LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Trader Joe’s has agreed not to threaten or intimidate its Louisville store employees over their union activity, but the company continues to dispute a January 2023 election in which its Louisville employees voted to organize.
The settlement resolves charges filed by the National Labor Relations Board alleging the company improperly interfered in the union effort.
The deal, approved by the NLRB’s regional office in Cincinnati late last month, requires Trader Joe’s “not to threaten loss of pay raises or work flexibility, interrogate employees about union support, or corner employees to talk about unionization,” according to the NLRB.
Trader Joe’s did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The privately held grocery chain has been fending off a union drive that has so far resulted in four of its U.S. stores — including Louisville — joining Trader Joe’s United, an independent upstart union. (Trader Joe’s has more than 500 U.S. stores in 40 states, according to trade publication Progressive Grocer).
In January, the NLRB’s regional office certified the 2023 election at the Louisville store in favor of the union, but Trader Joe’s has not accepted the result. It is asking the NLRB’s national board to order a new election.
In a February legal brief, the company said the union and its supporters “intimidated, coerced and publicly threatened (rank-and-file employees) during the critical period and within 24-hours of the election in a manner that interfered with their free choice … and used racial appeals to impact the … vote.”
The union denies those charges, saying Trader Joe’s presents no evidence for them and that the company has “weaponized” the NLRB process to delay bargaining with the new union over pay and working conditions at the store, according to a legal brief.
Connor Hovey, a part-time Trader Joe’s “crew” member and a leader of the union effort, said employees are ready to negotiate a labor contract. Their goals include raising starting pay (currently $15-$17 per hour, he said), improving health insurance and guaranteeing 401(k) contributions.
Hovey, who is also a student at the University of Louisville, said the company appears to hope that the longer it can put off negotiating, the more likely the union effort will fizzle as employees leave and are replaced.
The store employees about 100 workers who would be covered by the union, according to NLRB records.
Nearly a year and a half after the January 2023 vote, Hovey said there is still “a pretty solid majority of people that are wanting this union at our store.”
“Organizing doesn’t stop once a vote happens, so we’ve been able to communicate even with new people coming into the fold about how important it is for us to have a say in the terms and conditions of our employment,” Hovey, 30, told WDRB News in an interview Thursday.
