Workers protest Starbucks' plan to close a unionized store

As tensions rise between Starbucks and baristas who want to unionize, the imminent closure of a store in Ithaca, New York, is taking on outsized significance.

Starbucks told workers last Friday it plans to permanently close their store — one of three in Ithaca — on June 10. Starbucks cited facilities issues and staffing problems that have plagued the store. But Workers United, the union that represents Starbucks workers nationwide, says the coffee giant is retaliating against the store for its labor activism.

Workers at the Ithaca store on College Avenue near Cornell University voted 19-1 to unionize on April 8. It's one of a growing number of Starbucks stores voting to unionize across the country. At least 280 Starbucks stores have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board to hold union votes since late last year, and at least 122 stores have voted to unionize.

On April 16, workers at the College Avenue store went on strike, saying an overflowing grease trap was causing unsafe working conditions. Employees say Starbucks cited the grease trap among the reasons for the store’s closure.

Starbucks, which operates 9,000 stores across the U.S., said it opens and closes stores regularly. The company said it will bargain with the store’s employees — as labor law requires — to determine what will happen to them and said it has immediate job openings in the Ithaca area.

“With deep care and urgency we continuously work to create the kind of store environment that partners and customers expect of Starbucks,” company said in a statement.

But this week, Workers United filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB, alleging that Starbucks closed the store to retaliate against the union and send a message to other stores seeking to unionize.

On Wednesday, several dozen...