Prosecutors at the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint to Trader Joe’s on Friday, accusing the grocer of retaliating against pro-union workers and making illegal threats.
In the filing, a regional director of the Federal Labor Council said managers at a Massachusetts store punished workers who tried to wear union pins by terminating their shifts, telling them they would miss out on a raise and that their working conditions would worsen if they joined join a union. . The managers also provided “false and misleading information” about the union to workers, the complaint says.
Trader Joe’s did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
The alleged violations of the law occurred at the company’s Hadley, Massachusetts, store, the first chain to unionize in California. 45-31 votes last year – part of a burst of organizing at major US companies, including Starbucks and Amazon. Three other Trader Joe’s stores have since joined a union in Minnesota, California and Kentucky, though the company has challenged the results of the Kentucky union election.
“It confirms what we knew from the start: that our employer, Trader Joe’s, has grossly violated our rights.”
– Trader Joe’s United, the workers’ union
The allegations against the Massachusetts company were first created by workers affiliated with Trader Joe’s United, the new union that spearheaded the successful organizing campaigns. Friday’s complaint means labor council officials have investigated the union’s claims and found merit in them. Barring a settlement between the board and Trader Joe’s, the allegations will be settled at trial.
The regional director of the labor council said Trader Joe’s retaliated against workers for “forming, joining and helping” the union effort, and because Trader Joe’s wanted to “discourage workers” from collective bargaining.
Maeg Yosef, a spokesman for the union and one of the employees named in the complaint, said in a statement that the board’s decision to file a case against Trader Joe’s was “incredibly justifiable.”
“It confirms what we knew from the start: that our employer, Trader Joe’s, has grossly violated our rights as employees and should be held accountable for it,” said Josef. “This historic complaint is a result of many brave crew members speaking the truth to power and doing the hard work to hold Trader Joe’s to its own values.”
Part of the case revolves around Trader Joe’s dress and personal appearance rulebook, which the regional director said was so “overly broad” as to be discriminatory. Trader Joe’s says none of its branded clothing, hats, aprons or other gear may be “decorated with added logos, statements, decor, symbolism or messages of any kind, except as approved” by a manager, the complaint said.
John Greim via Getty Images
The regional director argued that the rulebook is illegal because it could prohibit workers from showing their union support through pins and other insignia.
workers had told JS last year that managers pointed to the rulebook when they told them to remove union pins. As Jamie Edwards, who is now the president of Trader Joe’s United, told JS at the time, “Initially I complied, not to cause any more trouble.” Edwards is also one of the employees named in the complaint.
The complaint further alleges that Trader Joe’s broke the law by providing employees with false information about the union and the bargaining process.
That information, which was not detailed in the filing, was posted in the break room of the Hadley store and on a Trader Joe employee’s website, according to the complaint. The regional director said Trader Joe’s should retract its “misleading and false statements” and inform employees across the country that it has done so.
This complaint is not the first the Labor Board has filed against Trader Joe’s. In May, another regional director accused the grocer of the illegal removal of trade union literature from the break room of a Minneapolis store that was organizing. By doing so, the suit alleged, Trader Joe’s “interfered with, interfered with and coerced workers in the exercise of the rights” to organize.
JS reported Friday that Trader Joe’s threatened to sue Trader Joe’s United on merchandise the union sells to supporters through its online store.
The company claimed in a letter to union leadership that Trader Joe’s United T shirts, mugs And carrier bags violate the company’s trademarks and that they are “likely to cause consumer confusion” and “dilute” the brand. The articles cited in the letter read “Trader Joe’s United” and show the union’s logo, a clenched fist on a box cutter.
In response, the union’s lawyers called the claims “frivolous” and part of the company’s “ongoing assault on labor”.