New York, NY — Ahead of Starbucks’ (NASDAQ: SBUX) 2027 annual meeting of shareholders New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, as trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine, on behalf the New York City pension funds, and the Trillium Asset Management ESG Global Equity Fund have filed a shareholder proposal at the company asking the Board of Directors to reestablish the Environmental, Partner, and Community Impact Committee (EPCI Committee) — a standing committee of independent directors whose responsibilities would include overseeing policies and practices related to labor relations.
“Almost five years after the first successful unionization vote at a Starbucks store in Buffalo, the company has yet to reach a collective bargaining agreement and is contending with hundreds of open unfair labor practices charges,” said New York State Comptroller DiNapoli. “Rather than strengthening oversight of these issues, the board eliminated the committee responsible for doing so. Reestablishing the EPCI Committee would restore independent oversight of labor risks and help protect long-term shareholder value.”
“Starbucks cannot continue to treat labor relations as an afterthought,” said New York City Comptroller Mark Levine. “Investors want accountability, not more rhetoric that makes broad claims that the company is back while ignoring the very real concerns of the status of their workforce engagement. Myriad labor challenges, including the status of an agreement on a first contract with unionized employees remain unaddressed. This is no way to ensure the long-term success of the company. The board must bring back a dedicated committee to acknowledge shareholder concerns and reprioritize independent oversight if they are serious about the future of the company.”
“Starbucks may have dissolved the EPCI Committee, but it did not dissolve its labor risks,” said Trillium Asset Management Chief Advocacy Officer Jonas Kron. “Brian Niccol has now been CEO for almost two years, yet the company’s most persistent labor challenges remain unresolved and there is still no first contract. The board should bring back the committee, restore dedicated independent oversight, and demonstrate that Starbucks is serious about managing these risks for the long term.”
The EPCI Committee was created in November 2023, after a majority of Starbucks shareholders supported a proposal calling for an assessment of the Company’s adherence to its stated commitment to workers’ freedom of association and collective bargaining rights. The Committee’s charter directed it to monitor the Company’s “environmental, partner, community, customer, and farmer promises,” and its first charge was to “[o]versee policies and practices related to labor relations.” In November 2025, the Board dissolved the Committee, distributed its responsibilities across other committees, and returned primary responsibility for labor matters to the full Board — which is chaired by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol.
The filers say that returning labor relations oversight to the full Board at the same time that authority has been consolidated in a combined CEO-Chair risks diluting the intensity, depth, continuity, and independence of oversight of one of the Company’s most significant and persistent risk areas — creating a potential gap in independent oversight and accountability. Starbucks’ 2025 Annual Report identifies labor relations as a material risk, noting that work stoppages and other disruptions have “the potential to negatively impact our operations, third-party providers upon whom we rely to deliver product, our sales and customer flow in impact locations, our costs, and can also have a negative impact on our reputation and brand.”
The proposal points to the current state of the Company’s labor relations:
- The first stores organized a union in 2021, and there is still no collective bargaining agreement, despite reports that 700 stores and more than 12,000 baristas have voted to unionize.
- Starbucks is reported to face almost 600 open unfair labor practice charges, including at least 50 filed so far in 2026.
- In late 2025, more than 100 lawmakers alleged that Starbucks engaged in “union-busting” activities and urged the Company to resume negotiations.
- In 2026, independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council sent letters to Starbucks and the U.S. government requesting responses to allegations of unfair labor practices.
The filing follows sustained investor engagement on the issue. In January 2026, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine, SOC Investment Group, the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE), and Trillium wrote to Starbucks’ lead independent director and the chair of its Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee seeking an explanation for the Committee’s apparent elimination. In February 2026, joined by the Merseyside Pension Fund, they urged shareholders to vote against the re-election of directors Jørgen Vig Knudstorp and Beth Ford, citing failed oversight of labor relations. Both directors were reelected at the March 25, 2026, annual meeting, with opposition well above the S&P 500 average.
The filers note that a separate shareholder proposal filed with Starbucks in August 2026 by SOC Investment Group, which asks the Board to adopt a policy requiring that the Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer roles be held by different people. This proposal complements the EPCI shareholder proposal. The EPCI filers welcome that proposal and view it as constructive and well-designed. The two proposals offer shareholders complementary ways to support strengthened independent oversight at a company where labor relations remain a significant and unresolved risk.
By re-establishing the Committee, the filers believe Starbucks could provide more effective oversight, mitigate risks stemming from its workforce management, and protect shareholder value. The investors have offered to meet with the Company to discuss these matters further.
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