The popular Starbucks location at Ansley Mall in Atlanta, which made headlines in 2022 when workers voted to unionize, is set to close next month.
Workers at the store went on strike Friday. Workers United union organizer Amanda Rivera, who previously worked at the Ansley Mall store, said they were protesting “unilateral changes Starbucks has been making,” including the termination of a store manager who “respected our rights to have a union.”
As a result of the strike, the Ansley Mall Starbucks was closed Friday.
But the store is set to permanently close June 8. Starbucks said the reason for the closure is because its lease there will expire, not the store’s status as a unionized location.
“We deeply appreciate the opportunity we’ve had to build and share connections with the members of this community over the last several years,” Starbucks said in a written statement. “Effective June 8, 2025, at the end of our lease, our store at 1544 Piedmont Rd. NE will close permanently.”
Rivera said she believes the reason for the closure “is because our store has a strong worker union, and we have stood up to management.”
“They would not say that, because if they were to say something to that effect, it sounds like an unfair labor practice,” Rivera said. “If they were to say it in that way, it would be retaliation for this store having a union, and that is illegal, because workers do have the legal right to form and join a union, even in a red state like Georgia.”
She said the union is going into negotiations with the company on rights for workers to transfer to other nearby Starbucks locations. There are a number of Starbucks locations in the area, but only one nearby — on Howell Mill Road — is unionized, according to Rivera. A total of 12 Starbucks locations in Georgia are unionized, including 10 in metro Atlanta, while more than 570 nationwide are unionized.
With the news of the planned closure of the Ansley Mall store, Rivera said: “We are fighting to keep the store open, but we understand that that’s going to take more community support. ... It is very much a community store.”
Workers United, which has organized hundreds of Starbucks stores across the country, has been in contract negotiations with Starbucks.
Starbucks said on the contract talks that it is “focused on creating the best job in retail, with over $3 billion invested in the last three years.” The company said it pays more than $18 an hour, along with benefits.
It said it has held “more than nine bargaining sessions” in contract negotiations since April 2024.
Rivera said “there are a lot of good things that we have agreed upon,” but that contract negotiations “have kind of stalled.”
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