Employees at a Whole Foods Market in Philadelphia voted on Monday to become the first trade union shop in the supermarket chain of Amazon, which opened a new front in the efforts of the e-commerce giant to get rid of the labor organization in several segments of its activities to keep out.
Employees in the vast Whole Foods store, in the Spring Garden district of the city, voted 130 to 100 for organizing with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, said the National Labor Relations Board.
Shop employees said they hoped that a trade union could help negotiate higher wages, above the current start percentage of $ 16 per hour, and better benefits. Some old employees, who have been to Whole Foods since Amazon, all bought the chain in 2017, said that reductions in benefits and cutbacks in personnel levels when Amazon had taken over, sources of frustration.
But those who led the trade union campaign hinted with a broader goal: to inspire a wave of organizing in the more than 500 supermarkets of the chain, adding to trade union drives among warehouse workers and deliverers who are already fighting Amazon.
“I expect others to follow, and that will increase the leverage we have increased at the negotiating table,” said Ben Lovett, an employee of the Philadelphia store who led the organization. “We have shown them that it is possible to organize at Amazon.”
“This fight is far from over,” said Wendell Young IV, president of UFCW Local 1776, who represents food and shopping workers in Pennsylvania, in a statement: “But today's victory is an important step forward.”
Whole Foods said in a statement that the company was 'disappointed' by the election result, but that it offered competitive compensation and benefits for employees and that it was 'dedicated to maintain a positive working environment' in the Philadelphia Store.
The successful attempt to form a trade union is against a background of what different employees have described as a campaign of intimidation of Whole Foods. They pointed to formed monitoring of employees and anti-trade union reports in the store, because employees were made public in the fall with their organizing efforts.
In unfair work practice that was submitted to the Labor Board earlier this month, UFCW Local 1776 Whole Foods accused an employee in the Philadelphia store as a retribution for supporting the Union Drive. The trade union also accused the chain of excluding the employees of the store to receive an increase that was given this month to all his other employees in the Philadelphia area.
Whole Foods said that it had met all legal requirements when communicating with employees about trade unions. The company denied allegations of retribution and argued that it could not legally change wages during the election process and that it had delayed a wage increase until after the elections to prevent them from influencing the votes.
“A trade union is not necessary on Whole Foods Market,” the company said in a statement prior to the elections, adding that it recognized the right of employees to “make a well -considered decision”.
The company, which has five days to challenge the election result before the result will be certified, will have to negotiate with the trade union for a contract about the trade union workers of the store, the NLRB said in explanation in which the result was announced.
But winning a trade union voice does not ensure that contract discussions claim. Amazon Warehouse employees who have had trade unions for almost three years still have no contract.
In 2022, employees voted for Island to form the first union of Amazon in the United States; It is now affiliated with the International Brotherhood or teamsters. Amazon has challenged the election result before the court and has refused to recognize or negotiate the trade union. Delivery Drivers, who work for package delivery companies from third parties that serve Amazon, have also set up campaigns with the teamsters.
Last week, Amazon said it all his warehouse and logistics operations in Quebec, the Canadian province, where trade unions had gained a foothold in some Amazon employees and had closed 1,700 employees.
The Union Push in Amazon's supermarket activities seems to be in certain ways of a trade union organization at Starbucks that has spread to more than 500 stores in the United States since 2021, said Brishen Rogers, professor in the Labor Act at the University of Georgetown.
In supermarkets and coffee shops, employees work side by side, day after day, in circumstances that often promote to get to know each other and form networks of solidarity, he said. This dynamic does not always exist in warehouses, where employees tend to keep constant supervision.
“I would not be shocked,” Mr. Rogers said, “if it had a snowball effect at different locations in Whole Foods, just like Starbucks.”
Ed Dupree, who works in the Whole Foods store in Philadelphia and was involved in the trade union campaign there, said he had contact with employees at other locations throughout the country who were interested in trade union. At least 10 other Whole Foods stores started to organize, he said.
The new political landscape in Washington can form obstacles to employees in Philadelphia while trying to negotiate a contract, or for other stores that can apply for trade union elections. After the embrace of the BIDEN administration trade unions, President Trump is expected to appoint a new NLRB alien counselor, whose approach could make it more difficult for organizing campaigns to succeed.
Employers usually use weaknesses in federal labor legislation to prevent them from reaching a first contract with new trade union staff, said Kate Andria, a professor of labor and labor law at Columbia University. Legal barriers for organizing and negotiation exist, regardless of the position of the government in the field of work, although companies may feel more encouraged to intimidate employees under President Trump, she said.
“We will probably see that the law becomes less favorable for employees during the Trump government,” said Mrs. Andrias. But, she added: “Even in periods in which there have been hostile labor boards in the past, employees have been successful in organizing trade unions.”
