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A pro-union poster is seen on a lamp pole outside Starbucks’ Broadway and Denny location in Seattle’s Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood on March 22, 2022.
Toby Scott | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
The workers union at Starbucks is claiming the coffee chain is shutting down a recently unionized cafe in retaliation for its activist efforts.
It’s the latest escalation between a rapidly growing national labor movement and the coffee giant.
Workers United, the union that’s backing organizing efforts at Starbucks, said in a Friday filing with the National Labor Relations Board that Starbucks is violating federal labor law by permanently closing an Ithaca, New York, store. The group alleged it was in retaliation since employees at the location voted to unionize in April.
The Ithica store employees say they originally went on strike for unsafe working conditions on Apr. 16. Workers walked out due to a waste emergency caused by the overflowing grease trap, according to the union’s statement. In an email to the union’s bargaining committee, Starbucks cited the grease trap as the reason for the store closure.
The union committee alleges that Starbucks closed the store in retaliation for activity protected by federal labor law and to stop workers elsewhere from organizing. “It is a clear attempt to scare workers across the country by retaliating against its own employees,” the committee said in a statement.
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