Improved benefits, wages and working conditions for employees were among the key demands of NYU students and faculty who have protested outside the Starbucks location on Astor Place. However, this location will no longer serve as a rallying spot, having closed its doors this July after nearly 30 years in business.
“As a standard course of business, we continually evaluate our store portfolio, using various criteria to ensure we are meeting the needs of our customers,” Jay Go Gausch, a Starbucks spokesperson, said in a statement to WSN. “We do not take the decision to close stores lightly. Our relationship with our customers is deeply personal, and we are honored to have been their Third Place.”
The Starbucks on Astor Place was one of the only unionized locations near NYU’s campus, having joined a surging national movement to unionize in 2022 and remaining an inveterate site of advocacy since. On-campus student groups, including NYU’s chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America and faculty unions, have also called on the university to end its contract with the Starbucks on West Fourth Street, citing the company’s alleged union violations and requesting that it be replaced with a local business.
All 17 union workers formerly employed at the Astor Place location had been in contact with Starbucks Workers United, the labor union representing around 9,000 Starbucks employees, to discuss transfer options. A SWU spokesperson told WSN that all employees who wanted to transfer to other locations were able to do so.
“The Astor Place Starbucks was a critical location,” sophomore and YDSA member Kiera Glazer said. “Now that that has been closed and members have been moved elsewhere, that does pose a potential challenge should there ever be a need to show up to pickets and strikes.”
While the company did not reveal the reason for the location’s closure, EV Grieve — an East Village news outlet — reported that a manager at the store said the landlords had raised the rent “astronomically high.” The landlord, ASG Equities, denied the claim, saying they had offered a lease extension at the same price and were “sad” the location closed. ASG Equities did not respond to a request for comment. Last November, dozens of students and faculty participated in a nationwide walkout outside of the Astor Place Starbucks, advocating for better working conditions, improved benefits and higher wages for Starbucks employees. The daylong strike took place on Red Cup Day, a promotional event with increased popularity that union members said leaves them to manage intensified workloads with insufficient staffing.
Contact Mariapaula Gonzalez at [email protected].
