A Whole Foods grocery store in Philadelphia became the first in the nation to unionize Jan. 27 when a unit of 297 workers voted 130–100 to join United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776.
Workers hope a union can protect them against at-will firing and win wage increases and health insurance for part-time workers.
But getting a first contract will be a challenge given the militantly anti-union posture of its parent company Amazon.
Since the union campaign went public last fall, the company waged a full-scale anti-union campaign at the store, included anti-union meetings at work, anti-union posters in break rooms, and even text messages after hours. Some tactics broke labor law, Local 1776 said in charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board, including firing an employee in retaliation for supporting the union drive and excluding employees from a pay raise that was given to all other workers in the Philadelphia area.
The company is already contesting the election results, on the grounds that President Trump’s removal of NLRB board member Gwynne Wilcox deprives the NLRB of a quorum, and therefore the agency’s regional director lacks the authority to certify that the union won the election.
