[Trader Joe’s managers have been encouraging workers to vote
against forming a union in a potentially landmark election scheduled
at the chain’s Hadley, Massachusetts, store later this week. ]
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TRADER JOE’S URGES WORKERS TO VOTE AGAINST UNION AHEAD OF ELECTION
 
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Joe Jamieson
July 25, 2022
HUFFPOST
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_ Trader Joe’s managers have been encouraging workers to vote
against forming a union in a potentially landmark election scheduled
at the chain’s Hadley, Massachusetts, store later this week. _

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Trader Joe’s
[[link removed]] managers have
been encouraging workers to vote against forming a union
[[link removed]] in a potentially
landmark election scheduled at the chain’s Hadley, Massachusetts,
store later this week.

Employees have been pulled off the floor for group meetings in which
supervisors asked them to reject the new independent union Trader
Joe’s United [[link removed]], according to
three workers who took part in them. The talks included the store’s
top manager, known as the “captain” in company lingo, as well as a
pair of regional managers for the company, workers said.

Maeg Yosef, a spokesperson for Trader Joe’s United, said it was the
first time supervisors roped her into what’s commonly called a
“captive audience
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meeting ahead of a union vote. Speaking on the store’s loading dock,
managers focused their discussion on how the union campaign had been
hard on supervisors in the store, she said.

“It was like Littler Mendelson
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to make a Lifetime movie,” said Yosef, referring to the
union-avoidance law firm. “They were really trying to play to crew
members’ feelings of sympathy and pull at our heartstrings. ... The
implication is, because it’s been challenging for management and a
union could be challenging, we should vote ‘no.’”

Two other workers told HuffPost their meetings included direct appeals
to vote against the union. One of them, Skyler Lloyd, told HuffPost
the meetings appeared to be happening throughout the day on Sunday,
three days before workers begin casting their ballots.

“It was like Littler Mendelson tried to make a Lifetime movie.”

- Maeg Yosef, a spokesperson for Trader Joe’s United, referring to
the union-avoidance law firm

The company does not appear to have spoken out publicly against the
union during the campaign, previously telling HuffPost that
it welcomed a vote
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the Hadley store. “We believe Trader Joe’s is a great place to
work and our compensation, benefits and working conditions are among
the best in the grocery business,” a spokesperson said last month.
“We are ready to hold a vote when they are.”

None of the store’s more than 500 U.S. locations currently has union
representation, so a union victory in Hadley would be
precedent-setting and could spur organizing efforts elsewhere. Workers
at another store in Minnesota
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already gone public with a campaign of their own under the Trader
Joe’s United banner.

Trader Joe’s United is not affiliated with an established union.
Organizers are hoping to replicate what the new Amazon Labor Union
pulled off at the online retailer’s JFK warehouse in Staten Island,
New York, winning an election
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an independent union with little in the way of staff or resources. A
handful of workers have been doing the organizing and relying on pro
bono work from supportive labor lawyers.

Workers in Hadley, which is north of Springfield, said they are trying
to unionize their store in large part because Trader Joe’s has
chipped away at its benefits over the years. Crew members learned
earlier this year that many of them would be receiving lesser
retirement benefits
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in the past, with workers with fewer than 10 years with the company
seeing their 401(k) contributions from the company slashed in half. 

Ahead of the union vote, Trader Joe’s informed employees the company
would be improving certain benefits, including offering a $10-per-hour
pay premium for working on Sundays. Yosef said she believed the
announcement was a reaction to the organizing inside stores and an
effort to cool union support“.The store manager (captain) made a
personal appeal to the fact that he is new to the store and does not
want to have a union present.

As HuffPost reported in June, managers were telling workers at the
Hadley store to remove union pins from their uniforms
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go home for the day. The union filed unfair labor practice charges
against the company over those instructions, and labor board officials
have not yet determined whether there is merit in the union’s
allegations. Yosef said the union plans to file more charges related
to the group meetings held this past weekend.

A union needs to obtain signed cards from only 30% of the likely
bargaining unit in order to get an election scheduled, but it must
secure a majority of votes in order to win the election. Workers in
Hadley will be casting their ballots at the store on Wednesday and
Thursday this week, with a vote count by the National Labor Relations
Board scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

The union effort at Trader Joe’s is part of a wave of organizing
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on at traditionally non-union retail companies
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including Starbucks, REI and Apple. All of those retailers have seen
some of their workers unionize for the first time since late last
year. Starbucks baristas have organized 200 stores in a matter of
months, eliciting an aggressive counter-campaign from the
Seattle-based coffee chain. 

Yosef said Trader Joe’s United is confident going into the vote this
week. The union held a rally near the Hadley store this weekend that
drew about 200 supporters, including a congressman, Rep. Jim McGovern
(D-Mass.), she said. And although they aren’t wearing union pins
while their charges are pending at the labor board, Yosef said union
supporters recently all wore red Trader Joe’s shirts to work on the
same day.

“We were able to collect enough red ones to make a statement,” she
said.

* Trader Joe’s
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* Trader Joe's United
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