Starbucks fast-tracks CEO handover ahead of annual shareholder meeting, Schultz testimony

• It also means that when Starbucks' former chairman and CEO Howard Schultz testifies at a U.S. Senate hearing next week about the coffee chain’s alleged union-busting activity, he won't technically be in charge.
• Starbucks announced Narasimhan as its next CEO last September, and has said he'd take the reins on April 1.

Zoom in: The company had already resisted prior requests for Schultz's appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, arguing that he'd be on this way out soon enough.

• He agreed only after pressure of a subpoena from committee chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Between the lines: Starbucks has aggressively tried to fend off unionization.

• Of the roughly 9,300 company-operated Starbucks locations in the U.S., 290 have voted to unionize. None have successfully negotiated a contract with Starbucks.
• The company has been subject to 509 unfair labor practice charges. The union, Starbucks Workers United, has been subject to 102, the Seattle Times reported.

What we're watching: Experts expect Narasimhan to stay the course.

• “I expect them to keep pushing as hard as they can to stop any organizing,” Kevin Reuning, a political science professor at Miami University, who is following these efforts, told Bloomberg last month.

Editor's note: The headline of this article was corrected to note that Starbucks' annual shareholder meeting is scheduled for Thursday, not its investor day.