TRADER JOE'S NOT UNITED - YADA, YADA, YADA

Trader Joe's likes to promote their offbeat grocery chain as an enlightened alternative to traditional grocery store market chains - serving the illusion that they care about people.

Yet, prosecutors at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) say "Trader Joe’s illegally interrogated workers and threatened to take away their pay raises when they were trying to form a union last year."

The alleged threats were revealed during the January 2023 election at the Louisville, Kentucky  store - when workers voted in favor of joining a new union, Trader Joe’s United. The company challenged the election results by claiming the union illegally influenced the vote.

According to the NLRB complaint filed this past week, prosecutors stated that it was Trader Joe’s that committed “unfair labor practices” meant to sway workers against unionizing.

The complaint states that an assistant store manager threatened workers with the loss of their raises as well as “a loss of flexibility with taking days off and scheduling work” if they voted for the union. It also alleges the company forced workers to “participate in one-on-one conversations” meant to hurt the union’s support.

The NLRB will hold a trial on the allegations if officials can’t reach a settlement with Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s has not issued a company response nor comment.

Connor Hovey, a worker whom Trader Joe’s accused of illegally pressuring co-workers to vote for the union, said he was happy to see the complaint issued. “Over the last year, Trader Joe’s has taken every opportunity to throw me under the bus and to make false claims in federal hearings that I violated federal labor law,” Hovey told HuffPost. “Today it’s vindicating to see that the company was just projecting their behavior onto me, and the government recognized that.”

This isn’t the first time labor board officials have accused Trader Joe’s of breaking the law in an effort to beat back the union organizing campaign. NLRB also alleged that Trader Joe’s illegally fired a union supporter at a Massachusetts store and withheld retirement benefits from workers who unionized.

Workers at a store in Hadley, Massachusetts, created Trader Joe’s United in 2022 and became the chain’s first to form a union that year. They were soon followed by workers at stores in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Oakland, California; and Louisville.

The company claimed union supporters at the Louisville store had intimidated other workers and interfered in a “free and fair election,” but a regional director for the labor board rejected all of Trader Joe’s arguments after a hearing. The company has appealed the case to the NLRB’s board in Washington for review.

Seth Goldstein, an attorney for the union, previously told HuffPost that Trader Joe’s was trying to overturn the will of voters  - “They like democracy until they lose,” Goldstein said. “When they win, they win. When they lose, they still want to think they win.”

Trader Joe's Not United - Yada, Yada, Yada