CALL TO ACTION!

Thanks, again, for your support of the Cornell AAUP Chapter “Statement in Support of Student Protests against Starbucks on Cornell Campus.”

The Cornell student advocates are seeking broad faculty support for their campaign against Starbucks’ presence on the Cornell campus due to Starbucks’ unlawful and unethical actions to close all the Ithaca unionized Starbucks stores.

The below was a statement of faculty support for the students

We, the undersigned faculty members of Cornell University, stand in solidarity with Ithaca workers in the Starbucks union, who have been targeted by the company for exercising their rights to organize and bargain collectively. Just over a year ago, workers won union elections at all three Ithaca Starbucks locations, making Ithaca the first and only city in the US where all Starbucks workers are union members. Since then, Starbucks has been prosecuted by the federal government for repeated and flagrant anti-union activity, including the firing of multiple union leaders and the infamous closure of the Collegetown cafe (for which the National Labor Relations Board prosecutor is seeking an enforceable order to reopen the store). On May 26th, Starbucks further escalated their union-busting campaign by permanently closing all three Ithaca stores. Due to Starbucks’ retaliatory anti-union actions in Ithaca, including the store closings, many employees – including 20 Cornell students – have lost their jobs over the past year.

We support Cornell student advocates who are calling on university administration to end Cornell’s “proudly serving” contract with Starbucks, which is highly lucrative for the company and signals Cornell’s complicity in Starbucks’ labor violations. Faculty and student support for the student advocates is building, including the Cornell AAUP Chapter “Statement in Support of Student Protests against Starbucks on Cornell Campus” and the Cornell Student Assembly resolution, “Starbucks Off Our Campus.”

Especially given the presence of the ILR School on campus, Cornell has a moral duty to honor the basic rights of working people in Ithaca and beyond. Cornell also has a history of responding to student demands to end relations with firms involved in anti-union activity, such as its refusal to work with Russell Athletic in 2009 and the ending of its licensing relationship with Nike in 2017. In response to student organizing, President Pollack on that occasion informed Nike that its relationship was ending until the company adopted a labor code of conduct vetted by the university and other institutions. It is time for Cornell to do so again.

We call on Cornell and Cornell Dining to immediately terminate all relations with Starbucks, most notably by withdrawing from the Proudly Serving Starbucks Program and removing Starbucks products from Cornell Dining establishments. Cornell should work with the student advocates to select a new coffee vendor that uses ethical labor practices. The university should make clear to Starbucks and the wider public that it will not accept union busting or retaliation against workers exercising their rights.