Starbucks Illegally Shut Down Unionized NY Store, Judge Rules
- Company has closed all three unionized cafes in Ithaca
- Coffee chain says it will appeal NLRB judge’s ruling
Starbucks Corp. violated federal labor law when it shut down a unionized store in Ithaca, New York, a US labor board judge ruled Thursday.
US National Labor Relations Board judge Arthur Amchan wrote in his ruling that the shutdown of a store near Cornell University’s campus “was done in large part to discourage unionization efforts in Ithaca and elsewhere.” He said Starbucks failed to prove that it would close the store “absent its animus towards the pro-union employees who worked there.”