Withhold political donations, Starbucks CEO says

The CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, has sent an email to business leaders, urging them and their companies to withhold donations to U.S. political campaigns until lawmakers show they are truly cooperating to reduce the deficit and create jobs.

“I am asking that all of us forego political contributions until the Congress and the President return to Washington and deliver a fiscally disciplined long-term debt and deficit plan to the American people,” Schultz wrote in an email sent to CEOs that was obtained by Bloomberg News.

Among the business leaders who found the email waiting for them when they arrived at work on Monday morning: NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer and Bob Greifeld, CEO of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., who then emailed letters to companies listed on their respective exchanges, according to Bloomberg News.

"I think that Howard's idea is a great one, and I have told him that he can count on me," Greifeld wrote in an email to Nasdaq company leaders, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Schultz had discussed his frustration with the “irresponsibility among elected officials” at length last week, first in an email to Starbucks employees and then in an interview with the New York Times which was published on Saturday.

“The debt crisis is really the symbol of a larger problem, which is that our leaders are not leading,” he told the New York Times. “America’s leaders need to put their feet in the shoes of working Americans.”

“The fundamental problem,” he said, “is that the lens through which Congress approaches issues is re-election. The lifeblood of their re-election campaigns is political contributions.”

In his message to Starbucks workers, he wrote: “In these uncertain times, it’s important that we ask what we at Starbucks can do. We have a responsibility as well as an opportunity not to be bystanders, but to act in ways that can ease the collective anxiety inside and outside the company.”

Schultz served as CEO of Starbucks from 1987 to 2000, then returned in 2008 to restore growth after sales slumped. From January through August of this year, the coffee-shop chain has hired 36,000 employees in the United States and Canada, 15 percent more than a year earlier, the Chicago Tribune reports.