In mid-November, the Princeton Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter (YDSA) welcomed Sara Mughal, a shift supervisor and union leader at the Hopewell, New Jersey Starbucks location, which became the first Starbucks in NJ to unionize with Starbucks Workers United.
Mughal first heard about the growing movement of Starbucks unionization efforts when a Buffalo, New York store made national headlines, as it became the first location to unionize, inciting a cascade of almost a hundred stores unionizing after it. Continuing to experience several problems in her Starbucks location such as labor shortages, delayed benefits, and hour cuts, Mughal began to speak to her fellow co-workers about their workplace concerns. After completing a rare slow, stress-free shift, Mughal approached a co-worker outside while they were taking out trash in order to avoid being on camera or overheard by management. She asked if they would be interested in organizing the other employees to discuss and address workplace issues, so they did not have to continue working in such a high stress environment. Initially, she avoided using the word “union”, as she knew it was a “dirty word” that could deter some co-workers from advocating for better conditions. Much to Mughal’s delightful surprise, her co-workers were overwhelmingly supportive of mobilizing towards a healthier and fairer workplace environment, allowing them to begin strategizing.
For Starbucks die-hards, the holiday season is an exciting time, as the company rolls out limited edition holiday themed cups. For Starbucks management and executives, the holiday season is an opportune time to maximize profits, inevitably at the expense of their workforce. For Starbucks baristas, the weight of meeting the increased demands of customers and managers is an often-stressful expectation, especially when shifts are under scheduled to save money, yet managers boast about the holiday sales, essentially bragging about the exhaustion of their associates.
In January, Mughal worked to obtain the signature of as many co-workers as possible to file for an election with the National Labor Relations Board. Unsurprisingly, the Hopewell Starbucks employees were met with desperate attempts to union bust from their managers and corporate staff. One tactic in particular was management closing the store location in order to hold “listening sessions”. While Starbucks has invested millions of dollars in training managers in union-busting, Mughal and her fellow co-workers were prepared to combat and dispel whatever negative sentiment management attempted to disseminate. Within these “listening sessions”, it immediately became clear that the managers were reciting a script and were repeating common misconceptions about unions as a means to cast doubt onto the workers. However, the Hopewell Starbucks baristas were not swayed and redirected the interrogation onto the managers themselves, leaving the workers more united and confident in the end. After the tremendous failure of these “listening sessions”, which would promptly close the store despite the location never closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, management attempted to create disarray by scheduling one-on-one meetings with each employee. This time, instead of attempting to confuse the workers on the value of unionizing, they resorted to using threats such as suggesting the workers’ benefits would be taken away or that managers would not be able to help them fulfill customer orders, which they rarely assist in doing regardless.
Grasping at thin air, the corporation challenged the union efforts in court, arguing that the union election should take place across stores in the district rather than within one store location. However, the case was thrown out and shortly after, the Hopewell Starbucks employees voted unanimously to form a union. Despite the backing of a multi-million dollar corporation, the Hopewell staff’s successful unionization sets a hopeful precedent that worker solidarity triumphs over empty attempts to deter mobilization.
During the Q&A portion of the talk, one student sought Mughal’s input on how students may organize their own workplace. In response, Mughal suggested discussing workplace issues with other fellow workers as a meaningful start, as Mughal had done at the beginning stages of the Hopewell Starbucks’ unionization efforts. Additionally, she encouraged students to support the unionization efforts of local workers. Only a day prior to Mughal’s talk, students of the Princeton leftist community joined a strike at the Hopewell Starbucks location, one of nearly a hundred locations around the country that shut down operations on Red Cup Day, Starbucks’ most profitable day of the year where customers receive a reusable holiday cup. As students and consumers, standing in protest with workers aids in highlighting the unjust conditions of Starbucks locations around the country, showing that the exploitation of these hard-working employees shall no longer be tolerated.
The Prog gives special thanks to Sara Mughal for visiting campus to tell her courageous story of advocacy for her fellow workers. Additionally, thank you to Princeton YDSA for organizing and hosting such an insightful event. We look forward to reporting on YDSA events in the near future.
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