Cornell University ended its partnership with Starbucks after students claimed the coffee company engaged in union busting. The move could be a major step for unionization efforts, labor experts say.

• Cornell University will no longer serve Starbucks coffee on campus following student protests.
• Students say Starbucks engaged in illegal union-busting when it closed every store in Ithaca, New York.
• Labor experts say this worker-student coalition could be a winning strategy for Starbucks organizers.

Cornell University said this week it would not renew its vendor contract with Starbucks after students protested the coffee chain’s response to unionization efforts. Labor experts say it could be a turning point for the Starbucks union.

With more than 9,000 company-operated stores in the United States, Starbucks is the largest coffee company in the country.  Starbucks employees at more than 300 stores across the nation have successfully unionized under Starbucks Workers United since 2021, joining employees at national companies like Trader Joe’s and Amazon making similar efforts.

While the current contract between Cornell and Starbucks lasts until 2025, university officials said in a statement that it would “initiate an inclusive process” to select a new coffee vendor.

The decision came after Cornell students claimed Starbucks’ decision to close all three stores in Ithaca after workers voted to unionize was an act of illegal union-busting. Student activist Danielle Donovan told Insider that students wrote a formal resolution in May calling for the end of the partnership and staged a sit-in at Cornell’s administrative building. 

Andrew Trull, a Starbucks spokesperson, said Starbucks officials respect the rights of their employees to unionize and are committed to engaging in good-faith collective bargaining.

“Starbucks trains managers that no partner will be disciplined for engaging in lawful union activity and that there will be no tolerance for any unlawful anti-union behavior,” Trull wrote to Insider.

Student efforts to end the partnership is a promising strategy for union organizers, according to Johnnie Kallas, a Ph.D. student and director of Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker, a database designed to track strikes and labor protests across the United States.

“One of the biggest obstacles facing the Starbucks campaign is how to generate adequate pressure to bring Starbucks to the table for negotiations. One strategy they’ve tried is striking, but Starbucks is so huge and has so much financial power. So they need to think of other ways to generate pressure,” Kallas told Insider. “And this is a really great example. This can make a meaningful impact on Starbucks and move them toward contract negotiations.”

Jaz Brisack, a former Starbucks barista and organizer with Workers United, an umbrella union that includes Starbucks Workers United, said the student activism at Cornell could be a new way for workers to seek accountability. 

“This shows what students and Starbucks workers demanding accountability can look like,” Brisack told Insider. “It’s the start of a much bigger movement to hold Starbucks accountable.”

Every Starbucks location in Ithaca successfully voted to unionize last year, making it the first and only city to reach 100% Starbucks worker unionization. Starbucks executives shut down one of those stores in June last year. Then it closed the remaining two in May. 

Union organizers across these stores, many of whom were also Cornell students, said the closures constituted an act of union-busting.

“I think Starbucks engaged in unprecedented and illegal behavior in Ithaca: A multi-national corporation pulling out entirely from a community in response to successful union elections,” Nick Wilson, a former Starbucks employee and organizer, told Insider. 

Others agree. An administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board ruled last month that Starbucks violated labor laws and must reopen the College Avenue location in Ithaca and rehire all employees who worked there as of June 1, 2022. The store has not yet re-opened. 

Trull, a Starbucks spokesperson, declined to comment on the record about the ruling. 

When they closed the first store, a Starbucks representative cited issues with facilities and staffing, Insider previously reported. Sara Trilling, president of Starbucks North America, said Starbucks later closed the remaining Ithaca stores in an ongoing effort to “transform our store portfolio.”

Evan Sunshine, a Cornell student who worked at two different Ithaca Starbucks locations until each one closed, said Cornell’s decision is a step in the right direction.

“I’m very happy about this decision,” Sunshine told Insider. “I’m glad Cornell is standing with its students who worked at Starbucks, as well as the Ithaca community members who worked there.”