US labor watchdog pressures Trader Joe’s to bargain with New York union

Mobilizing workers at a Trader Joe’s store on New York’s Lower East Side marginally lost a union election last year. They may ultimately get their union after all.

The general counsel of the US’s top labor watchdog is seeking an order demanding that Trader Joe’s recognize and bargain with the union, Trader Joe’s United, amid allegations that employees were threatened and disparaged from unionizing.

Under a framework introduced by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last year, employers can be ordered to bargain with a union if they commit unfair labor practices that would set aside the results of a union ballot.

The new framework, designed to ensure a “timely and fair” process of seeking union representation, was drawn up as the NLRB found the construction materials firm Cemex had engaged in more than 20 instances of objectionable or unlawful misconduct during a campaign.

If an employer commits an unfair labor practice during a union election which requires throwing out the result, under the Cemex framework – rather than re-run the election – the NLRB can order the employer to recognize and bargain with the union.

Trader Joe’s is one of the largest grocery chains in the US, with hundreds of stores and tens of thousands of employees nationwide. Facing a slew of allegations around its handling of unionizing efforts, the retailer has claimed the NLRB is unconstitutional, filing legal papers challenging the federal agency alongside firms including Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Amazon and Starbucks.

Workers who tried to unionize at its store on the Lower East Side of New York lost the election in a 76-76 tied vote in April 2023. But Trader Joe’s United became the first union to file a request for a bargaining order under the new Cemex framework.

Last week, the NLRB’s general counsel issued a complaint consolidating charges filed by workers against Trader Joe’s, and is seeking a bargaining order.

“As part of the remedy for the unfair labor practices alleged above, the General Counsel seeks an order requiring respondent to recognize and bargain with the union,” reads the complaint, issued on 17 September.

Trader Joe’s “has really thrown a lot into fighting our union”, Bridget Arend, an organizer who has worked for five years at the Essex store in New York. “They wouldn’t do that if we didn’t have quite a lot to gain from it.”

Workers pushed to unionize in response to issues they experienced through the Covid-19 pandemic, safety problems and having benefits scaled back over the years, according to Arend, who claimed broad support during early efforts to organize. “To see how the corporation so harshly stamped that out was really heartbreaking,” she said.

Trader Joe’s workers at the store “know kind of the extent of the illegal union busting that’s happened”, Arend claimed. “We’ve experienced it firsthand. But to see it actually being dealt with is really exciting.”

Trader Joe’s declined to comment on the consolidated complaint, or the request for a Cemex bargaining order. The company has until 1 October to respond. An administrative law judge hearing is scheduled to rule on the complaint in January.

Sarah Beth Ryther, vice-president of Trader Joe’s United and a worker at a unionized store in Minneapolis, said: “This is a company that has proven time and again that they are unafraid of using really coercive tactics in order to stop workers from exercising their rights.

“We’ve built over the past two years a really strong network of organizers at organized and unorganized stores and that advocacy is slow, but we’re trying through bargaining trying to put as much pressure on the company as possible.”