Trader Joe’s in Louisville, Kentucky, has become the third grocery chain to vote to unionize.
Workers at the store voted 48-36 in favor of unionizing Thursday night, according to the National Labor Relations Board, which conducted the elections.
The Louisville store workers will now join those from two other Trader Joe’s union stores at the negotiating table, as they try to strike a new labor agreement. In July, Trader Joe’s in Hadley, Massachusetts, forward in the country to form unions; a Store in Minneapolis union in August.
The union effort at Trader Joe’s comes amid a larger wave of organizing led by younger workers. In 2020, the age of Chris Smalls is 31 years old Exit organized To protest the lack of face masks and other COVID-19 equipment at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island. Help Jazz Brysac, a barista who started working at Starbuck in 2020 at the age of 22, lead a shop syndicate in downtown Buffalo, New York – The first Starbucks to form a consortium.
Employees have consolidated hundreds of Starbucks stores over the past year, as well as Apple Stores and an Amazon warehouse.
In the years since the pandemic, workers have increasingly flexed their muscles to demand better wages and treatment. Last year saw the largest number of strikes in 15 years, with the number of unionized workers swelling by 273,000.
Not all workers are on board
But Trader Joe’s United did not convince the workers in every store it campaigned. Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn, New York, voted against unionization in October. The United Commercial and Food Workers Union, which is also trying to unionize Trader Joe’s stores, withdrew a petition to unionize from Boulder, Colorado, store After failing to garner sufficient support.
Conor Hovey, a Louisville employee and union organizer, said the vote is “a step in the right direction not only for our store, but for the company as a whole.” Workers seek higher wages, improved benefits, and safer working conditions, among other things.
Trader Joe’s on Friday did not respond to a message seeking comment on the vote. The company has said in the past that it does indeed offer higher starting salaries and better benefits than other grocery stores.
Trader Joe’s, based in Monrovia, California, is privately owned by the families who also own Aldi Nord, a German grocer. Trader Joe’s operates approximately 530 stores in the United States
