A year under CEO Niccol: Starbucks workers’ long fight for a union contract

Twelve months since Brian Niccol took the top job and promised change, the union and CEO are still at loggerheads

It's been a year since Brian Niccol took the top job at Starbucks and promised change after years of bitter fighting with the company's burgeoning union.

I deeply respect the right of partners to choose, through a fair and democratic process, to be represented by a union," Niccol wrote in a letter to the union last September. If our partners choose to be represented, I am committed to making sure we engage constructively and in good faith with the union and the partners it represents."