Trader Joe’s Strikes Back; Shutters NYC Store

The closing note: "With appreciation, All of us at Trader Joe’s"

In a disturbing move Trader Joe’s has decided to shutter its popular and profitable location in New York City. The Union Square store was on a path to unionize. The workforce was planning to organize in affiliation with UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers International Union) when the decision to close arrived on August 11, without warning to customers and staff.

HuffPost sets the scene:

Workers at the Trader Joe’s Wine Shop in Manhattan spent the last four months laying the groundwork to unionize their store. A small organizing committee met regularly to discuss strategy around building support to join the United Food and Commercial Workers union, and they planned to go public with their effort the week of Aug. 15.

But in the early morning hours of Aug. 11, Trader Joe’s abruptly informed them it was closing the popular wine shop, its only one in New York City.

The closure comes on the heels of a wave of successful and unprecedented organizing at other locations in Hadley, MA and Minneapolis, MN. 

The move looks like classic union busting to industry observers. While national chains can close individual locations for a variety of legitimate business reasons, throwing a wrench into a burgeoning labor movement is not one of them.

Trader Joe’s will work hard to frame the move as anything but union busting, which is bad PR and illegal to boot. But it looks like Trader Joe’s has decided to follow in the shameful footsteps of corporations like Chipotle and Starbucks.

Per the Gothamist, the customer base was loyal and the location was doing well:

Outside the front doors on Thursday, confused customers like Jaquana Cornelius, stopped in their tracks when they saw the covered windows and wondered what happened.

“So they're just moving locations? I'm so confused right now, what's going on?” she asked the others gathered around the notice. “I’m pissed, I don't understand how it could just be gone, this is so random ... it can't have been because business was bad.”

Interesting legal note: HuffPost reminds us of the US Supreme Court decision Textile Workers Union v. Darlington Mfg. Co., 380 U.S. 263 (1965) that rules it is LEGAL to shutter an entire business to union bust, but ILLEGAL to shut down this or that location to union bust. Highlight of ruling as follows:

1. It is not an unfair labor practice for an employer to close his entire business, even if the closing is due to anti-union animus. Pp. 380 U. S. 269-274.

2. Closing part of a business is an unfair labor practice under § 8(a)(3) of the Act if the purpose is to discourage unionism in any of the employer's remaining plants and if the employer may reasonably have foreseen such effect. Pp. 380 U. S. 274-275.

The UFCW is helping to find out-of-work Trader Joe’s employees jobs at union workplaces. Meanwhile organizing continues. You can sign a petition to reopen the store.

And if you are a Trader Joe’s worker interested in unionizing at another location, you can reach out to UFCW.

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