On Friday, Starbucks announced that they are permanently closing all three union stores in Ithaca. This is a truly unprecedented act of union-busting in retaliation for Ithaca being the first city where all Starbucks workers are unionized. Clearly, this can’t stand.

Our response is that if Starbucks wants out of Ithaca, Ithaca wants nothing to do with Starbucks. Cornell Dining serves Starbucks coffee in most of our on-campus cafés through the Proudly Serving Starbucks Program, which is a massive source of revenue for the company. We’re calling on University President Martha Pollack, and Cornell Dining Director Paul Muscente to immediately sever all ties with Starbucks and work with students to find a new, more ethical coffee vendor.