Students rallied at the University of Texas at Austin on Thursday and asked campus leaders to stop selling Starbucks coffee until the company reaches a contract with its unionized baristas.
The action was scheduled for 2 to 3 p.m., and the Texas AFL-CIO said students would gather with president Leonard Aguilar, local baristas, allies and faculty. Organizers want universities to halt Starbucks sales until the company ends what they call its historic union-busting campaign and finalizes a fair contract. A barista at the Austin event told The Guardian, "We're really trying to push and get support from college campus students… in joining the boycott."
The Sign Came Down. The Coffee Stayed.
UT already took the licensed stores off the map once. In February 2021, The Daily Texan reported that Longhorn Coffee Co. had opened, and Union Coffee House was planned, to replace licensed Starbucks locations. The replacements were still set to sell some nonseasonal Starbucks drinks. A University Unions director said the food-option changes followed a survey of what students wanted on campus.
Five years later, the university's own shop page has not gotten shy about the brand. Longhorn Coffee Co., in the William C. Powers, Jr. Student Activity Center, says it is "proudly serving Starbucks coffee." Thursday's ask is not a new logo. It is a pause on those sales.
A Boycott That Already Moved Money
Campus spending has moved before. In an April 22, 2024 report, The Daily Texan found that by February, sales had fallen at every campus shop selling Starbucks coffee. At three UT-owned Starbucks-affiliated locations, sales dropped by about $20,000 each from September to February.
The counterexample sat in the same university coffee row. February sales at Up and Atom's, described then as the only non-Starbucks-affiliated UT-owned coffee shop, ran almost $25,000 higher than in September. That is an old receipt, not a forecast for this week's rally. It does show students can reroute a latte without leaving campus.
Austin, Again, on a National Day
Organizers cast Thursday as part of a student-led day of action at more than 40 campuses. The Guardian reported that baristas, students, elected officials and allies planned rallies at over 40 U.S. colleges in support of the Starbucks Workers United boycott, and that more than 700 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize, representing more than 12,000 baristas.
The Texas AFL-CIO dates the pressure further back: in November 2025, Starbucks Workers United baristas launched a nationwide unfair-labor-practice strike that the labor group says became the longest work stoppage in Starbucks history. Those are advocacy descriptions of the dispute, not a court finding.
UT has already been used as a backdrop. The Texas AFL-CIO described a separate Wednesday protest outside the McCombs School of Business, with union baristas and allies outside while Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol was scheduled to speak at the school's VIP speaker summit. The company got the lectern. The contract demand got the sidewalk.
A Cut Is Not Always a Clean Break
Elsewhere, some campuses have already moved, with asterisks. The Guardian reported that Cornell and Pomona College did not renew their Starbucks contracts, and that UCLA stopped offering Starbucks products in its cafes. The Cornell Daily Sun reported that Cornell committed in 2023 to end the partnership effective June 2025, after student concerns about the company's treatment of labor unions in Ithaca.
Bottles had other ideas. After Cornell brought in La Colombe, prepackaged Starbucks items were still sold in campus cafes and vending machines through a PepsiCo contract. This month Cornell's Student Assembly passed Resolution 33, 23-0-2, calling for every remaining Starbucks product to come off campus. A nonrenewal, it turns out, can leave a Frappuccino in the machine.
At Northwestern, Evanston Now reported that about two dozen people rallied and marched Thursday, then handed an associate vice president a letter asking the university to cut ties until a contract is reached. He told them the university would agree to meet with students. A meeting is not a menu change.
At UT, the documented next step is still the one organizers named: stop campus Starbucks sales until workers have a contract. Longhorn Coffee's page, as of the university's own listing, is still proudly pouring the coffee those students want pulled.
