Trader Joe's United
20,000 signatures reached
To: Trader Joe's CEO Bryan Palbaum:
Stand With Trader Joe's Workers!
Trader Joe's crew members deserve a union. Reinstate Steve Andrade—who was fired from the Hadley, MA store in retaliation for union activities—and stop union-busting campaigning.
Why is this important?
Trader Joe's is a company that carefully cultivates a progressive reputation. But over the past few years, we have seen the company culture shift from a workplace with incredible pay, benefits, and atmosphere, to a company with increasing turnover, declining benefits, and stagnating wages.
The pandemic put those changes into stark relief as “essential” workers everywhere were asked to risk their health in order to keep the economy going.
These two factors—the company’s internal changes and the pandemic—made it clear that we needed to have a say in our workplace, and that a union was the only answer to that need. A union could also bring Trader Joe’s back into alignment with its own core values, the values that had made it a great place to work and shop in the first place.
Even though we have won elections in four stores, Trader Joe’s continues to union bust and refuse to bargain in good faith.
Recently, Trader Joe’s fired Steve Andrade, one of the crew members in Hadley, MA for completely frivolous reasons.
In his termination paperwork, management claimed that a power tool belonged to Steve, and its presence in the store created a safety issue serious enough to warrant firing him. The catch? This tool didn’t even belong to Steve. In fact, the tool was at the store long before Steve started working in Hadley nine years ago.
Since we won our first union election, we’ve heard from hundreds of crew members across the country eager to unionize their stores, and we are helping many of them organize right now. But instead of allowing the free and fair elections they promised their workers, or bargaining in good faith, Trader Joe’s has hired a union-busting law firm and is fighting us every step of the way.
Trader Joe’s has fired union supporters, threatened and coerced workers, and continues to drag their feet at the bargaining table.
We can only win when we stand together in solidarity. Can you take a moment to sign our petition to demand that Trader Joe’s stop union-busting and reinstate workers fired for organizing?
The pandemic put those changes into stark relief as “essential” workers everywhere were asked to risk their health in order to keep the economy going.
These two factors—the company’s internal changes and the pandemic—made it clear that we needed to have a say in our workplace, and that a union was the only answer to that need. A union could also bring Trader Joe’s back into alignment with its own core values, the values that had made it a great place to work and shop in the first place.
Even though we have won elections in four stores, Trader Joe’s continues to union bust and refuse to bargain in good faith.
Recently, Trader Joe’s fired Steve Andrade, one of the crew members in Hadley, MA for completely frivolous reasons.
In his termination paperwork, management claimed that a power tool belonged to Steve, and its presence in the store created a safety issue serious enough to warrant firing him. The catch? This tool didn’t even belong to Steve. In fact, the tool was at the store long before Steve started working in Hadley nine years ago.
Since we won our first union election, we’ve heard from hundreds of crew members across the country eager to unionize their stores, and we are helping many of them organize right now. But instead of allowing the free and fair elections they promised their workers, or bargaining in good faith, Trader Joe’s has hired a union-busting law firm and is fighting us every step of the way.
Trader Joe’s has fired union supporters, threatened and coerced workers, and continues to drag their feet at the bargaining table.
We can only win when we stand together in solidarity. Can you take a moment to sign our petition to demand that Trader Joe’s stop union-busting and reinstate workers fired for organizing?