A judge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has ordered Starbucks to reopen two of its shuttered coffee shops in Ithaca.
On Friday, Geoffery Carter, an administrative law judge, ordered Starbucks to reopen its Ithaca Commons and South Meadow Street locations. The ruling said the company violated the National Labor Relations Act by closing the stores with “the intent to chill unionism at other store locations.”
In 2022, three Starbucks locations in Ithaca voted to unionize, making it the first city in the country with total unionization of Starbucks stores. But just a year later, the coffee chain closed all of those stores.
Last year, a different order from the NLRB called for the reopening of the third store in Ithaca’s Collegetown, but that location remains closed, despite the ruling.
Labor activist and Cornell University student Nick Wilson joined Ithaca Starbucks employees on the picket line in 2022 after working towards unionization at a Starbucks in Chicago. He said it is likely Starbucks will stall and fight the ruling, as it did for its Collegetown location. Nevertheless, he believes it's still a strong win for workers.
“I think one thing the continued ruling against them proves is that Starbucks was engaged in unabashed illegal conduct in Ithaca,” Wilson said. “Which means something, I think, even if it doesn't mean immediate remedies for what's happened here.”
Wilson’s own interactions with Starbucks were cited in the NLRB ruling. When he submitted an application for a position at an Ithaca Starbucks, he was rejected, despite a good record at his old store and a staffing shortage at the location.
The ruling said that rejection, and others like it, were evidence of anti-union intent. It also said the company ignored bargaining requests, changed operating hours without providing a chance for union bargaining, and implemented strict enforcement of company policy with discipline and discharge.
In a statement to WSKG, Starbucks spokesperson Jay Go Guasch said the company is reviewing the latest ruling.
“Our focus continues to be on training and supporting our managers to ensure respect of our partners’ rights to organize and on progressing negotiations towards ratified store contracts this year,” Guasch added.
Nearly 500 Starbucks locations across the country are unionized, but none have been able to reach a contract.
The ruling comes amid a wave of recent union activity in the Ithaca area, with strikes at both Cornell University and BorgWarner, as well as the unionization of a GreenStar grocery store.
