Over the past year, Hampshire County has experienced a wave of unionization across various sectors, including medical centers, cafes, and retail franchises. One of those retail franchises was Trader Joe’s in Hadley, whose workers, represented by Trader Joe’s United, voted to unionize in 2022 in a 45-31 vote in 2022, becoming the first Trader Joe’s franchise in the nation to do so.
Since 2022, the Trader Joe’s location in Hadley has submitted 53 filings to the National Labor Relations Board related to unfair labor practices and petition filings, more than any other organization in Hampshire County. The NLRB supports workers who choose to form unions, ensures that corporations allow free and fair union elections, and protects union workers if businesses retaliate against them. For comparison, most Trader Joe’s locations have zero or a handful of NLRB filings in their history.
Some of the charges union members have charged Trader Joe’s with include “Refusal to Bargain/Bad Faith Bargaining”, “Coercive Rules”, “Coercive Statements (Threats, Promises of Benefits, etc.)”, interrogation, and discharging employees. The former are examples of tactics businesses use to dissuade workers from pursuing unionization efforts, creating an environment of fear and uncertainty.
In addition to the charges, “Trader Joe’s illegally terminated a long-term employee, allegedly for failing to remove a small power tool from the store’s premises when asked to do so by management, and retaliated against workers at two unionized stores by providing them a less favorable retirement benefit than at non-union stores,” reported the Daily Hampshire Gazette in August of 2024.
The unionization efforts at Trader Joe’s in Hadley reflect a broader national trend of workers demanding better wages and improved working conditions. In 2023, a significant surge in union activity occurred, with 115,000 workers participating in union elections—the highest number in a decade, according to the Center for American Progress. This trend continued in 2024, with Western Massachusetts alone seeing nearly 600 workers vote to join unions, as reported by The Shoestring.
The success of Trader Joe’s United has inspired workers at other Trader Joe’s locations across the country to consider unionizing, signaling a potential shift in the retail sectors, with employees at companies like Amazon and Starbucks also taking steps to unionize. However, unionization is rarely a smooth process. Companies frequently stall negotiations, hold union-busting campaigns, or – according to More Perfect Union, an advocacy nonprofit– leverage organizations like the National Right To Work Foundation to spread dissent among members in efforts to decertify the union.
The Trader Joe’s case in Hadley is a microcosm of a larger, national movement. As Trump’s administration attacks numerous federal agencies, including the NLRB, it will be vital to keep close watch on labor movements like Hadley’s Trader Joe’s United chapter that continue to organize and resist.