Trader Joe's workers in Hadley, Massachusetts, voted 45-31 to unionize, making it the first group at the company to successfully form a union, according to the National Labor Relations Board, reports The Washington Post.
The effort was a part of successful union drives from larger companies like Starbucks, Amazon, Apple, and REI, according to the report. The NLRB said that union petitions are likely to hit a decade high.
Gradually worsening benefits, health and safety concerns elicited by the pandemic, and wages, are among the reasons cited by the Trader Joe's workers for wanting to unionize.
“There's been a really clear trend over the past 10 years of Trader Joe's chipping away at our benefits,” Maeg Yosef, a leader of the union drive who has worked at the Hadley store for 18 years said. “We all see that, and it's really obvious to us that the way to protect each other is through a union contract.”
A spokesperson said of the Trader Joe's union formation, “Trader Joe's offers its Crew Members a package of pay, benefits, and working conditions that is among the best in the grocery business. Despite this, employees in our Hadley, Mass., store recently voted to be represented by a union…We are prepared to immediately begin discussions with union representatives for the employees at this store to negotiate a contract.”
The grocer's decision to work with the union sets it apart from other retailers in the same situation, particularly Starbucks and Amazon, who have both refused to negotiate union contracts. Trader Joe's is willing to use a union contract as a model for other locations.
“I think workers at the store have realized they'll have better working conditions if they have a say in them. I honestly think a lot of that has to do with covid,” Jamie Edwards, a 33-year-old crew member who voted for the union, told The Washington Post. “They have [the] awareness that they can make the workplace better.” Full Story
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Image: Trader Joe's