Workers Shout Union-Busting as Starbucks Closes Two More Ithaca Locations
Ithaca, New York was the first city in the country to unionize every Starbucks location in the city. Now they have all been shutdown in retaliation.
When Ithaca became the first city in the country to successfully unionize every Starbucks location in April 2022 as part of Starbucks Workers United’s (SBWU) nationwide unionization effort, Starbucks retaliated by closing its most popular store in the city — located in Collegetown — and firing a handful of union organizers. On May 5, the corporation retaliated against union organizers again by closing two more Starbucks locations in the city on Meadow Street and East Seneca Street.
Now the only place Ithacans can get a taste of the new Starbucks Oleato — which tastes as bad as union-busting — is at the last remaining location in the city inside of the nearby Barnes & Noble.
This move comes weeks after Starbucks founder and CEO Howard Shultz testified in front of Congress to address allegations that the corporation has engaged in union busting tactics. It also comes a week after a Huffington Post article revealed internal conversations from Starbucks leadership suggesting that the corporation closed the Collegetown location in response to negative press coverage.
Starbucks has denied that negative press coverage led to the closure of the Collegetown location. Instead, the corporation fell back on claims that the location was closed due to maintenance issues such as an overflowing grease trap. However, workers have said that the grease trap has been an issue for years and action was only taken to close the storefront following a strike by union members that attracted nationwide attention.
“They didn’t care [before]. They cared all of a sudden now when we’re making national news,” said Kolya Vitek, a barista and Starbucks Workers United member who participated in the strike.
Local Starbucks barista Ellamae Robinson has worked at the Meadow Street location in Ithaca since January and recently told the Ithaca Times that corporate representatives arrived at the storefront and forced workers to leave around 6 p.m. on May 5. They also notified employees that all Starbucks locations in Ithaca will be closing as of May 26.
“This is a result of the union presence in Ithaca,” Robinson said.
According to Robinson, the corporate representatives told workers that the store would be closing due to decreased sales and understaffing. However, Robinson says that the store is “staffed to run with limited operation times” and that it has also “had better sales than a lot of the stores in our area for the past year.”
Robinson also said that the move to shutdown the remaining two locations came as workers at the Meadow Street location were debating about holding another vote to decide whether or not they would keep the union. “Personally, I think that our store on Meadow Street wouldn’t keep the union. I think that a lot of us don’t understand what it is,” Robinson said.
Robinson has said that much of the staff at the Meadow Street location have been hired more recently and don’t have connections to the staff members who originally voted to unionize. “A lot of the people that started the union are no longer there,” Robinson said.
That stands in contrast to the mindset of workers at the Commons location, who are “very pro union.” Robinson continued saying that “because we wouldn’t necessarily keep [the union] and the Commons location would, it would not look good to just close the Commons location down.”
Robinson says that it’s her opinion that Starbucks is making these moves to get rid of the union and reopen the locations with a fresh start in the coming years, since the corporation still owns the properties the storefronts are located on.
Another employee at the Meadow Street location named Quinn said that they weren’t given any notice of the closure before it was announced on May 6. In addition, they said that they were told to reach out to union representatives about severance pay, but that Starbucks could potentially include a “no strike clause” that would prohibit workers from participating in strikes if they wanted to receive severance pay.
Quinn said that workers at the Meadow Street location “haven't been actively participating in strikes as of recently” and that “fear of retaliation is definitely a big factor for what workers are choosing to do from this point forward.”
In response to news regarding the closing of the last two remaining Starbucks locations in Ithaca, Tompkins County Legislator Veronica Pillar tweeted, “Starbucks is tripling down their union-busting in Ithaca by announcing the shutdown of all Ithaca stores.” Pillar’s tweet links to a GoFundMe campaign to support the workers who are losing their jobs in retaliation for union organizing. The most recent move will see an additional 40 workers lose employment.
Ithaca Common Council member Jorge DeFendini — who represents the city's Fourth Ward — has also responded to the news saying, “This is criminal and disgusting. Starbucks was ordered by the federal government to reopen its store and rehire fired workers, and while dragging their feet on that, they plan to fire everyone and press the reset button. It’s obvious union busting and it should not be tolerated.”
Ithaca Common Council member Ducson Nguyen — who represents the city’s Second Ward — called the closing of the last two Starbucks locations “reprehensible” and “likely illegal.”
Nguyen continued saying “Like many locals I prefer getting coffee at Gimme, Press Café, Alley Cat, Nothing Nowhere, but plenty of people did frequent Starbucks and more importantly, our friends and neighbors are the workers affected. They fought for those jobs and labor rights.”
New York State Assemblymember Anna Kelles released a statement in response to Starbucks most recent action saying, “it was a point of pride for most of Ithaca that all of the three Starbucks locations employed unionized workers and that Ithaca was the first city in the country to have fully unionized Starbucks cafes.”
Kelles continued saying that she is “appalled by the consistently and blatantly anti-union actions of this multi-billion dollar corporation” and that she “appreciates the courage and fortitude of those that have fought and are still fighting for labor representation here for more than one year.”
Kelles concluded her statement saying that she “stands in solidarity with workers who chose to unionize, and will fight for accountability from corporations like Starbucks.”
Students at Cornell University have also started a campaign to pressure the institution to stop selling Starbucks products in Cornell Dining Halls and cafès by calling on University President Martha Pollack and Dining Director Paul Muscente to withdraw from the ‘Proudly Serving Starbucks Program’.
A statement in support of the campaign signed by students, faculty and community members said that “by selling Starbucks products…Cornell is actively using students’ tuition to support rampant union-busting.” The statement continues saying, “If Starbucks wants out of Ithaca, Ithaca wants nothing to do with Starbucks.”
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has agreed with previous complaints that Starbucks engaged in union busting tactics and released an in-depth complaint against Starbucks in November 2022 saying that the board “found merit in the union’s claim” that the Collegetown location was closed in retaliation for union organizing. The NLRB ruled that the location had to be reopened and fired workers had to be rehired, but they gave no timeline for that to happen. As a result Starbucks has been dragging their feet as they rethink their options in the city.
Starbucks Workers United Organizing Director Jaz Brisack has said that SBWU has filed another unfair labor practice complaint with the NLRB against Starbucks in response to the recent closings. However, those complaints will not be reviewed by the NLRB before the Meadow Street and East Seneca Street locations are set to close on May 26.
The last two remaining Starbucks locations in the city are closing along with 16 additional locations nationwide — the majority of which are unionized. Local Starbucks workers, many of whom are affiliated with SBWU, are in the process of planning protests that will be held to increase public awareness of Starbucks union-busting tactics as the May 26 shutdowns approach.
Starbucks Workers United represents 300 locations accounting for nearly 7,000 workers across the country. According to data from the NLRB, the union has won roughly 80 percent of its union votes.
Labor experts have called Starbucks workers unionizing campaign the start of a new labor movement that has inspired workers at other retail giants like Trader Joe’s and Home Depot to take similar actions. Data from the NLRB shows that the number of union election petitions filed with the board between October 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022 were up 58% compared to the first three quarters of Fiscal Year 2021.
The NLRB has issued 39 official complaints against Starbucks, encompassing over 1,400 alleged violations of federal labor law. The allegations accuse the company’s management of firing union organizers, slashing hours, and illegally threatening to deny pay raises and other benefits to unionized stores.
Starbucks has still yet to reach a single contract agreement with any of their unionized stores.