SEATTLE — Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz said more than 100 business leaders support his pledge to break an economic “cycle of fear and uncertainty.” In a letter Wednesday, he listed 25 of them, including the CEO of AOL and the chairman of Intuit.
He also announced the debut of a new website, , and its Facebook counterpart to “connect voices and ideas across the country.”
Schultz gained attention this month for political comments he made to The New York Times and in letters to his employees and national business leaders.
He is calling for a stop to campaign contributions for incumbents in Washington until they reach a long-term debt deal, and for business leaders to accelerate employment.
Starbucks cut 39,000 jobs between September 2008 and September 2010 but has hired 36,000 people in the U.S. and Canada since January and expects to hire 70,000 more in the U.S. over the next year.
Turnover is high in the fast- food business, and Starbucks declined to say how many new hires were filling positions created by turnover.
In his latest letter, Schultz quotes other leaders who have written to him with their ideas.
JetBlue Airways chairman Joel Peterson suggests demanding that members of Congress “sign a pledge to publish a zero-base review of every department with recommendations for real and significant cost-cutting.”
