Starbucks Moves To Shut Down Its Remaining Stores In Ithaca, New York–One Year After They Unionized

Just over a year ago Ithaca, New York became the first city in the United States in which all its Starbucks locations–a total of three–were unionized. Now, Starbucks has said it will close two locations within the city at the end of this month. Starbucks previously closed one store in Ithaca in June 2022, meaning all three of the unionized locations will be shut down.

The shutdowns will leave a total of 38 employees out of work, according to a representative for Starbucks Workers United, an organization dedicated to unionizing Starbucks locations across the U.S.

Ithaca, a city of over 30,000 residents, is probably best known as the home of Cornell University, with its 25,000 students. Employees at all three Ithaca Starbucks locations started the unionization effort in October 2021 as a result of issues regarding scheduling as well as concerns about employee health and safety. Just two months after they unionized, Starbucks closed what some workers claimed was the city’s most profitable location, located on College Avenue just outside the Cornell campus, citing “brand needs,” as the underlying reason in an email sent to Denise Nelsen, Senior Vice President of Operations & US Alignment at Starbucks, and Marcus Eckensberger, a regional vice president at Starbucks, and that was shared with Forbes.

Evan Sunshine, an Ithaca Starbucks barista and partner organizer for Starbucks Workers United, believes the decision to close down the city’s Starbucks was a direct result of the unionization. Sunshine claims that the “brand needs” cited by Starbucks as its reason for the shutdown referred to the negative press that the company received in local media outlets covering an eight-day strike in April 2022 by unionized employees.

“Because we went on strike, the company decided to close the store,” said Sunshine. “It is really appalling because that’s our right. Striking is our right.”

As part of its May 2 earnings release, Starbucks North America President Sara Trilling didn’t mention unionization in connection with store closures.

“In support of our Reinvention Plan, and as part of our ongoing efforts to transform our store portfolio, we continue to open, close and evolve our stores as we assess, reposition and strengthen our store portfolio,” Trilling said.

In a statement, Starbucks said that it respects employees’ rights to engage in lawful union activities without fear of reprisal or retaliation. So far, though, Starbucks has yet to negotiate a contract with any of its over 300 unionized locations across the US, according to Starbucks Workers United. A spokesperson for Starbucks said that the lack of successful contract negotiations is a result of insufficient responses to proposed bargaining sessions by Workers United, a union which represents workers in the U.S. and Canada, including at unionized Starbucks stores.

The Ithaca closures come just weeks after Howard Schultz, Starbucks’ longtime billionaire leader, stepped down as interim CEO following what Sunshine described as “a scorched earth union-busting campaign.” Current Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan seems to have followed his predecessor’s lead by so far declining to sign the Fair Election Principles proposed by Starbucks Workers United. The principles are meant to guarantee fair union elections in stores looking to unionize.

In response to the actions taken by Starbucks, the Workers United union launched a formal complaint before the National Labor Relations Board in which it accuses the company of violating labor laws in its treatment of unionized Ithaca Starbucks workers. Hearings wrapped up recently, says Sunshine, adding that a decision from the administrative law judge from the National Labor Relations Board is expected in September.