Ithaca, New York - Starbucks has been ordered to reopen two locations it closed in Ithaca, New York, after workers formed a union.

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge Geoffrey Carter ruled on Friday that Starbucks had unlawfully closed the Ithaca Commons and Meadow Street cafes in May 2023.

Carter ordered the company to reopen the locations "within a reasonable period of time."

The judge determined Starbucks closed the stores and failed to engage in collective bargaining with employees for "antiunion reasons and with the intent to chill unionism at other store locations."

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"I find that it was reasonably foreseeable that Respondent’s decisions to close the Commons and Meadow stores would have a chilling effect on unionism at Respondent’s other locations in Buffalo (and indeed, nationwide)," Carter wrote in his decision.

The judge said Starbucks would have an opportunity to present evidence of why reopening the stores might be "unduly burdensome" – but only if that material was not available at the time the unfair labor practice trial, which concluded on April 25.

The NLRB in July 2023 ordered Starbucks to reopen Ithaca's College Avenue location and reinstate fired workers with backpay, although the store remains closed.

All three stores voted to unionize in April 2022. That made Ithaca the first city in the country to have successfully organized all of its Starbucks cafes.

"Starbucks closed all three Ithaca store locations for the same reason – we struck," Ithaca organizer Evan Sunshine wrote on X. "Each store was profitable and could continue to operate after the strikes. Starbucks chose to break the law instead for the purpose of crushing one of the most militant union campaigns in history."

"What now? Well, Starbucks can comply and reopen the stores, it can settle with us on mutual terms, or it can appeal the NLRB case. We hope that Starbucks will make the right choice for our community."