Following the example of other workers in the U.S., workers at a Trader Joe’s store in western Massachusetts filed for a union election. The grocery store in Hadley (Mass.) would be the first unionized in the chain’s more than 500 stores if the vote is successful.
As the pandemic exacerbated service worker working conditions, there has been a surge in unionization across all industries over the past year. Maeg Yosef is a Hadley worker and union organizer who said that the unionizations at Starbucks were partly responsible for the push for a union at the Trader Joe’s.
She said that “our benefits and our pay were just a little less supportive than they used to be” We saw many changes in our retirement and health care. Our wages did not keep up with the rising cost of living. The pandemic added to our feeling of being undervalued, and unappreciated.
Yosef stated that unionization was motivated by concerns about safety and health, as well as changes in the health care system and retirement benefits.
Yosef says that retirement benefits for employees aEUR”, also called “crew members”, have declined dramatically in the 18 years Yosef has been with Trader Joe’s. Crew members received a 15% annual retirement contribution from the company when she first started. Yosef was employed at the store. However, the guarantee dropped to 10% last summer when the company amended the handbook language to say that employees no longer received a retirement contribution.
Crew members had to work longer hours per week in order to keep their health insurance. This was from 20 to 30 hours. Yosef is currently in recovery from COVID-19. He stated that pandemic restrictions were strong at the start of the pandemic, but were removed “as soon possible”, causing concern among workers about their safety and health.
Trader Joe’s didn’t immediately respond to our request for comment.
Yosef stated that the first attempt to form a union in the store was made during the pandemic. The union was not successful and she and other crew members discussed the possibility again at the beginning of the year.
A majority of workers supported a union in May and gave 72 hours for the company to recognize it. This didn’t happen and the workers filed for an election with National Labor Relations Board this week. The filing would not allow Trader Joe’s workers to join an existing union.
Union filings are part of a wave in unionization efforts that has been taking place across the country over the past year. This includes successes at large-name companies like Amazon and Starbucks. According to the NLRB, union election petitions increased 57% in the first half 2022 fiscal year compared with the previous year.
