Several weeks after Starbucks workers in Ithaca, New York, voted to unionize, the company announced with just a week’s notice that their store on College Avenue, one of three in Ithaca, would be shut down. Starbucks claimed the decision to close was unrelated to unionization and was due to a problem with the grease trap system. Workers felt the store closure was retaliatory to the union.
The dispute is just one of many that newly unionized workers can expect in the coming months. Starbucks workers have driven an unprecedented wave of union organizing victories, in the face of fierce opposition from the company. Now comes the hard part – agreeing a contract and moving forward with a company determined to stamp out its nascent union movement.
