Dear John,

Trader Joe’s needs to stop beating up on the new union, formed by workers from the bottom up.

They need to start working together with their workers, and live up to the brand’s progressive image.

Instead, management has engaged in a wide range of illegal union-busting activities, including selective hiring and firing, captive audience meetings, spreading misinformation, and retaliatory scheduling.

If they’re just going to bust the union, like retail giants Amazon and Starbucks, then what really sets Trader Joe’s apart from any other top-down corporation?

In Hadley, Massachusetts, the first Trader Joe’s store to organize is facing a decertification effort, which if successful could destroy the union. Fellow employees are the public face of the drive for a vote to decertify the union, but here’s the deal: if the company itself instigated the decertification campaign, using employees that way would be illegal.

That’s why the union is demanding transparency. If Trader Joe’s has nothing to hide, they can simply open up their books to prove that they haven’t hired a union-busting consulting firm. Send a direct message to Trader Joe’s today and demand proof they didn’t initiate this decertification campaign now.

The week the decertification campaign was announced, the CEO of the far-right union-busting Kulture Consulting, Peter List, invited two anti-union Trader Joe’s employees on his podcast, where they discussed all the “help” they’ve been getting to organize the decertification campaign.

What sort of “help,” we wonder? From whom? Did Trader Joe’s management illegally foment this opposition?

This attempt to decertify the fledgling union is the single greatest threat as workers exercise their right to organize. In their efforts to negotiate for a fair contract, Trader Joe’s “crew members” and customers deserve to know the truth.

Customer loyalty depends on the things that make Trader Joe’s culture unique. But if Trader Joe’s keeps treating its crew members like just another corporate behemoth, denying workers the right to bargain for themselves as equals at the table, then what makes it anything more than another store not putting its workers first?

For Trader Joe’s to retain customer loyalty, they should make the effort to work together with Trader Joe’s United and implement win-win solutions -- not hire union-busting companies to quash workers' voices.

Encourage Trader Joe’s to live up to their progressive reputation and demonstrate they’re not paying consultants to impede the union. Send your message now.

Thank you for standing with the forward-looking workers at Trader Joe’s!

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action