1/31/24
Lee Roberts
Chancellor
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
200 E Cameron St
Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Dear Mr. Roberts:
As students, staff and faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, we are deeply concerned with our campus’s relationship with Starbucks Corporation, which has engaged in a scorched-earth union-busting campaign against its workers in the past two years.

We’re asking you, as the ultimate decision-maker of all things at UNC-Chapel Hill, to cut ties with Starbucks by ending our University’s purchasing of Starbucks Corporation products. The purchasing power of institutions of higher education is significant, and we believe that our school should support Starbucks workers by redirecting that purchasing power to alternative suppliers until Starbucks pledges neutrality, complies with federal labor law, and bargains in good faith with unionized stores. Choosing to support an emerging local supplier with a strong labor track record would also demonstrate UNC-Chapel Hill’s commitment to sustainable and ethical relationships.

This would also be an incredible show of solidarity with Starbucks Workers United and the workers fighting for the right to form a union at Starbucks. Starbucks workers have won over 390 union elections across 41 states since December of 2021, including here in North Carolina.

While UNC-Chapel Hill claims to be a hub for community-building and to be driven by a mission to serve the greater good, the university’s contracts with companies like Starbucks frequently do not reflect this sentiment. To stay true to that mission, we need to send a clear message to Starbucks that the anti-worker actions that have taken place recently are unacceptable.

Our campus is powered by workers. In the face of state-level attacks against organized labor, we believe fiercely in a worker’s fundamental right to form a union in order to have a voice in their workplace, and we believe that companies found to have violated workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain should face consequences.

It’s time for UNC-Chapel Hill to say once and for all that we stand by our mission as an institution of higher education, that we believe in workers’ rights, so we commit to cutting our campus ties with Starbucks, as they are a union-busting corporation that has repeatedly violated labor law.

We demand that the university administration end its contract with Starbucks by March 18th.

Will you stand with us, or will you continue supporting a company that has been accused of violating federal labor laws hundreds of times?