(The Center Square) – Seattle City Councilman Rob Saka said Tuesday that he’s concerned about Starbucks moving jobs from Seattle to Nashville and didn’t agree with how Mayor Katie Wilson has approached the issue.
Saka’s comments in an interview with The Center Square come after a series of incidents involving Wilson, including encouraging boycotts of Starbucks while she was a mayoral candidate and dismissing concerns that high income earners would flee the area after she took office.
Those remarks have helped fuel a debate over whether the state’s and Seattle’s increasing business taxes and approach to businesses in general are causing companies to shed jobs and look for opportunities elsewhere.
“I personally disagree with the approach that we all saw,” Saka said of a recent viral video in which Wilson dismissed millionaires leaving the state.
Saka said the city needs to address Starbucks concerns as the company moves jobs from Seattle to Nashville.
‘I think we should work hard not to dismiss or trivialize the concerns of others, especially during a period of economic uncertainty and rapid change,” he said.
The controversy about job losses comes as Starbucks continues to reduce its workforce at its corporate headquarters in Seattle.
More than 300 employees have been laid off in the last several days, while Starbucks announced last month that it plans to move another several hundred Seattle employees to a new regional headquarters in Seattle.
Saka said Starbucks is located in his council district in the industrial SoDo district, and he plans to meet with corporate officials in person next week.
“I’m concerned about jobs in our city and our job growth,” he said.
Starbucks officials have not spoken publicly about rising state and city taxes on businesses.
They have left it to business groups to criticize four new state and city taxes enacted over the last several years.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said last month that the new office in Nashville was part of the company’s plan to expand in the Southeast.
He didn’t criticize the Seattle business climate and said the city would remain the company’s worldwide corporate headquarters.
But Starbucks’ former top executive has been less shy.
“Seattle’s mayor, Katie Wilson, has chosen to cast business as a foil rather than a partner,” Howard Schultz wrote last week in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. “Her socialist rhetoric vilifies employers, even while she continues to rely on them for revenue.”
Saka said it’s unclear how many employees Starbucks has left at its corporate headquarters in Seattle.
The company has laid off approximately 1,000 corporate employees in Seattle since 2025.
The Nashville headquarters is projected to staff 2,000 employees, including approximately 400 who will be transferred from Seattle.
Even though Nashville is supposed to be a regional headquarters, ultimately, there might be more corporate workers in Nashville than in Seattle.
Starbucks was founded in Seattle in 1971.
Wilson, who took office in January, campaigned on taxing the rich to expand social programs.
But in the last week, she called the company an iconic part of Seattle and said she had been talking to Starbucks officials, without going into specifics.
Neither Wilson nor Starbucks responded to requests for comment before publication.
Saka said he’s not taking a position on new city taxes, but said Seattle needs to listen to Starbucks and other companies before imposing new taxes.
Saka said he has talked to the mayor’s office about his concerns, but said he didn’t want to reveal the contents of a confidential conversation.
