firm\u2019s recent work coincided with Starbucks\u2019 efforts to fight back against employees trying to create a union in various locations \u2014 and with the president’s increasingly vocal advocacy for workers seeking to unionize.<\/p>\n Those efforts resulted in staff at 57 locations voting to unionize and with the coffee giant deploying increasingly aggressive measures to dissuade others from joining them. Starbucks has been accused of promising increased benefits and better work conditions for those who refrained from unionizing, surveilling employees\u2019 union activities and terminating some unionized workers.<\/p>\n SKDK\u2019s work for Starbucks comes as the Democratic Party is<\/a> mulling whether to ban its consultants from participating in anti-union activities. Though the consulting firm said that it did not help Starbucks on labor issues, its work for the company could potentially complicate the Biden administration\u2019s increasingly assertive pivot toward supporting unionization efforts across workforces.<\/p>\n Dunn is set to return to the White House as senior adviser and assistant to President Joe Biden after serving in the administration at the beginning of his term last year and following work on Biden\u2019s campaign. She rejoins a number of other SKDK alums who are also in the administration, including Kate Berner, White House deputy communications director, and Herbie Ziskend, senior adviser for communications to Vice President Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n Starbucks currently faces a number of accusations of retaliation<\/a> from its workers. As recently as Friday, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint<\/a> out of its Buffalo, New York office, finding the company had violated the National Labor Relations Act, which grants most private-sector employees the right to form or join unions. Starbucks has denied<\/a> the allegations in the complaint.<\/p>\n SKDK and Starbucks ended their relationship last month, according to SKDK partner Jill Zuckman. In a statement, Zuckman reaffirmed the firm\u2019s support for Starbucks and did not directly address its ongoing labor dispute.<\/p>\n \u201cStarbucks has been a longtime client of SKDK and we have great admiration for the company,\u201d she said in the statement. \u201cOver the years, we provided guidance on corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion, particularly following the 2018 arrest of two Black men in a Philadelphia store, the company\u2019s response to the 2020 murder of George Floyd, and its support for its employees during the height of Covid.\u201d<\/p>\n Zuckman declined to answer whether Starbucks\u2019 reported efforts to suppress the unionization of its employees was the reason for the split with what she called a \u201clongtime client.\u201d She later added that the firm did not work on labor issues for Starbucks.<\/p>\n A Starbucks spokesperson, Jaime Riley, said SKDK was not the one to decide to end the \u201clongstanding relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week, Biden, Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh had a White House meeting with union organizers, including Laura Garza, a representative of Starbucks Workers United. There, Biden thanked the attendees for their leadership, according to a readout of the meeting released by the White House.<\/p>\n In a letter to presidential counselor Steve Ricchetti the same day, Starbucks senior vice president AJ Jones II said the company was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d that Workers United was invited to the meeting, while official Starbucks representatives were not. He pointed to the company\u2019s employee benefits and compensation, adding that Starbucks has \u201ca drastically more positive vision\u201d for its employees and company.<\/p>\n \u201cI am requesting the opportunity to meet with you and bring a diverse, representative group of Starbucks partners from across the country to the White House so that they can share points of view and experiences that are vastly different from those presented by Workers United,\u201d Jones wrote.<\/p>\n Asked about SKDK\u2019s work with Starbucks, Starbucks Workers United\u2019s organizing committee leader, Michelle Eisen, said in a statement that, \u201cas more of Starbucks’ anti-union behavior comes to light, I’m glad to see that more people are beginning to hold Starbucks accountable for their actions.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House\u2019s relationship with SKDK has been the subject of criticism in the past. Dunn earlier entered the administration at a salary<\/a> just below the threshold that would require her to disclose clients. And unlike registered federal lobbyists, who must share some information publicly, the firm\u2019s roster of clients is largely obscure.<\/p>\n Jeff Hauser, the founder of the watchdog group the Revolving Door Project, considers there to be \u201can inherent conflict of interest, to be seeking counsel from people who are seeking to divert the administration from fulfilling its mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n “We don\u2019t know how many other corporate clients SKDK has, who should be the subject of enforcement scrutiny and whether or not the Biden administration will pursue all those enforcement opportunities as far as the law permits,\u201d Hauser said.<\/p>\n In a statement, a White House official emphasized Biden\u2019s commitment to union rights, pointing to the recent meeting with union leaders, and the administration\u2019s ethics policies.<\/p>\n \u201cThe president believes that every worker should have the choice to join a union, and has fought for that right over his whole career while opposing union busting,\u201d said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates. \u201cAnd experts have praised this administration for having the strongest ethics policies of any in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n SKDK\u2019s relationship with Starbucks is not the only case in which a Democratic-aligned consulting firm has worked with a client amid that client\u2019s alleged anti-union activity. Global Strategy Group, which was a polling partner of the pro-Biden super PAC Priorities USA, last week ended its relationship with Amazon. Unlike SKDK, GSG actually did work assisting Amazon in fending off unionization efforts at a Staten Island warehouse, for which it apologized<\/a>.<\/p>\n SKDK has also done work with Amazon, having helped the online retail giant with efforts to create<\/a> a New York City headquarters, which the company ultimately abandoned. According to a person familiar with the arrangement, Amazon was still a client of SKDK as of 2021. Zuckman declined to comment when asked about SKDK\u2019s work with Amazon.<\/p>\n