A New York Starbucks abruptly closed – was it retaliation for a union drive?

theguardian.com:

Several weeks after Starbucks workers in Ithaca, New York voted to unionize, the company announced with just a week’s notice that their store on College Avenue, one of three in Ithaca, would be shut down. Starbucks claimed the decision to close was unrelated to unionization and was due to a problem with the grease trap system. Workers felt the store closure was retaliatory to the union.

The dispute is just one of many that newly unionized workers can expect in the coming months. Starbucks workers have driven an unprecedented wave of union organizing victories, in the face of fierce opposition from the company. Now comes the hard part – agreeing a contract and moving forward with a company determined to stamp out its nascent union movement.

Evan Sunshine, a barista at the Starbucks in Ithaca that closed, sees the closure as a continuation of union opposition he experienced leading up to the workers’ election win.

“It was retaliation because we had the strongest union sentiments at our store,” said Sunshine. “It’s prime property – there’s just no reason for them to close. The rest of the reasons are all really miniscule – it didn’t make any sense.”

Unionization efforts at the store began in October, but gradually grew. After the Christmas holiday break, Sunshine and his co-workers gathered union authorization cards at all three stores in Ithaca and filed for union elections.

Starbucks management and corporate executives flooded the stores. Sunshine said workers were frequently subjected to one-on-one listening sessions with managers, faced constant surveillance, and experienced intimidation. Pro-union fliers were removed from anywhere in the store, workers were denied time off requests during school breaks. He said store