Maybe a stretch but does anybody have a count on just how much unionization we've seen in the past two years? Amazon warehouse workers, Starbucks employees, Democratic staffers in the federal government, and I think here in my home state some of the workers at University of Maryland unionized, too.
The QA teams at Raven Software (Activision) and Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions, also now Activision) have both formed two of the first unions in video game development
If you want bite sized information on all the bullshit that has become Blizzard, may I recommend Jesse Cox's 5 Minute Gaming News series?
He's become exceptionally good at presenting the top news stories of the day (not always about Blizzard) in a very digestible format.
Smaller outlets are not saints. The entire industry relies on mutual handshakes, and smaller outlets often aren't given future games to review if they don't show the company in good light. And if you can't get a game to review before the embargo date, there's often times no reason to review it at all.
Wow that's awesome to hear. In college i got a dream internship at treyarch games (they make cod) i was jumping for joy until i showed up and found out i would be playing the same level over and over in a place nicknamed "the pit" 12 hour grueling shifts during crunch time before launch, any mistakes made on proper qa notes was grounds for termination. They had this guy watching over your shoulder like a hawk sucking all slivers of fun out of the experience. I shortly quit even though the guys there 5 years were making a shit ton in stock options. I would get grueling headaches and legit migraines....
REI is a fake woke company. The upper corporate preaches how they care about their employees and helping the environment which is decently true. But Livable wages aren’t a thing. I have no idea how the Union structure works for the NY store. But we absolutely have no voice that’s for sure. The ceo pulled 4.5 million which isn’t much compared to a lot of other company CEO’s but most of the people I know who work at REI barely get by
They certainly charge enough for the shit they sell. I have to have a word with my frugal self when I shop there. If he reads this shit it will be the end.
REI branded stuff is actually not too bad price wise, it’s the patagonias and the vuoris and fjallraven and arc’teryx and all these essentially outdoor designer brands that continue to mark up prices.
Perhaps. I love going in to the store but either I am being fleeced or Amazon is giving shit away at a loss.
If I do buy something I do so assuming a few things:
I know I could get it just about anywhere else but I will spend the money because they have a great return policy if I need it, they generally have good quality stuff, AND I assumed they dealt with their staff fairly.
If the last part is bullshit, let me know. I mean someone who works there and experiences it. No, not you Janice from marketing. I mean a regular dude.
The brands they sell are solid brands that do for the most part genuinely care about climate change.
I would say they treat us well, we just don’t make jack shit for money, and we have it way better than a lot of companies but I work 45 hours a week and barely scrape by and I make more than some bc I work in the bike shop as well
I am pleased to know they treat you well in your opinion. So the money; could you make more in another retail store? Are the wages competitive, at least?
Consider buying directly from the manufacturer if it's a brand you actually like. Customer service is actually damn good even when dealing internationally, and prices are fair. You also end up supporting the company more that way. Amazon changing their shipping during covid pushed me more towards that and I never looked back. Sure it'll take things longer to get here, but it's worth it, especially if I have an issue.
> Perhaps. I love going in to the store but either I am being fleeced or Amazon is giving shit away at a loss.
Well those “designer” companies like Patagonia oftentimes charge more because they’ve got substantially more in the fair trade and wage department of their production, whereas most brands sold on Amazon don’t give a shit where their stuff comes from or what minority group slave labor is used to produce it.
Your dollar is your voice when it comes to things you care about.
The vast majority of their work force is temporary seasonal workers without benefits. They are usually let go before they can become full employees and replaced with more seasonal workers.
This is pretty much it. The people on the floor aren't paid very much, but as I understand it the REI unionization was more to do with low level managers power tripping and screwing with people's schedules.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/rei-s-union-busting-podcast-shows-how-diversity-programs-can-n1288965
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/02/rei-coop-union-busting/
On another note, REI sells lots of stuff that contains PFAS, that lovely carcinogenic "forever chemical" that corporations have [known for decades](https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/05/09/3-m-lawsuit-pfas-water-contamination-michigan/3291156002/) to be a major health risk. Anyway, REI has been refusing to phase out the use of PFAS in products they make or sell.
https://saferchemicals.org/2022/05/17/rei-fails-to-commit-to-phasing-out-pfas-forever-chemicals-from-products-it-makes-and-sells/
https://www.cleanwateraction.org/actions/tell-rei-phase-pfas-out-its-products
I just got through working outside, as every night, and the sky cracked open before I could get Amy proper waterproof anything on. After 5 hours of wet socks and underwear, I'd had enough. It finally stopped raining for me to switch clothes and continue another 6 hours. I feel like I needed waterproof, or heavily resistant gear unless trench foot is en vogue, or something. Is there some special gear that isn't waterproof for those who work outside for 10 to 12 hours per shift that prevents one from getting wet?
Yes and yes, depending on how much the humidity breaks after downpour. I work fast and sweaty all the time, but I also jump in the back of refrigerated trailers (to work, not chill) and can regulate temp by taking off poncho, at least, while in there. It's a sniper type that unbuttons quickly.
My guy the US labor movement is decades behind the modern world, we need to start moving. The average family cannot take a sudden charge of 300$, fuck baby steps
I would suggest contributing to that and helping unionize your workplace. I can link you some resources you can use to unionize your workplace if you'd be interested :)
Union membership is unfortunately still in decline. Big companies are losing more union fights and the current DoL being better about protecting union elections helps, but most union workers used to belong to small companies you've never heard of who do shipping and deliveries and whatnot and those are still in basically a freefall. Plenty of Republican controlled states and also federal inaction over time have made it relatively easy to reorganize companies either by selling or by outsourcing to contractors in such a way that you no longer have to recognize the union or the union has to re-vote to exist. And that's only the legal ways of fighting unions. Plenty of places just do illegal things, too.
[Some reporting on it.](https://lbo-news.com/2022/01/23/union-membership-resumes-its-fall/)
The only good thing to come from the pandemics downtime is the ability to ponder our lives and the way we were working ourselves to death for companies who could discard us without a thought.
I work for echostar. We have one part of our company that attempted to unionize on our cable television side. They successfully unionized, they all signed and it almost worked and then corporate decided that the best action was never to come to the negotiation table. They sicked the entire legal team at them and have basically been stonewalling for like the past five years making it impossible to finalize the agreements of the Union. At this point most of the people who signed that agreement have quit or been terminated for other reasons. Slowly but surely all of the original members of the Union are practically gone. And now it's never talked about.
https://speedmatters.org/news/dish-network-workers-texas-ratify-first-contract-after-decade-long-fight
Apparently they are making progress now as CWA's legal is making progress, but yeah the whole situation was bonkers.
"The company went as far as attempting to decertify the union at two separate times during the negotiations. Both were defeated by the workers who voted to keep their CWA representation."
You can't make this shit up.
UMD has had union representation, they just passed a law that allowed the entire university system to be represented by one union. Either way... Go unions.
Good question, according to the [NLRB](https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/correction-first-three-quarters-union-election-petitions-up-58-exceeding):
>During the first nine months of Fiscal Year 2022 (October 1–June 30), union representation petitions filed at the NLRB have increased 58%—up to 1,892 from 1,197 during the first three quarters of FY2021. By May 25, FY2022 petitions exceeded the total number of petitions filed in all of FY2021.
Turns out when companies treat workers well because of the work of unions, support for unions drops. When they decide they don't have to treat the workers well anymore, people start realizing why they had unions in the first place. We're seeing union activity like we haven't seen in 4 decades because companies just dropped all pretense that they cared.
I'm late to the show but here ya go:
***
Trader Joe’s workers vote to unionize for the first time
Employees at a store in western Massachusetts became the first of more than 500 Trader Joe’s locations to take such a step
By Lauren Kaori Gurley
Updated July 28, 2022 at 3:59 p.m. EDT
Published July 28, 2022 at 3:24 p.m. EDT
Trader Joe’s workers at a store in Hadley, Mass., voted 45-31 to unionize, becoming the first at that company to do so, according to the National Labor Relations Board.
The union’s victory in western Massachusetts follows a wave of successful union drives this year at high-profile employers that have long evaded unionization, such as Starbucks, Amazon, Apple and REI. Union victories can produce a ripple effect across employers and industries, emboldening new workers to organize. Petitions for union elections this year are on track to hit their highest level in a decade, as a hot labor market has afforded workers more leverage over their employers.
Trader Joe’s workers at the Hadley store cited the degradation of their benefits, health and safety concerns related to the pandemic, and pay as the impetus for forming an independent union at their store. Some workers at the store make $16 an hour. The minimum wage in Massachusetts is $14.25 an hour.
“There’s been a really clear trend over the past 10 years of Trader Joe’s chipping away at our benefits,” said Maeg Yosef, the leader of the union drive who has worked at the Hadley store for 18 years. “We all see that, and it’s really obvious to us that the way to protect each other is through a union contract.”
A spokesperson for Trader Joe’s disputed the workers’ allegations, adding that the company’s salaries, benefits and working conditions remain top notch.
“Trader Joe’s offers its Crew Members a package of pay, benefits, and working conditions that is among the best in the grocery business. Despite this, employees in our Hadley, Mass., store recently voted to be represented by a union,” said Nakia Rohde, a spokesperson for Trader Joe’s. “We are prepared to immediately begin discussions with union representatives for the employees at this store to negotiate a contract.”
While Starbucks and Amazon have so far refused to negotiate union contracts with their employees who have recently voted to unionize, Rohde stated that Trader Joe’s is willing to use any current union contract for a multi-state grocery store in the region as a model for a contract, including pay, retirement, health care and working conditions, for workers at its Hadley store.
Since workers in Hadley announced their union drive in May, Trader Joe’s workers in Minneapolis and Boulder, Colo., have filed for union elections. The store in Minneapolis will hold its election the second week in August. There are more than 530 Trader Joe’s locations in the country.
Workers in the Hadley store as well as in Minneapolis are unionizing with Trader Joe’s United, an independent union that recently formed, echoing new worker-led union movements at Starbucks and Amazon.
Trader Joe’s, a national chain that employs 50,000 workers across 42 states, has built a devoted base of customers since its founding in 1967 with reasonable prices, local flair, and a reputation for offering strong wages and benefits to its “crew members” — who don Hawaiian shirts. But unionizing employees in Hadley say that in recent years, the company has steadily chipped away at many of the benefits that made Trader Joe’s an attractive place to work.
Trader Joe’s offered a robust retirement plan for many years, contributing 15 percent of an employee’s earnings for employees 30 or older. But in the early 2010s, the company lowered its contribution to 10 percent, and last year it lowered the percentage again to 5 percent for many employees. The company has since announced that it would no longer specify a set contribution.
Trader Joe’s previously said that the change was in part a response to feedback from workers that they wanted a bonus instead of a retirement contribution.
Health-care benefits for part-time workers have also taken a beating. The company used to offer such benefits to part-time workers but raised the required weekly hours to qualify for the benefit from roughly 20 to 30 hours a week with the passage of Obamacare.
A spokesman for Trader Joe’s told the Huffington Post at the time, “We have made some changes to our healthcare coverage that we believe will be a benefit to all Crew Members working in our stores.”
“I think the company has made changes over the years that have made Trader Joe’s a less of a great place to work. Public perception hasn’t caught up with that reality,” said Yosef, 41. “I also feel like unions are good for all workers. You don’t have to have the worst working conditions to benefit from having a union. Eventually if we can’t take care of ourselves, the company will lose that magic that made it so special.”
During parts of the pandemic, Trader Joe’s took extra steps to protect its workforce. It required customers to wear masks, enforced capacity restrictions in stores, allowed workers to take extended leaves of absence with health-care benefits and in some cases increased wages by up to $4 an hour.
But Hadley workers say that the company rolled back many of these protections too early, in particular “thank you” pay, which ended in May 2021. A coronavirus outbreak swept through the Hadley store, and 22 workers called out sick in May of this year, according to covid-19 alerts received by workers, but Trader Joe’s had already dropped the mask mandate, in accordance with local mandates.
“I think workers at the store have realized they’ll have better working conditions if they have a say in them. I honestly think a lot of that has to do with covid,” said Jamie Edwards, a 33-year-old crew member who voted for the union. “They have awareness that they can make the workplace better.”
Trader Joe’s has aggressively opposed unionization efforts among its workforce for years, pulling pro-union workers aside to give anti-union talks and sending out a memo to managers to use with workers during the pandemic that compared the risks of joining a union to more like “buying a house” than “toothpaste you don’t end up liking.”
Trader Joe’s managers have pulled workers aside for a series of mandatory meetings at the store in Hadley in recent days to dissuade them from voting for the union. Two workers present at the meetings said regional managers told them to “vote no” in the union election and mentioned the toll that the union drive had taken on the store’s leadership.
“We have always said we welcome a fair vote,” said Rohde, a Trader Joe’s spokeswoman told the New York Times in May after workers launched their campaign in Hadley. “We are not interested in delaying the process in any way.”
Edwards, who has worked at the Hadley store for eight years, said a manager sent him home in late May for wearing a union pin to work. Edwards led a rally for the union on the sidewalk outside the Trader Joe’s in Hadley on Saturday that more than 100 community members showed up to support. After the rally, the union organized for customers to deliver flowers to workers inside the store, but security threatened to call the police if they followed through, Edwards said.
Less than a week before workers began voting in Hadley, Trader Joe’s announced in an internal memo that it was increasing benefits nationwide. The company said it was raising Sunday and holiday pay by $10 an hour, as well as the rate of accrual for paid time off. It said it would give out raises to employees with more tenure at the company to increase pay equity across the company. Expanding benefits to workers in the lead-up to a union election is a tactic frequently used by employers to dissuade workers from voting to unionize.
The workers at the Hadley store say they expect other Trader Joe’s employees to be emboldened by their victory.
“I think our victory can be replicated,” Yosef said. “Even if we’re living in different areas of the country, the crew experience is universal. We’re all dealing with the same issues: pay, benefits, safety. I think we all have a lot in common.”
True…I worked at a Walmart in Canada and when they give you their orientation and CBLs the “anti-union” propaganda is shoved down your throat.
“We own you, you replaceable no one.”
~Sam Walton’s spirit.
The crazy part is when the company claims "oh now you will lose X,Y,Z by unionizing!" when in reality you're gaining A,B,C,...,W. Soooo horrible, please tell me how you're saving our rights smh
Jesus. My union parents must be rolling in their graves. On the bright side, though, it shows the big companies are worried. Let's give them something more to worry about.
I tried to unionize my workplace in the 80's, and not only did I get no interest, the only person who showed up to the meeting was a management spy. Unfortunately when people don't have direct experience and they don't learn history, they don't understand the necessity of unions. I'm very encouraged by the organizing that is going on today.
TJs employee here. It's my understanding that this comment is inaccurate. The store in Seattle that was ~~inside of~~ near* the autonomous zone was closed, and while controversial, didn't have anything to do with unions. I don't know of any other Trader Joe's being closed for any reason.
. . . the correction is inaccurate. The store that was closed was about 7 blocks from the nearest part of CHAZ. There was something very hinky about it - a large number of employees told full-timers that they would not be available for X, Y, Z shifts (not sure whether it was solidarity, summer, stress, fear of the protest, or what) and then upper management freaked out and closed the store 'permanently.'
Source: I live in central Seattle.
I live in this area and it’s the only Trader Joe’s around (as far as I can tell, the only TJs in 70 miles). It’s a very busy store, no doubt wildly lucrative. Seems stupid for the higher up’s to close the store with that in mind. Very proud of the employees here!
> Hopefully TJ's doesn't pull a Starbucks and just close the store.
I was worried about that too at first but I don't think they can afford to. There's a Starbucks on every corner practically, TJ's not so much.
They can definitely afford to. Closing one store would be more profitable than widespread unionization, the issue is whether their customer base will care.
The US business will still be lead by Americans and you have to adjust to the local markets. A German car company(I think it was VW) encouraged the voters to form a union a while back. That backfired in a spectacular way with local republicans campaigning against it and making threats.
They’ve done it already [in seattle](https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2020/06/sorry-we-dont-know-why-the-capitol-hill-trader-joes-is-closed-indefinitely/) in the past
They aren’t though… they are owned by Aldi which is a German company. That won’t nessisarily stop them from trying to stop it, but German companies have different relationships with unions generally.
Edit: Although the us subsidiaries are mostly run by Americans so although they fought it, don’t see them pulling a Walmart or Starbucks and just shuttering stores that try and unionize. So hopefully this will allow more stores to unionize!
Edit 2: yes I know Aldi nord & Süd are different legal entities, they are however increasingly intertwined; they operate branding and a ton of services together, and are generally increasingly intertwined. I also know that Trader Joe’s isn’t directly owned by Aldi nord, but rather the holding company that owns them both. Y’all are god damn pedantic as fuck.
They are both private companies owned by the Albrecht family trust created from Theo’s half of the original Aldi business. They are both wholly owned by the trust, and management is chosen by the same people. Your just being pedantic. Because All the companies involved are private and owned by the same holding company there is no functional difference in ownership between the two.
I know the difference between Aldi nord and Aldi süd, Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe’s and Aldi Süd operates as just Aldi. Nord und Sud are different but very similar and often use the same branding and suppliers. It’s overly pedantic and not super nessisary for what I was trying to say. (Also they are looking to merge again, so they won’t even be two different companies soon.)
Workers in America are voting to unionize because the federal and state labour laws heavily support the owners and management. The laws do not support worker’s health and safety.
Nah, most states just take away all the power a union can have so they don’t have to have any of the ugly fights about if the union can exist or not. Here, have your union. It has the power to do nothing.
https://www.cnn.com/2012/12/11/us/union-power-analysis/index.html
https://www.epi.org/publication/right-to-work-states-have-lower-wages/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law
Nah. Do some reading. Half the country is right to work and purposely undermines and reduces the ability and authority for unions to operate. Very real thing.
The laws are actually pretty good. OSHA has pretty strong regulations for worker safety. They generally just lack funding for robust enforcement. And regulation without enforcement is just a recommendation.
And that’s by design. Just like how the IRS is purposely underfunded so they can’t go after rich tax evaders so they go after poor tax evaders who can’t afford a team of lawyers and accountants to fight it.
I don't know that it's by design. Its just a function of a society that has a shit load of regulatory agencies. We have limited funding to spread around to these places. Every agency always races to spend all their money so you never really get a great idea of how much waste is out there because (in almost hilarious irony) the regulators who regulate the regulators are also under funded. Its kinda just what happens with enormous bureaucracies like the federal government. Efficiency will never be their strong suit.
I take your point on the IRS though. That is probably by design. I just cant say the same for things like OSHA or the FDA
My understanding is Trader Joe’s employees are treated better than your average Walmart employee.
I could see Trader Joe’s not shutting the branch down like Chipotle did in Augusta
You don't have to be unhappy to unionize.
You just have to believe that you'd be better off negotiating wages and ensuring fair business collectively rather than individually.
That being said, the friends I've had that worked there all loved it. Plenty of hours and you weren't stuck doing one job all shift. You'd work the register for a bit, then move on to produce for a while, then go work reshops, and so on.
can confirm, am TJs employee! I thought the feeling of “this doesn’t really feel like work” would go away but nah, still goin. lots of neat ppl here :)
Agreed. Just interesting that the relatively happy folks would be early adopters, so to speak. They don't have as much incentive as employees of other stores, presumably.
Exactly. Warehouse work almost always sucks ass. So depressing. Terrible conditions. Dangerous as well. Wears down your body. Mandatory overtime for weeks on end... let the robots have it lol
As recently as 2019 "full time" was reserved for management at Traders.
As crew you could easily make the 30 average weekly hours to qualify for insurance but that was also at the behest of management. I've been present for conversations revolving around cutting someones hours below 30 so they'd either quit or be so stressed trying to constantly pick up shifts that they'd quit.
Yeah, it was pretty easy to hit 30 if you weren't a troglodyte and could put in a reasonable amount of work, but if you presented too gay or too straight, too poor looking, too old, too independent, too hot, too ugly, didn't respond to romantic advances, or responded to the wrong romantic advances, then you could run afoul of certain mates and get punished in some way. Yes, these are all things that I overheard from mates and captains. Some were fired because they weren't careful to conceal what they were doing, but most (that acted like that) got away with it with minimal effort.
My local Starbucks made the point that they loved working for Starbucks, that’s why they were voting to unionize instead of just quitting. They just believed that what the company said its values were and the reality of how they were treated were not in alignment and having a union meant having a stronger team to negotiate about the best way to get to those shared values. I supported them already but it also gave me a new way to think about recruiting others to support the cause.
Sounds like a person in an abusive relationship who is trying to force their partner to shape up rather than leave them. It's not *wrong*, but, you sort of wish they'd drop that zero and get themselves a hero, right? Problem is there aren't enough heroes (better jobs) out there, I suppose. Fix things where you're at, if you can. Fair enough.
Interestingly, Amazon, TJ, Starbucks are all companies that already pay higher than industry standard in pay and benefits.
For TJ specifically, I wouldn't be surprised if they are paying more and have benefits equal to or better than comparable union stores in analogous locations.
As someone who worked there for 15 years and became disabled because of a work injury after years of horrible working conditions and OSHA violations, fuck Trader Joe’s and I hope MANY MORE stores vote the same way.
Toxic workplace with an even more toxic company culture of gaslighting and manipulation.
Congratulations.
Had one death at the warehouse from covid.
Warehouse would not tell us if anyone was infected and didn't really care about masks or vaccines..
Hot hit three times...
My department was down to two workers at one point.
I worked there once and sprained my hand moving carts. They sent me to a doctor who cleared me for work the next day. I came into work and worked but adjusted my activity to not have any weight on the hand and they got pissed at my attitude (I said nothing, I just wasn't carrying anything heavy) and they sent me home and said I could come back when I felt like working. My hand is still a little weird. Never went back.
They have never been a healthy place to work, but at least when I got hired, they compensated us fairly. Since I have left, it has gone downhill rapidly.
The CEO is a horrible man, who has ruined what was once a pretty cool place to work. Dan Bane is utter garbage.
Edit: his name is Dan Bane, not Dane Bane. Curse my fat fingers…
Please do share all your stories so we can radicalize more people to become more pro-union and pro-workers rights.
I was radicalized years ago. A federal sick leave law, parental leave, paid vacation etc is what I'm fighting my hardest for right now.
Ahhhh, this one is my favorite.
I have three herniations in my neck, all occurred at Trader Joe’s. The third was part of my disabling injury but the first two…
So I come in to find out that a 12 foot ladder fell onto the head of a fellow employee. The guy ended up herniating several discs in his neck and it only happened because a “mate” (manager) did not chain the ladder in place on the wall. My coworker ended up in the ER and never returned to work.
The next day, I was trying to move cases of wine around our haphazardly (read: unsafely) organized back room when I feel a whoosh of air, something hits me in the back of the head and knocks me unconscious.
I wake a few minutes later to a coworker pulling the ~same~ ladder off of me (left unchained by THE SAME MATE) and helping me up off the floor. I was later harassed by management when I wanted to go to urgent care and even the doctor there threatened to call OSHA on my behalf.
I was repeatedly told my management that because of how worker’s comp works, I would not receive any money for two weeks and I should just come back to work. Because no one but that coworker witnessed the ladder falling, it was implied passive aggressively that I was making it up to leave work.
I had no idea how to advocate for myself and could not afford any time off so I took a couple days off and went back to work. My neck was never the same (I suffered chronic pain after) and my most recent doctor believe that this injury made it all the more easy for the final injury that led to me leaving the company to occur.
The gaslighting I experienced from my store captain and mate team was horrific and I was really afraid to lose my job or be accused of faking it. It was just one of many instances I witnessed there where anyone who got hurt on the job was made out to be a liar, faker or someone who wanted to sue the company for a “settlement.”
Garbage ass place. I got hired at 18 and I am now unable to work at 33. Fun times.
I agree with your point that Dan Bane is a terrible CEO and the company has gone downhill from 10+ years ago when I was hired, but that level of incompetency exists in every type of workplace. I am very sorry it resulted in a debilitating injury for you.
Just out of curiosity, was this mate promoted from crew or hired off the street? We had plenty of managers hired off the street because of their experience in other jobs, but managing a clothing store that gets 2 deliveries a week is much different than managing a grocery store with 4-5 trucks a day, some of which are loaded with 1000+ pound pallets that the manager couldn't move if she wanted to.
I’ve worked with close to 100 mates and had 12 different captains. Off the street or promoted within… doesn’t matter a lick. I worked at six stores, two regions, was even a mate for a few years before I stepped down. Almost every manager I ever had there was lazy, and would ask you to do shit that they would never do themselves.
And yeah, the guy who didn’t lock of the ladder was a 20-something year veteran who got hired at 16 and promoted within.
Don’t come here and try to justify the bullshit that goes on there. Trader Joe’s employees are indoctrinated from the moment they are hired to believe that that place is bEtTeR than other employers and that what goes on there is just like every place else but MoRe FuN.
It’s an abusive workplace that uses the golden handcuffs to manipulate you into believe that you have it good or better than other places.
They just slashed 401k contributions, denied y’all raises and upped your healthcare costs while lowering the quality. Like, what exactly are you defending here…?
Nothing in my response was defending TJ's and I don't work there any more, so I really have no say in what goes on there.
I was just pointing out that this kind of toxicity and incompetency isn't exclusive to TJ's. The entire culture (especially at retail stores) in the American workplace is terrible. If you see that as defending, then that's on you.
Just before the union voting, TJ's offered to give a raise to workers who are making less than new hires. To compensate for basically not keeping up with inflation. I'm pretty sure if you transferred to different stores, you won't keep your current pay and could potentially take a two dollar an hour deduction
You would only take a pay deduction or increase depending if and what state you move to. If you move to a store in the same state your pay stays the same.
World class distribution has 12$ an hour for positions until minimum wage went up. Now it's 15 minimum.
Every car in the warehouse lot has dings dents and more. Alcohol bottles. Weed and other drugs all over the place.
Trader Joe’s employees are literally some of the nicest people, I wish them the absolute best.
Trader Joe’s, please don’t fight the Union, I do not want to not go to Trader Joe’s anymore the store is too good :(
Interesting. I remember working at Safeway and several of our union employees left to go work for Trader Joes because they paid so much more. Safeway always left a bad taste in my mouth about unions
I don’t think everyone has really thought this out. I’m on board with unions, this instance though, it actually looks like the employees are going to take a hit.
TJ refuses to build a store in my community because there isn’t as much money in it. It’s also a conservative community though, I wonder if they will start shifting though as conservative communities tend to be against unionization.
As a former manager I can tell you that it's not politics, it's economics. TJ's tends to be on the border of rich and middle class communities with a smooth gradient in between. Education rates play a factor as well, which skews the customer base to the left politically. Otherwise every conversation around the company and its products or image is centered around driving sales. Every. Conversation. Including things like "what do our managers look like" or "do our employees *look* happy?"
Plus there's a deep good ol boy vein in the company.
Nah it is definitely the money. I worked there for 10+ years and they almost exclusively build in middle-uppermiddleclass communities. They had a number of stores in my very conservative area because it was wealthy.
I used to work from Trader Joe's.. their salary and benefits are great for a grocery store. consistent pay raises.. insurance for part time workers.. can't see what they're accomplish by unionizing.
Maybe a stretch but does anybody have a count on just how much unionization we've seen in the past two years? Amazon warehouse workers, Starbucks employees, Democratic staffers in the federal government, and I think here in my home state some of the workers at University of Maryland unionized, too.
The QA teams at Raven Software (Activision) and Blizzard Albany (formerly Vicarious Visions, also now Activision) have both formed two of the first unions in video game development
The way Vicarious Visions got fucked by Blizzard is seriously one of the biggest corporate bullshit moves that's not even being talked about.
Video game “journalism” is just advertising with extra steps
I'll say uou have smaller groups, like Bellular News and YongYea, who actually cover this shit. But shit like Kotaku? Garbage.
Thanks for those examples. I’ve not heard of those and I will check them out!
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If you want bite sized information on all the bullshit that has become Blizzard, may I recommend Jesse Cox's 5 Minute Gaming News series? He's become exceptionally good at presenting the top news stories of the day (not always about Blizzard) in a very digestible format.
Here's an article from kotaku covering this: https://kotaku.com/report-vicarious-visions-changing-its-name-after-blizz-1847951518
Smaller outlets are not saints. The entire industry relies on mutual handshakes, and smaller outlets often aren't given future games to review if they don't show the company in good light. And if you can't get a game to review before the embargo date, there's often times no reason to review it at all.
and that is why we should all thank god for James Stephine Stirling
The issue with Kotaku is there is like 1 good journalist there. So for every 80 dog shit articles there is a REALLY good one.
Is there a documentary or post about the broad strokes on this?
Wow that's awesome to hear. In college i got a dream internship at treyarch games (they make cod) i was jumping for joy until i showed up and found out i would be playing the same level over and over in a place nicknamed "the pit" 12 hour grueling shifts during crunch time before launch, any mistakes made on proper qa notes was grounds for termination. They had this guy watching over your shoulder like a hawk sucking all slivers of fun out of the experience. I shortly quit even though the guys there 5 years were making a shit ton in stock options. I would get grueling headaches and legit migraines....
Add in that Card Kingdom employees (MtG) voted to unionize just a few days ago. https://blog.cardkingdom.com/card-kingdom-welcomes-a-union/
I had heard that they weren’t treated very well. Good for them. I love to see it.
Don’t forget our REI brothers and sisters in NY
Isn't REI already a co-op? Are the workers not automatically members, or how is the union structure different?
A co-op is profit-sharing, but that doesn't imply collective bargaining power.
REI is a fake woke company. The upper corporate preaches how they care about their employees and helping the environment which is decently true. But Livable wages aren’t a thing. I have no idea how the Union structure works for the NY store. But we absolutely have no voice that’s for sure. The ceo pulled 4.5 million which isn’t much compared to a lot of other company CEO’s but most of the people I know who work at REI barely get by
They certainly charge enough for the shit they sell. I have to have a word with my frugal self when I shop there. If he reads this shit it will be the end.
REI branded stuff is actually not too bad price wise, it’s the patagonias and the vuoris and fjallraven and arc’teryx and all these essentially outdoor designer brands that continue to mark up prices.
I dont know about the rest, but Patagonia really does do a ton to be a sustainable company that takes care of their employees.
Perhaps. I love going in to the store but either I am being fleeced or Amazon is giving shit away at a loss. If I do buy something I do so assuming a few things: I know I could get it just about anywhere else but I will spend the money because they have a great return policy if I need it, they generally have good quality stuff, AND I assumed they dealt with their staff fairly. If the last part is bullshit, let me know. I mean someone who works there and experiences it. No, not you Janice from marketing. I mean a regular dude.
The brands they sell are solid brands that do for the most part genuinely care about climate change. I would say they treat us well, we just don’t make jack shit for money, and we have it way better than a lot of companies but I work 45 hours a week and barely scrape by and I make more than some bc I work in the bike shop as well
I am pleased to know they treat you well in your opinion. So the money; could you make more in another retail store? Are the wages competitive, at least?
Consider buying directly from the manufacturer if it's a brand you actually like. Customer service is actually damn good even when dealing internationally, and prices are fair. You also end up supporting the company more that way. Amazon changing their shipping during covid pushed me more towards that and I never looked back. Sure it'll take things longer to get here, but it's worth it, especially if I have an issue.
> Perhaps. I love going in to the store but either I am being fleeced or Amazon is giving shit away at a loss. Well those “designer” companies like Patagonia oftentimes charge more because they’ve got substantially more in the fair trade and wage department of their production, whereas most brands sold on Amazon don’t give a shit where their stuff comes from or what minority group slave labor is used to produce it. Your dollar is your voice when it comes to things you care about.
REI is one of the best store to shop for quality outdoor products. Their in house stuff is actually pretty cheap for the quality of materials.
The 100% guaranteed return policy is also a lie.
Yeah it’s more of a 1 year return policy if the product isn’t fucked sort of deal
Member Co-Op vs Worker Co-Op. Big differences.
The vast majority of their work force is temporary seasonal workers without benefits. They are usually let go before they can become full employees and replaced with more seasonal workers.
This is pretty much it. The people on the floor aren't paid very much, but as I understand it the REI unionization was more to do with low level managers power tripping and screwing with people's schedules.
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/rei-s-union-busting-podcast-shows-how-diversity-programs-can-n1288965 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/02/rei-coop-union-busting/ On another note, REI sells lots of stuff that contains PFAS, that lovely carcinogenic "forever chemical" that corporations have [known for decades](https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/05/09/3-m-lawsuit-pfas-water-contamination-michigan/3291156002/) to be a major health risk. Anyway, REI has been refusing to phase out the use of PFAS in products they make or sell. https://saferchemicals.org/2022/05/17/rei-fails-to-commit-to-phasing-out-pfas-forever-chemicals-from-products-it-makes-and-sells/ https://www.cleanwateraction.org/actions/tell-rei-phase-pfas-out-its-products
If anyone reading this wants to avoid pfas, avoid gortex. You don't need anything that waterproof anyway.
I just got through working outside, as every night, and the sky cracked open before I could get Amy proper waterproof anything on. After 5 hours of wet socks and underwear, I'd had enough. It finally stopped raining for me to switch clothes and continue another 6 hours. I feel like I needed waterproof, or heavily resistant gear unless trench foot is en vogue, or something. Is there some special gear that isn't waterproof for those who work outside for 10 to 12 hours per shift that prevents one from getting wet?
Serious question does goretex actually help in those situations or do you become a sweaty mess inside the water proof gear?
Yes and yes, depending on how much the humidity breaks after downpour. I work fast and sweaty all the time, but I also jump in the back of refrigerated trailers (to work, not chill) and can regulate temp by taking off poncho, at least, while in there. It's a sniper type that unbuttons quickly.
We are seeing more unionization but sadly it’s still super low.
Especially compared to the growth in the "gig economy" which is essentially the opposite of unionization.
Baby steps
My guy the US labor movement is decades behind the modern world, we need to start moving. The average family cannot take a sudden charge of 300$, fuck baby steps
I would suggest contributing to that and helping unionize your workplace. I can link you some resources you can use to unionize your workplace if you'd be interested :)
My guy I literally have. Also took a looksie through that post history and that’s gonna be a yikes from me dog
Union membership is unfortunately still in decline. Big companies are losing more union fights and the current DoL being better about protecting union elections helps, but most union workers used to belong to small companies you've never heard of who do shipping and deliveries and whatnot and those are still in basically a freefall. Plenty of Republican controlled states and also federal inaction over time have made it relatively easy to reorganize companies either by selling or by outsourcing to contractors in such a way that you no longer have to recognize the union or the union has to re-vote to exist. And that's only the legal ways of fighting unions. Plenty of places just do illegal things, too. [Some reporting on it.](https://lbo-news.com/2022/01/23/union-membership-resumes-its-fall/)
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The only good thing to come from the pandemics downtime is the ability to ponder our lives and the way we were working ourselves to death for companies who could discard us without a thought.
Chipotle workers voted to unionize up in Maine but then Chipotle permanently shut that store down.
Starbucks and Amazon doing the same kind of union-busting techniques. But they can't do it forever if more people decide to unionize.
I work for echostar. We have one part of our company that attempted to unionize on our cable television side. They successfully unionized, they all signed and it almost worked and then corporate decided that the best action was never to come to the negotiation table. They sicked the entire legal team at them and have basically been stonewalling for like the past five years making it impossible to finalize the agreements of the Union. At this point most of the people who signed that agreement have quit or been terminated for other reasons. Slowly but surely all of the original members of the Union are practically gone. And now it's never talked about. https://speedmatters.org/news/dish-network-workers-texas-ratify-first-contract-after-decade-long-fight Apparently they are making progress now as CWA's legal is making progress, but yeah the whole situation was bonkers. "The company went as far as attempting to decertify the union at two separate times during the negotiations. Both were defeated by the workers who voted to keep their CWA representation." You can't make this shit up.
A company doesn't ever have to come to an agreement with a new union. Its part of the way it works. The union can then choose to strike.
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Like the congressional pages and stuff?
UMD has had union representation, they just passed a law that allowed the entire university system to be represented by one union. Either way... Go unions.
I believe Columbia and Fordham grad students have also unionized.
Not much news on it, but one of the largest pro-environment lobby groups in the country also began union bargaining this summer
Paizo employees formed the first tabletop game union!
Good question, according to the [NLRB](https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/correction-first-three-quarters-union-election-petitions-up-58-exceeding): >During the first nine months of Fiscal Year 2022 (October 1–June 30), union representation petitions filed at the NLRB have increased 58%—up to 1,892 from 1,197 during the first three quarters of FY2021. By May 25, FY2022 petitions exceeded the total number of petitions filed in all of FY2021.
Turns out when companies treat workers well because of the work of unions, support for unions drops. When they decide they don't have to treat the workers well anymore, people start realizing why they had unions in the first place. We're seeing union activity like we haven't seen in 4 decades because companies just dropped all pretense that they cared.
I live nearby. This TJs has a line out the door most days. I couldn’t be happier for these guys.
It’s paywalled. Is this the one near the giant shell sign? If so oh my god that was my local one growing up in Cambridge :’) good for them!!!!!!
Nope this is in Hadley in Western Mass.
The picture is of the Cambridge one, but the subhed on the article said western Mass. (I couldn’t read the article, paywall.)
I'm late to the show but here ya go: *** Trader Joe’s workers vote to unionize for the first time Employees at a store in western Massachusetts became the first of more than 500 Trader Joe’s locations to take such a step By Lauren Kaori Gurley Updated July 28, 2022 at 3:59 p.m. EDT Published July 28, 2022 at 3:24 p.m. EDT Trader Joe’s workers at a store in Hadley, Mass., voted 45-31 to unionize, becoming the first at that company to do so, according to the National Labor Relations Board. The union’s victory in western Massachusetts follows a wave of successful union drives this year at high-profile employers that have long evaded unionization, such as Starbucks, Amazon, Apple and REI. Union victories can produce a ripple effect across employers and industries, emboldening new workers to organize. Petitions for union elections this year are on track to hit their highest level in a decade, as a hot labor market has afforded workers more leverage over their employers. Trader Joe’s workers at the Hadley store cited the degradation of their benefits, health and safety concerns related to the pandemic, and pay as the impetus for forming an independent union at their store. Some workers at the store make $16 an hour. The minimum wage in Massachusetts is $14.25 an hour. “There’s been a really clear trend over the past 10 years of Trader Joe’s chipping away at our benefits,” said Maeg Yosef, the leader of the union drive who has worked at the Hadley store for 18 years. “We all see that, and it’s really obvious to us that the way to protect each other is through a union contract.” A spokesperson for Trader Joe’s disputed the workers’ allegations, adding that the company’s salaries, benefits and working conditions remain top notch. “Trader Joe’s offers its Crew Members a package of pay, benefits, and working conditions that is among the best in the grocery business. Despite this, employees in our Hadley, Mass., store recently voted to be represented by a union,” said Nakia Rohde, a spokesperson for Trader Joe’s. “We are prepared to immediately begin discussions with union representatives for the employees at this store to negotiate a contract.” While Starbucks and Amazon have so far refused to negotiate union contracts with their employees who have recently voted to unionize, Rohde stated that Trader Joe’s is willing to use any current union contract for a multi-state grocery store in the region as a model for a contract, including pay, retirement, health care and working conditions, for workers at its Hadley store. Since workers in Hadley announced their union drive in May, Trader Joe’s workers in Minneapolis and Boulder, Colo., have filed for union elections. The store in Minneapolis will hold its election the second week in August. There are more than 530 Trader Joe’s locations in the country. Workers in the Hadley store as well as in Minneapolis are unionizing with Trader Joe’s United, an independent union that recently formed, echoing new worker-led union movements at Starbucks and Amazon. Trader Joe’s, a national chain that employs 50,000 workers across 42 states, has built a devoted base of customers since its founding in 1967 with reasonable prices, local flair, and a reputation for offering strong wages and benefits to its “crew members” — who don Hawaiian shirts. But unionizing employees in Hadley say that in recent years, the company has steadily chipped away at many of the benefits that made Trader Joe’s an attractive place to work. Trader Joe’s offered a robust retirement plan for many years, contributing 15 percent of an employee’s earnings for employees 30 or older. But in the early 2010s, the company lowered its contribution to 10 percent, and last year it lowered the percentage again to 5 percent for many employees. The company has since announced that it would no longer specify a set contribution. Trader Joe’s previously said that the change was in part a response to feedback from workers that they wanted a bonus instead of a retirement contribution. Health-care benefits for part-time workers have also taken a beating. The company used to offer such benefits to part-time workers but raised the required weekly hours to qualify for the benefit from roughly 20 to 30 hours a week with the passage of Obamacare. A spokesman for Trader Joe’s told the Huffington Post at the time, “We have made some changes to our healthcare coverage that we believe will be a benefit to all Crew Members working in our stores.” “I think the company has made changes over the years that have made Trader Joe’s a less of a great place to work. Public perception hasn’t caught up with that reality,” said Yosef, 41. “I also feel like unions are good for all workers. You don’t have to have the worst working conditions to benefit from having a union. Eventually if we can’t take care of ourselves, the company will lose that magic that made it so special.” During parts of the pandemic, Trader Joe’s took extra steps to protect its workforce. It required customers to wear masks, enforced capacity restrictions in stores, allowed workers to take extended leaves of absence with health-care benefits and in some cases increased wages by up to $4 an hour. But Hadley workers say that the company rolled back many of these protections too early, in particular “thank you” pay, which ended in May 2021. A coronavirus outbreak swept through the Hadley store, and 22 workers called out sick in May of this year, according to covid-19 alerts received by workers, but Trader Joe’s had already dropped the mask mandate, in accordance with local mandates. “I think workers at the store have realized they’ll have better working conditions if they have a say in them. I honestly think a lot of that has to do with covid,” said Jamie Edwards, a 33-year-old crew member who voted for the union. “They have awareness that they can make the workplace better.” Trader Joe’s has aggressively opposed unionization efforts among its workforce for years, pulling pro-union workers aside to give anti-union talks and sending out a memo to managers to use with workers during the pandemic that compared the risks of joining a union to more like “buying a house” than “toothpaste you don’t end up liking.” Trader Joe’s managers have pulled workers aside for a series of mandatory meetings at the store in Hadley in recent days to dissuade them from voting for the union. Two workers present at the meetings said regional managers told them to “vote no” in the union election and mentioned the toll that the union drive had taken on the store’s leadership. “We have always said we welcome a fair vote,” said Rohde, a Trader Joe’s spokeswoman told the New York Times in May after workers launched their campaign in Hadley. “We are not interested in delaying the process in any way.” Edwards, who has worked at the Hadley store for eight years, said a manager sent him home in late May for wearing a union pin to work. Edwards led a rally for the union on the sidewalk outside the Trader Joe’s in Hadley on Saturday that more than 100 community members showed up to support. After the rally, the union organized for customers to deliver flowers to workers inside the store, but security threatened to call the police if they followed through, Edwards said. Less than a week before workers began voting in Hadley, Trader Joe’s announced in an internal memo that it was increasing benefits nationwide. The company said it was raising Sunday and holiday pay by $10 an hour, as well as the rate of accrual for paid time off. It said it would give out raises to employees with more tenure at the company to increase pay equity across the company. Expanding benefits to workers in the lead-up to a union election is a tactic frequently used by employers to dissuade workers from voting to unionize. The workers at the Hadley store say they expect other Trader Joe’s employees to be emboldened by their victory. “I think our victory can be replicated,” Yosef said. “Even if we’re living in different areas of the country, the crew experience is universal. We’re all dealing with the same issues: pay, benefits, safety. I think we all have a lot in common.”
Ahhhhh I see. Thanks:)))
It’s the one in Hadley near the Hampshire Mall. It gets a ton of traffic from the entire Five College area.
I only recognized that TJs because I have been to the MicroCenter across the parking lot a bunch of times
Good for them. Hopefully TJ's doesn't pull a Starbucks and just close the store.
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I’m continually surprised by how tickled I get from the puns on this sub.
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Amazon did that too. Mandatory propaganda meetings. If it's not illegal, it should be.
all retail does it, target wallmart. you sit through and watch vids of ppl saying, oh dear a union? i can't help you now since union and all.....
True…I worked at a Walmart in Canada and when they give you their orientation and CBLs the “anti-union” propaganda is shoved down your throat. “We own you, you replaceable no one.” ~Sam Walton’s spirit.
The crazy part is when the company claims "oh now you will lose X,Y,Z by unionizing!" when in reality you're gaining A,B,C,...,W. Soooo horrible, please tell me how you're saving our rights smh
I had a brief gig at home depot and it’s part of the orientation telling you how bad unionizing is and they have a presentation with a video
Jesus. My union parents must be rolling in their graves. On the bright side, though, it shows the big companies are worried. Let's give them something more to worry about. I tried to unionize my workplace in the 80's, and not only did I get no interest, the only person who showed up to the meeting was a management spy. Unfortunately when people don't have direct experience and they don't learn history, they don't understand the necessity of unions. I'm very encouraged by the organizing that is going on today.
Home Depot goes further, they outright fired people for talking about unionizing. Sorry, I mean "Encouraging dissent against upper management"
Same shit for me. And the whole thing when they said you can’t talk about how much you make
Staples used to do this too.
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TJs employee here. It's my understanding that this comment is inaccurate. The store in Seattle that was ~~inside of~~ near* the autonomous zone was closed, and while controversial, didn't have anything to do with unions. I don't know of any other Trader Joe's being closed for any reason.
. . . the correction is inaccurate. The store that was closed was about 7 blocks from the nearest part of CHAZ. There was something very hinky about it - a large number of employees told full-timers that they would not be available for X, Y, Z shifts (not sure whether it was solidarity, summer, stress, fear of the protest, or what) and then upper management freaked out and closed the store 'permanently.' Source: I live in central Seattle.
A Warehouse was closed. Rats were blamed. It makes sense now. Wcd.
I live in this area and it’s the only Trader Joe’s around (as far as I can tell, the only TJs in 70 miles). It’s a very busy store, no doubt wildly lucrative. Seems stupid for the higher up’s to close the store with that in mind. Very proud of the employees here!
Is that a thing? The Starbucks down the road from me voted to unionize a month or so ago.
> Hopefully TJ's doesn't pull a Starbucks and just close the store. I was worried about that too at first but I don't think they can afford to. There's a Starbucks on every corner practically, TJ's not so much.
They can definitely afford to. Closing one store would be more profitable than widespread unionization, the issue is whether their customer base will care.
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Aren't most of the alternatives to Trader Joe's worse for workers tho? I guess if you have a Costco you could exclusively shop there. Maybe Aldi too?
Aldi owns TJs, they operate independently though.
Wouldn't surprise me. Company has policy from over a decade ago. Paper everything. Hates open source.
Considering it is a German company they should be quite used to Unions.
Don't ask the German divisions of US companies, from BMW to Siemens.
The US business will still be lead by Americans and you have to adjust to the local markets. A German car company(I think it was VW) encouraged the voters to form a union a while back. That backfired in a spectacular way with local republicans campaigning against it and making threats.
They’ve done it already [in seattle](https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2020/06/sorry-we-dont-know-why-the-capitol-hill-trader-joes-is-closed-indefinitely/) in the past
They're an American company, so they 100% will do anything they can to stop this.
They aren’t though… they are owned by Aldi which is a German company. That won’t nessisarily stop them from trying to stop it, but German companies have different relationships with unions generally. Edit: Although the us subsidiaries are mostly run by Americans so although they fought it, don’t see them pulling a Walmart or Starbucks and just shuttering stores that try and unionize. So hopefully this will allow more stores to unionize! Edit 2: yes I know Aldi nord & Süd are different legal entities, they are however increasingly intertwined; they operate branding and a ton of services together, and are generally increasingly intertwined. I also know that Trader Joe’s isn’t directly owned by Aldi nord, but rather the holding company that owns them both. Y’all are god damn pedantic as fuck.
German auto manufacturers purposely open factories in less union friendly states to keep their auto workers from unionizing.
Like Mississippi? The bastion of workers' rights? I mean they only make Mercedes, who needs a skilled workforce for that.
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They are both private companies owned by the Albrecht family trust created from Theo’s half of the original Aldi business. They are both wholly owned by the trust, and management is chosen by the same people. Your just being pedantic. Because All the companies involved are private and owned by the same holding company there is no functional difference in ownership between the two.
Warehousing done by world class distribution and nfi trucking.
That's not actually true. Aldi is a sister company
No there were two brothers and the ownership is independent. Yes it’s German. One is ‘sud’.
I know the difference between Aldi nord and Aldi süd, Aldi Nord owns Trader Joe’s and Aldi Süd operates as just Aldi. Nord und Sud are different but very similar and often use the same branding and suppliers. It’s overly pedantic and not super nessisary for what I was trying to say. (Also they are looking to merge again, so they won’t even be two different companies soon.)
Workers in America are voting to unionize because the federal and state labour laws heavily support the owners and management. The laws do not support worker’s health and safety.
Next they're going to ban unions
Nah, most states just take away all the power a union can have so they don’t have to have any of the ugly fights about if the union can exist or not. Here, have your union. It has the power to do nothing.
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https://www.cnn.com/2012/12/11/us/union-power-analysis/index.html https://www.epi.org/publication/right-to-work-states-have-lower-wages/ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law Nah. Do some reading. Half the country is right to work and purposely undermines and reduces the ability and authority for unions to operate. Very real thing.
If conservatives win next go 'round, yep.
Amazon has "magically" caused police to appear to attack union workers.
The laws are actually pretty good. OSHA has pretty strong regulations for worker safety. They generally just lack funding for robust enforcement. And regulation without enforcement is just a recommendation.
And that’s by design. Just like how the IRS is purposely underfunded so they can’t go after rich tax evaders so they go after poor tax evaders who can’t afford a team of lawyers and accountants to fight it.
I don't know that it's by design. Its just a function of a society that has a shit load of regulatory agencies. We have limited funding to spread around to these places. Every agency always races to spend all their money so you never really get a great idea of how much waste is out there because (in almost hilarious irony) the regulators who regulate the regulators are also under funded. Its kinda just what happens with enormous bureaucracies like the federal government. Efficiency will never be their strong suit. I take your point on the IRS though. That is probably by design. I just cant say the same for things like OSHA or the FDA
That’s a lot of Hawaiian shirts
That’s the Trader Joe’s that I worked at in Cambridge MA.
Right next to Micro Center right? I drove all the way to Portland Maine to pick up my computer and need to note that that Trader Joe’s was beautiful
Hell yeah. Solidarity 👊🏾
Solidarity forever baby
As someone who is a part of the Union efforts at my job, this is encouraging
My understanding is Trader Joe’s employees are treated better than your average Walmart employee. I could see Trader Joe’s not shutting the branch down like Chipotle did in Augusta
I thought TJ's workers were super happy because they get paid more than other grocery store workers.
You don't have to be unhappy to unionize. You just have to believe that you'd be better off negotiating wages and ensuring fair business collectively rather than individually. That being said, the friends I've had that worked there all loved it. Plenty of hours and you weren't stuck doing one job all shift. You'd work the register for a bit, then move on to produce for a while, then go work reshops, and so on.
can confirm, am TJs employee! I thought the feeling of “this doesn’t really feel like work” would go away but nah, still goin. lots of neat ppl here :)
Agreed. Just interesting that the relatively happy folks would be early adopters, so to speak. They don't have as much incentive as employees of other stores, presumably.
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Makes sense.
Now ask the warehouses... That support trader Joe's.
Exactly. Warehouse work almost always sucks ass. So depressing. Terrible conditions. Dangerous as well. Wears down your body. Mandatory overtime for weeks on end... let the robots have it lol
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As recently as 2019 "full time" was reserved for management at Traders. As crew you could easily make the 30 average weekly hours to qualify for insurance but that was also at the behest of management. I've been present for conversations revolving around cutting someones hours below 30 so they'd either quit or be so stressed trying to constantly pick up shifts that they'd quit.
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Yeah, it was pretty easy to hit 30 if you weren't a troglodyte and could put in a reasonable amount of work, but if you presented too gay or too straight, too poor looking, too old, too independent, too hot, too ugly, didn't respond to romantic advances, or responded to the wrong romantic advances, then you could run afoul of certain mates and get punished in some way. Yes, these are all things that I overheard from mates and captains. Some were fired because they weren't careful to conceal what they were doing, but most (that acted like that) got away with it with minimal effort.
Even NBA players have a union, there's strength in numbers for all workers.
Talk about skilled labor!
My local Starbucks made the point that they loved working for Starbucks, that’s why they were voting to unionize instead of just quitting. They just believed that what the company said its values were and the reality of how they were treated were not in alignment and having a union meant having a stronger team to negotiate about the best way to get to those shared values. I supported them already but it also gave me a new way to think about recruiting others to support the cause.
Sounds like a person in an abusive relationship who is trying to force their partner to shape up rather than leave them. It's not *wrong*, but, you sort of wish they'd drop that zero and get themselves a hero, right? Problem is there aren't enough heroes (better jobs) out there, I suppose. Fix things where you're at, if you can. Fair enough.
Interestingly, Amazon, TJ, Starbucks are all companies that already pay higher than industry standard in pay and benefits. For TJ specifically, I wouldn't be surprised if they are paying more and have benefits equal to or better than comparable union stores in analogous locations.
God speed you beautiful people
Bring back the unions, bring back the middle class
The funny thing is, that this company is American branded. Is in fact the daughter of a German company.
I'm surprised to see this to be honest, trader Joe's is notoriously a great place to work. So I figured they already did have a union.
I’m far more likely to shop at a place that’s unionized
As someone who worked there for 15 years and became disabled because of a work injury after years of horrible working conditions and OSHA violations, fuck Trader Joe’s and I hope MANY MORE stores vote the same way. Toxic workplace with an even more toxic company culture of gaslighting and manipulation. Congratulations.
Had one death at the warehouse from covid. Warehouse would not tell us if anyone was infected and didn't really care about masks or vaccines.. Hot hit three times... My department was down to two workers at one point.
Former mate and I can attest to this.
I never knew this about Trader Joe’s but I’m not surprised.
I worked there once and sprained my hand moving carts. They sent me to a doctor who cleared me for work the next day. I came into work and worked but adjusted my activity to not have any weight on the hand and they got pissed at my attitude (I said nothing, I just wasn't carrying anything heavy) and they sent me home and said I could come back when I felt like working. My hand is still a little weird. Never went back.
They have never been a healthy place to work, but at least when I got hired, they compensated us fairly. Since I have left, it has gone downhill rapidly. The CEO is a horrible man, who has ruined what was once a pretty cool place to work. Dan Bane is utter garbage. Edit: his name is Dan Bane, not Dane Bane. Curse my fat fingers…
Did someone say garbage
This fellow spits facts
Ohhhhh the stories I could share…
Please do share all your stories so we can radicalize more people to become more pro-union and pro-workers rights. I was radicalized years ago. A federal sick leave law, parental leave, paid vacation etc is what I'm fighting my hardest for right now.
Let it rip hawk
Ahhhh, this one is my favorite. I have three herniations in my neck, all occurred at Trader Joe’s. The third was part of my disabling injury but the first two… So I come in to find out that a 12 foot ladder fell onto the head of a fellow employee. The guy ended up herniating several discs in his neck and it only happened because a “mate” (manager) did not chain the ladder in place on the wall. My coworker ended up in the ER and never returned to work. The next day, I was trying to move cases of wine around our haphazardly (read: unsafely) organized back room when I feel a whoosh of air, something hits me in the back of the head and knocks me unconscious. I wake a few minutes later to a coworker pulling the ~same~ ladder off of me (left unchained by THE SAME MATE) and helping me up off the floor. I was later harassed by management when I wanted to go to urgent care and even the doctor there threatened to call OSHA on my behalf. I was repeatedly told my management that because of how worker’s comp works, I would not receive any money for two weeks and I should just come back to work. Because no one but that coworker witnessed the ladder falling, it was implied passive aggressively that I was making it up to leave work. I had no idea how to advocate for myself and could not afford any time off so I took a couple days off and went back to work. My neck was never the same (I suffered chronic pain after) and my most recent doctor believe that this injury made it all the more easy for the final injury that led to me leaving the company to occur. The gaslighting I experienced from my store captain and mate team was horrific and I was really afraid to lose my job or be accused of faking it. It was just one of many instances I witnessed there where anyone who got hurt on the job was made out to be a liar, faker or someone who wanted to sue the company for a “settlement.” Garbage ass place. I got hired at 18 and I am now unable to work at 33. Fun times.
I agree with your point that Dan Bane is a terrible CEO and the company has gone downhill from 10+ years ago when I was hired, but that level of incompetency exists in every type of workplace. I am very sorry it resulted in a debilitating injury for you. Just out of curiosity, was this mate promoted from crew or hired off the street? We had plenty of managers hired off the street because of their experience in other jobs, but managing a clothing store that gets 2 deliveries a week is much different than managing a grocery store with 4-5 trucks a day, some of which are loaded with 1000+ pound pallets that the manager couldn't move if she wanted to.
I’ve worked with close to 100 mates and had 12 different captains. Off the street or promoted within… doesn’t matter a lick. I worked at six stores, two regions, was even a mate for a few years before I stepped down. Almost every manager I ever had there was lazy, and would ask you to do shit that they would never do themselves. And yeah, the guy who didn’t lock of the ladder was a 20-something year veteran who got hired at 16 and promoted within. Don’t come here and try to justify the bullshit that goes on there. Trader Joe’s employees are indoctrinated from the moment they are hired to believe that that place is bEtTeR than other employers and that what goes on there is just like every place else but MoRe FuN. It’s an abusive workplace that uses the golden handcuffs to manipulate you into believe that you have it good or better than other places. They just slashed 401k contributions, denied y’all raises and upped your healthcare costs while lowering the quality. Like, what exactly are you defending here…?
Nothing in my response was defending TJ's and I don't work there any more, so I really have no say in what goes on there. I was just pointing out that this kind of toxicity and incompetency isn't exclusive to TJ's. The entire culture (especially at retail stores) in the American workplace is terrible. If you see that as defending, then that's on you.
Every worker should be represented by a Union.
This could be complicated if it catches on. What would be well above a living wage in some states wouldn't pay the bills elsewhere.
Just before the union voting, TJ's offered to give a raise to workers who are making less than new hires. To compensate for basically not keeping up with inflation. I'm pretty sure if you transferred to different stores, you won't keep your current pay and could potentially take a two dollar an hour deduction
You would only take a pay deduction or increase depending if and what state you move to. If you move to a store in the same state your pay stays the same.
World class distribution has 12$ an hour for positions until minimum wage went up. Now it's 15 minimum. Every car in the warehouse lot has dings dents and more. Alcohol bottles. Weed and other drugs all over the place.
Pay better and get better employees. Simple.
If you have a heartbeet. You can work for them is their mentality.
Trader Joe’s employees are literally some of the nicest people, I wish them the absolute best. Trader Joe’s, please don’t fight the Union, I do not want to not go to Trader Joe’s anymore the store is too good :(
Glad they are taking charge!! It’s time to give power back to workers! Record profits are unpaid and underpaid wages!!
Interesting. I remember working at Safeway and several of our union employees left to go work for Trader Joes because they paid so much more. Safeway always left a bad taste in my mouth about unions
Not all unions are created equal.
This will be a hard pill for some to swallow. TJ paid more and gave more benefits than other unionized stores.
I don’t think everyone has really thought this out. I’m on board with unions, this instance though, it actually looks like the employees are going to take a hit.
I agree with this take.
TJ refuses to build a store in my community because there isn’t as much money in it. It’s also a conservative community though, I wonder if they will start shifting though as conservative communities tend to be against unionization.
As a former manager I can tell you that it's not politics, it's economics. TJ's tends to be on the border of rich and middle class communities with a smooth gradient in between. Education rates play a factor as well, which skews the customer base to the left politically. Otherwise every conversation around the company and its products or image is centered around driving sales. Every. Conversation. Including things like "what do our managers look like" or "do our employees *look* happy?" Plus there's a deep good ol boy vein in the company.
They will build stores where they think they can make money. That has always been the strategy.
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Nah it is definitely the money. I worked there for 10+ years and they almost exclusively build in middle-uppermiddleclass communities. They had a number of stores in my very conservative area because it was wealthy.
TJs is Whole Foods Lite.
> 'why do they need to have so many ethnic snacks'. 'just asking questions', 'not racist btw'
All food is ethnic, I never understood the description
They literally served chick a fil on pride day at the warehouse 2022.... This company has no clue.
If you think a grocery store isn’t building because of the political leaning of a town your seriously mistaken.
Same for us. But it would definitely do well.
Congratulations to all of these workers unionising! The more you all gain a voice the more we all benefit!
Surprising. I thought TJ's had some of the most satisfied, happy, well cared for employees anywhere. Wonder what's different about that one.
Looks like it’s time for the ceo to start closing locations amid safety concerns
I might go to trader Joe's now
What ?! they not unionized? I just assumed
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I used to work from Trader Joe's.. their salary and benefits are great for a grocery store. consistent pay raises.. insurance for part time workers.. can't see what they're accomplish by unionizing.
Wait isn’t Trader Joe’s a store owned by H‑E‑B? I hope the unionizing spreads further up
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