A prominent Trader Joe’s wine store in New York City abruptly closed only days before its 30 employees planned to hold a union ballot. According to CBS MoneyWatch, workers have been organizing for months and were prepared to go public with their campaign.
But on August 11, a few days prior to the planned announcement, the grocery store abruptly closed the shop, notifying affected employees until 12:01 a.m. that same day. When they arrived at work in the morning, some employees found that the store would be closing its doors forever.
“I learned because I awoke to a million missed calls and texts,” said Robert Bradlea, a four-year Trader Joe’s employee and one of the union drive’s leaders.
“That day was a bit of a blur — waking up, being punched in the gut, and drifting through the following hours, hearing how upset my coworkers were, and hearing surprise from people who were accustomed to shopping there,” Bradlea said, adding that more than two-thirds of the workers supported forming a union.
The shutting “makes no sense to me, unless they did not want to risk an effectively organized business receiving a union vote,” said Bradlea. They intend to use us as an example so that others will not follow suit.
Trader Joe’s disputes that the closure was due to the labor union. The company’s representative, Nakia Rohde, stated that the New York wine store was “underperforming” and that the company was seeking a new location.
“Trader Joe’s respects the right of our Crew to join a union — or not,” Rohde wrote in an email. “After 15 years of managing an unsuccessful wine shop and preparing for a busy holiday grocery season, we determined that the best course of action is to use the space formerly held by the wine shop to assist our Union Square supermarket operations. We are currently searching for a new location that will allow us to continue selling wine in New York, and we look forward to welcoming you to our new TJ’s wine shop as soon as possible.”
Unions gain traction
Nonetheless, the odd circumstances surrounding the store’s closing reflect the high-stakes struggle between a surge of retail employees attempting to unionize and ostensibly progressive bosses attempting to dissuade them. Two Trader Joe’s locations recently decided to unionize, and a third election is slated for next week at a store in Boulder, Colorado.
CEO Dan Bane said in a 2020 letter that union-organizing attempts were a “distraction” planned by labor leaders to foment discord among workers.
The United Food and Commercial Workers, which was assisting the workers in organizing, deemed the shutdown to be outrageous and overt union busting.
“They cannot continue to engage in these types of behaviors. This conduct is exceptional, “David Young, the UFCW’s head of organizing, stated as much. Nobody closes a thriving store in the middle of the night without giving their employees prior notice.
Observers have also questioned the timing of the closure, as universities are about to reopen and the holiday shopping season accounts for around half of a liquor store’s annual revenue. The owner of the Union Square store, New York University, told Gothamist that Trader Joe’s has several years remaining on its lease.
Customary procedure
Rebecca Kolins Givan, an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, stated that closing a store or other firm property is a typical method for companies to stifle union activity.
“This is a common union-busting tactic,” she stated. However, demonstrating that an employer is closing a facility because of union activity, a violation of federal law, is difficult in court, and even if the infringement is shown, it is not punished severely.
“Any modest penalties that [employers] may face are really the cost of doing business,” said Kolins Givan.
Other retail establishments where workers were attempting to unionize have recently shuttered.
Chipotle closed a restaurant in Augusta, Maine, one month after its employees announced their desire to unionize. Amy’s Kitchen quickly closed a plant in San Jose where workers had complained about unsafe conditions and where an organizing drive was strong. Two of the sixteen outlets that Starbucks closed last month had voted to unionize, while a third was preparing for a union election.
In each instance, firms denied union involvement in the closures.
Employers have employed such strategies for decades. When a Walmart store’s meat-cutters earned union certification in 2000 — a first in the company’s history — the retail giant eliminated meat cutting in 180 stores and began offering pre-packaged deli dishes. The UFCW has stated that it is willing to file complaints of union retribution with government labor regulators. Additionally, the corporation may have violated New York State law, which mandates that most employers provide 90 days’ notice of closures impacting 25 or more employees.
Workers will be compensated through August 28 and will be eligible to apply for positions at the company’s 16 other New York City sites.
Bradlee stated he has not yet received information regarding a transfer.
“We continue to consider ourselves a union, even though we no longer have a business,” he stated. “What they have implicitly communicated is that we need a union…. They were willing to destroy a neighborhood business, eliminate our livelihoods, and even uproot those who opposed the union as collateral damage in order to avoid having to pay us more money.”
He continued, “They have inspired us.”