Trader Joe’s workers set to vote on forming a union

Workers at a Trader Joe’s in Hadley, Mass., are scheduled to vote this week on whether to form the grocery chain’s first national union.

The vote comes as a wave of organizing sweeps the retail sector, with thousands of workers at Starbucks, Amazon, Apple and other big employers voting to form unions.

Union elections are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday at the Trader Joe’s store in western Massachusetts’ bucolic Pioneer Valley, with 88 store employees eligible to vote. A union victory could set a precedent for the chain’s more than 500 U.S. locations

“We are thrilled to have an appointment and are excited about the final vote count,” Trader Joe’s United, a labor group leading the effort, said on Twitter.

Employees were spurred to organize after the company reduced its contribution to workers’ retirement accounts, an organizer previously he said CBS MoneyWatch. The company has long contributed around 15% of workers’ wages, but recently dropped the contribution to 10% at the company’s discretion, according to Maeg Yosef, one of the organizers of the union campaign .

Trader Joe’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A second union election is set for Trader Joe’s in Minneapolis on August 11-12.

Ahead of Hadley’s vote this week, HuffPost reported that Trader Joe’s has been traveling to top executives to hold mandatory meetings with workers and urge them to vote against the union. Organizers also said management has been sending workers home if they wear pro-union pins to work.

“Captive audience” meetings call for scrutiny

Employers often hold so-called captive audience meetings during an organizing drive to pressure workers not to unionize. These meetings, which are mandatory and take place during working hours, can include threats about what might happen if workers unionize or commit to improving working conditions.

While the National Labor Relations Board has long tolerated such meetings, that could soon change. NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said in April that such meetings are inherently illegal because of their coercive nature.

“Forcing employees to attend captive audience meetings under threat of discipline discourages employees from exercising their right to refrain from hearing such speech,” Abruzzo said in an agency memo.

Trader Joe’s recently announced this empowering workers’ pay on Sundays and holidays, increasing paid time off and sweetening the employee discount, as well as promising more improvements to come, according to a letter obtained by labor publication More Perfect Union.

Trader Joe’s United called the move a “classic anti-union effort,” noting that without a contract, the company can take out profits as quickly as it adds them.

“In the past, Trader Joe’s has reduced retirement and health care benefits, and withdrawn the additional COVID payment, claiming they couldn’t afford it. And for years, they have refused increases that would reflect the cost of life of all employees”. said the group Twitter.

“Changes like these can be removed as easily as they are made, and we are excited to win our union election so that together the crew can protect our compensation and benefits with a union contract,” the group said.