College students are urging their schools to dump Starbucks coffee over shutdowns of unionized cafes

Cornell University’s student government and campus activists are urging the school to stop serving Starbucks coffee after the chain announced plans to shutter its nearby unionized cafes.

Employees at the three corporate-run Starbucks cafes in Ithaca, New York, voted last year to join Starbucks Workers United, making Ithaca the first U.S. city where all of the company’s baristas were unionized. Starbucks announced in June that it was closing one of those cafes, prompting a complaint from the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, which alleged the company was illegally retaliating because workers organized. Last week, the company said it was also closing the remaining two Ithaca stores, a move the union claims constitutes further retaliation.

On Thursday, Cornell’s Student Assembly passed a resolution urging the university to suspend ties with Starbucks, following a similar measure passed on Sunday by the University of California Student Association. Cornell students say they have mobilized 400 classmates, alumni and community members to email the university’s president and its dining services head and have given away coffee from a unionized cafe outside the university’s Starbucks-affiliated campus cafes.

Students also marched Thursday afternoon to the building holding the president’s office, where a few dozen entered and began staging a sit-in, demanding the university find a “new, ethical” coffee vendor for the fall. Starbucks has licensing agreements that facilitate the sale of its coffee on many college campuses, as well as other third-party sites such as supermarkets and hotels.

“Starbucks needs to know, and every entity that affiliates with Starbucks needs to know, that this is unacceptable and will result in direct, swift, implications for its bottom line,” said one of the activists, Cornell student and former Starbucks employee Nick Wilson. “This can happen on any university campus, with any affiliate of Starbucks, and it will happen if they continue to union-bust.”

Starbucks has denied retaliating against workers and has said that all claims of anti-union activity there are “categorically false.” A Starbucks spokesperson said this week that the Ithaca stores had experienced numerous absences and high turnover. The company also shared a prior statement from Starbucks North America President Sara Trilling, who said “as part of our ongoing efforts to transform our store portfolio, we continue to open, close and evolve our stores.”

Starbucks Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, has prevailed in elections at around 300 of Starbucks’ roughly 9,000 corporate-run U.S. stores since late 2021. Regional NLRB directors around the country have issued over 80 complaints accusing the company of illegal anti-union tactics, including refusing to negotiate fairly with the union, while judges and NLRB members have ordered reinstatement of 23 terminated activist employees.

Appeals of NLRB rulings can drag on for years in federal court and the agency has no authority to make companies pay punitive damages for violations. No unionized store has come close to reaching a collective bargaining agreement with Starbucks.

Students and young consumers represent an important part of Starbucks’ customer and employee base, and the company has long cultivated a progressive, humane brand. So efforts to make Starbucks anathema on campus would be a cause for concern for the company if they were to gain strength.

“They need to know that people will fight back and won’t stand for union-busting,” said another Cornell student, Danielle Donovan. “Starbucks won’t be the favorite coffee shop of young people if they keep doing this.”