While Starbucks won points as an “outlier” in the food and beverage industry for providing benefits to part-time workers, Ifill and McGhee said the company needs to review its pay practices and whether employees are getting enough weekly hours to earn a living wage. They suggested the company correct salary discrepancies, adjust pay higher and respect efforts among workers who want to unionize rank-and-file employees.
“As the company sets new goals for diversity at its corporate headquarters, the leadership must represent a rich mix of people across race if they are to implement the new standards effectively,” the pair said. “This will require an overhaul of their recruitment practices, hiring protocols and retention-related professional development systems.”
Ifill and McGhee said Starbucks should standardize all of its interview protocols to eliminate any implicit bias and increase the number of racial and ethnic hires across all levels within the organization.
Ifill and McGhee also urged Starbucks to reexamine its store manual and handbook to correct policies that were “confusing” to employees.
“But as Starbucks has already recognized, its standard Store Operations Manual contains several important omissions,” Ifill and McGhee said. “It includes no guidance on the use of bathrooms, when or if partners should approach customers who don’t purchase products, or when or if law enforcement should be summoned to the store.”
Since the incident in Philadelphia, Starbucks has opened its cafes to the public, allowing nonpaying customers to use its cafes and its bathrooms. It also provided information about how to address disruptive behaviors without contacting the police and how to contact community resources, such as social services.
Police are only to be called to respond to danger.
“What happened to us shouldn’t happen to anyone,” Donte Robinson, one of the two men arrested in Philadelphia, said in a statement Monday. “While we cannot change the events of April 12th, we are committed to doing what we can to increase opportunities in our community and to prevent other African Americans from being profiled at Starbucks or any other business.”
Robinson and Rashon Nelson, the man arrested with him, also recommended that Starbucks sponsor an SAT and college preparation program for public school students in Philadelphia.
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