Trader Joe’s workers at Essex Crossing claim retaliation

Pro-union workers at a downtown Trader Joe’s whose staff voted not to unionize last year say they’re being retaliated against by managers for their continued outspoken support for unionization. 

Since December, two outspoken organizers at the Trader Joe’s location on Grand Street have been fired, five other workers say they were disciplined for organizing activity and at least three other pro-union employees were denied their scheduled raises, workers at the store say. 

“Every single outspoken organizer has experienced some level of retaliation at this point,” Jordan Pollack, a worker and member of the union’s organizing committee told The Chief. She said that her managers told her during her performance review last month that, despite her perfect attendance record, they were withholding her twice-yearly 75-cent raise because she stacked boxes of frozen food too high.  

“It’s not that big of a raise but makes a lot more of a difference given that we don’t make a living wage,” Pollack said. 

Trader Joe’s United, the nascent independent union that workers at the Lower East Side location petitioned to join but then voted, in a 76-76 tie, not to, has filed several unfair labor practice charges protesting the discipline, arguing that it constitutes illegal union busting. Union officials say that the retaliation at the Grand Street store is the norm for workers trying to unionize at Trader Joe’s locations throughout the country.  

 “We've seen this behavior from the company not just at Essex but at other stores too; retaliation, different standards for different crew members based on their levels of union support. It's definitely very concerning for us and definitely upsetting,” said Maeg Yosef, the union’s communication director. "The company is creating and encouraging a hostile work environment.” 

Trader’s lawyers: NLRB unconstitutional

Union officials say Trader Joe’s has pursued legal avenues on a national scale to stifle the union push, including by suing Trader Joe’s United for trademark infringement last summer over merchandise the union was selling. A judge threw out that suit last month, writing that Trader Joe’s was attempting to “weaponize the legal system to gain an advantage in an ongoing labor dispute.” The company appealed that decision this week.  

And in January at NLRB hearings for unfair labor practice charges brought by TJU, lawyers for Trader Joe’s argued that the NLRB itself is unconstitutional, echoing arguments made elsewhere by lawyers for SpaceX. Lawyers for Amazon and Starbucks have since used that argument in NLRB hearings as well.   

Seth Goldstein, legal counsel for both Trader Joe’s United and the Amazon Labor Union told TechCruch that the companies’ arguments are “a crock of shit.”  

"I don't believe any of it, and I think it's just a cover to bust unions,” he told the news website. 

Yosef, who was in the room when Trader Joe’s lawyers argued that the structure of the NLRB was unconstitutional, said that the company’s position was disconcerting.  

“It's pretty impossible to think they would want to bargain in good faith and support workers' rights when this is their defense,” she said. “It seems like they would rather take this all the way to the Supreme Court than actually bargain in good faith or follow the law." 

Trader Joe’s did not reply to a request for comment about the unfair labor practice charges. 

Fredd Moore, an outspoken pro-union worker employed at the Lower East Side store since October 2022, was fired in the middle of his shift on Feb. 11 after months of disputes with managers and some of his coworkers for repeatedly speaking out in support of the union. Before he was fired, Moore, like Pollack, was denied his scheduled raise, and managers wrote on his performance review that he wasn’t fulfilling the requirements of his job.  

Moore’s firing came an hour after he complained about working alongside an anti-union employee who, only days before, had threatened Moore with physical violence in front of a group of pro-union employees. 

According to his termination papers, Moore was fired for “unprofessional and aggressive” behavior during a January incident where Moore, according to testimonies provided by other employees, smoked what smelled like marijuana outside of the store before his shift and then threw boxes around and cursed loudly inside the store once his shift began. 

Moore, who is Black, denied all the accusations and said that the depiction of him as an aggressive, angry stoner played on “racist motifs” and “racial stereotypes” that were part of a larger strategy to pit rank and file workers against each other. “Just because I’m Black they threw these accusations on,” he said. 

"I feel that my firing was about my involvement in the union,” Moore added. “It's very clear [managers] have favoritism." 

On Monday, 20 of Moore’s former colleagues walked out of their shift and picketed in front of the store to highlight the ULP charges that TJU filed and call on Trader Joe’s to rehire Moore. Before they left the grocery store, Pollack and others who walked out confronted their managers with a letter protesting Moore’s firing, the investigation of another staff member and “persistent homophobia and threats” at the store. 

“While we are exercising our rights as workers who are experiencing unfair labor practices, Trader Joe’s corporate is paying their lawyers to attempt to repeal the National Labor Relations Act by calling it ‘unconstitutional.’ ” the workers wrote. “This should be alarming not only to Trader Joe’s workers, but every worker in America who would have no rights against corporate powers without this act which has protected us for the last 90 years.”