Trader Joe’s Workers Are Unionizing — and the Company Is Union Busting
Two Trader Joe’s stores have now unionized, raising the question of whether the chain could be the next Starbucks. But the company may at least be following in Starbucks’s footsteps in one way — by engaging in illegal union busting.
The Trader Joe’s in Hadley, Massachusetts, the first of the major grocer chain’s stores in the United States to unionize. (Christian Smalls / Twitter)
Trader Joe’s workers in Minneapolis won their union in a landslide vote August 12, making theirs the second store to go with the new, independent Trader Joe’s United. The win raises the question of whether the grocer, with its 530 locations and progressive image, could be the next Starbucks.
It seems that Trader Joe’s management is considering becoming the next Starbucks in a different sense: closing stores and harassing workers out of union drives. A store in Boulder, Colorado, had a vote lined up for this week, but workers seeking affiliation with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 7 there withdrew their petition the day after filing charges against the company for coercion and intimidation.
The Trader Joe’s drives reflect an emerging theme of recent new organizing: independent versus affiliated unionism. UFCW, which represents 800,000 grocery workers, has watched as workers in its jurisdiction begin to form or join other unions.
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