Crewmembers at a Trader Joe’s store in Oakland have filed two unfair labor practice charges that allege the grocery chain is union busting.
The filings were made late last month by two employees at the Trader Joe’s location at 5727 College Ave., which petitioned to unionize in March. Both employees claimed Trader Joe’s had violated Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act by threatening to “retaliate against employees if they joined or supported a union.”
One of them additionally claimed that “within the previous six-months, the Employer has interfered with, restrained, and coerced its employees in the exercise of rights protected by Section 7 of the Act by engaging in surveillance or creating impression of surveillance of employees’ union activities” and that Trader Joe’s had also violated the law by “interrogating employees about their union activities.”
SFGATE reached out to Trader Joe’s for comment about the allegations but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Last month, employees at the same Oakland store, which is in the Rockridge neighborhood, filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to unionize in part due to a rat infestation that took two years to abate, among other operational issues, the Los Angeles Times reported. Crewmembers shared with the LA Times that they hoped the grocery store giant could address “physical safety and financial security” for its staff.
It’s not the first time Trader Joe’s employees have accused the popular chain of unfair labor practices. Last year, a Trader Joe’s store in Boulder, Colorado, tried to unionize. According to the Guardian, Trader Joe’s announced a companywide increase in employee wages and benefits within the same month that the union campaign at the Boulder store was underway.
“We believe that was in response to union activity not only in this store, but the other stores around the country,” Jim Hammons, organizing director at United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7, told the Guardian. “That in itself is illegal, they can’t do that.”
UFCW Local 7 also claimed that Trader Joe’s retaliated against a union-supporting crewmember at the Boulder store “by removing them from their regular Sunday shift and replacing them with an anti-union worker,” the Guardian reported.
Trader Joe’s separately made headlines in August when it abruptly closed the Trader Joe’s wine shop in New York City. A sign posted outside the storefront read that Trader Joe’s would explore other locations around New York, but HuffPost reported a few days later that the closure may have been related to unionizing efforts by crewmembers. Trader Joe’s denied the claim in a statement to a separate outlet.
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