Trader Joe’s broke labor laws in effort to stop stores unionizing, workers say

Workers at Trader Joe's successfully won union elections this year at stores in Hadley, Massachusetts, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, but workers now have numerous filed unfair labor practice charges against the specialty US supermarket chain, alleging the company has violated labor laws in trying to prevent further stores from unionizing.

The move comes as a wave of unionizing efforts sweeps through sections of the US economy, including at household names like Starbucks and Amazon. The situation at Trader Joe's is especially notable as the firm has cultivated a liberal brand ethos and anti-union moves are likely to dent that public image.

In Boulder, Colorado, workers at a Trader Joe's had filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election in July to join United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7.

The same month, Trader Joe's announced company-wide increases to compensation and benefits, including an increase to discounts for employees from 10 to 20%, a $10 an hour premium pay for Sundays, an increase to paid time off and market rate pay adjustments over complaints about pay disparities between longer term employees and new hires.

"We believe that was in response to union activity not only in this store, but the other stores around the country," said Jim Hammons, organizing director at UFCW Local 7. "That in itself is illegal, they can't do that."

The union pulled the election petition recently and filed unfair labor practice charges over the announcement of new pay and benefits during their unionization campaign and have alleged several other instances of retaliation. They include the use of company property used by some workers at the store to create anti-union buttons and retaliating against a union supporting worker by removing them from their regular Sunday shift and replacing them with an anti-union worker.

Trader Joe's also retained Littler Mendelson, a union avoidance law firm that Starbucks has also retained as dozens of stores around the US have unionized over the past year.

Aspen McKinzie, a Trader Joe's worker at the Boulder store, explained the union organizing campaign started earlier this year over complaints from workers about pay increases and benefits that were enacted at the company during the pandemic being taken away without any input from workers.

"It's very much a shallow attempt to discourage people from unionizing by trying to make them feel like their employer is actually taking care of them. But none of this is secured and they can take it away whenever they want," said McKinzie. "If they really care that much about us, they'd be paying us a lot more rather than paying a bunch of union busting lawyers to feed lines to our management."

In the beginning of the Covid pandemic, Trader Joe's chief executive Dan Bane issued a company-wide memo calling union organizing efforts a "distraction" amid calls for hazard pay and safety protections.

That memo was cited by workers who launched the first union campaign at Trader Joe's in Massachusetts earlier this year, claiming that retirement benefits for workers were unilaterally cut in half by the company and pay bumps provided during the pandemic were rescinded despite high inflation concerns.

Keenan Dailey, who has worked at Trader Joe's for 14 years in Boulder, also cited those cuts as inspiring the union organizing campaign, as workers were disgruntled over those sudden cuts.

"They were worried that without that extra money they weren't sure how they were going to pay their bills. Some of them had re-signed up on leases with their apartment, expecting to have that extra $2 an hour," said Dailey. "And then to add insult to injury, we found out that the new hires were making $2 more per hour."

He noted that the pay and benefits announcement in July severely disrupted the union campaign, but emphasized that those benefits can be taken away at the whim of the employer without a contract.

"When you're union busting, you can do it through the carrot or the stick, so to speak, and Trader Joe's was trying to use the carrot," said Dailey. "We need a contract to keep this. And we might be able to get more stuff too, but if we don't have a contract, we're probably losing this in the next year or two, at least some of it."

In New York City, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) have filed charges alleging that Trader Joe's abruptly closed a wine shop in New York City just days before workers had planned to file for a union election. UFCW has launched a petition to demand Trader Joe's reopen the store and signaled intent to pursue legal action.

Trader Joe's denied the store closure was linked to the unionization efforts, and said the store was closed due to underperformance. But employees were given no prior notice to the store closure and the location had several years left on its lease.

Trader Joe's did not reply to multiple requests for comment on this story in response to the allegations made by workers in Boulder. In previous comments on unionization efforts, a spokesperson for Trader Joe's said: "Trader Joe's respects our crew's right to support a union - or not."