Cornell to Stop Serving Starbucks Coffee After Company Shut Down Unionized Cafes
- University to seek new supplier when contract expires in 2025
- Student body had pressured school with a resolution, sit-in
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Cornell University has decided not to renew a contract to serve Starbucks coffee, a win for labor organizers’ efforts to make the company pay a price for shutting down unionized stores.
In May, Starbucks Corp. announced it would close its last two unionized corporate-run cafés in Cornell’s hometown of Ithaca, New York. It had previously shuttered the other location that organized. In response, Cornell’s student government passed a resolution, and activists staged a sit-in demanding that the university cease serving Starbucks coffee at its own cafés in response to the alleged union-busting.