North Center Trader Joe’s Employees Rally In Support Of Union Effort (2024)

NORTH CENTER — Trader Joe’s employees who filed to form a union at their North Center store earlier this month gathered to rally support for their cause Thursday night.

Employees of the North Center Trader Joe’s, 3745 N. Lincoln Ave., filed to form a union earlier this month to protect the pay, benefits and “progressive” atmosphere of the grocery store chain that in recent years has shifted to offering fewer employee benefits and stagnating wages, which has led to increasing turnover, union organizers said.

More than 100 of the grocer’s employees braved the chilly rain to attend the evening rally at North Center Town Square, 4100 N. Damen Ave.Employees standing along Damen Avenue held handwritten cardboard signs that read “Honk if you support the union” and “TJU.”

Vehicles passing by slowed down to honk their horns, including a Chicago Fire Department ambulance. Ald. Matt Martin (47th) and Chicago Teachers Union vice president Jackson Potter stopped by the rally to show solidarity with the nascent union.

Chants of “Get up, get down, Chicago is a union town” and “The union’s great. 688” could be heard, the latter referencing the corporate designation of the North Center Trader Joe’s.

“Trader Joe’s was once a golden place to work. But over time, they’ve chipped away at many of the things that made Trader Joe’s absolutely amazing,” said Sarah Beth Ryther, an employee at the store for the past two and half years.

Examples include the company’s 401K, which cut its contributions from 10 percent to 5 percent in 2022, and the reduction of employee hours, workers said.

Mandi Vogel has worked at the North Center store for six months. She said she was part of a “hiring bump” aimed at overstaffing the location so new employees could be trained there and then transferred to a new Trader Joe’s location at a later date.

But the new location hasn’t materialized, and due to overstaffing, North Center store employees now face reduced hours, she said.

“I can understand the planning of it, but it’s directly affecting the veterans that have been there forever that need hours,” Vogel said. “And it’s affecting me, who came on and was told I’d have four or five days a week and now my hours are getting cut.”

About 140 people are employed at the North Center Trader Joe’s. Members of Trader Joe’s United filed to form a union on April 8, according to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) records.

“We have petitioned the NLRB for an election, which will take place on April 28 and April 29 of this month,” said Nigel Brown, a member of the union organizing committee. “And we’re doing this because there is a growing awareness that we need to protect what we have at this company.”

Brown has worked for Trader Joe’s for 12 years, six of which have been at the North Center Store, he said. Over the last decade or so, the grocery chain has been “whittling away” workers’ rights, which led the employees at the North Center Trader Joe’s to take action by forming a union, Brown said.

“People like Trader Joe’s because of the crew, the workers there. It’s comprised of amazing people. I’ve met some of my best friends here,” Brown said.

Customers like shopping at Trader Joe’s because of the friendly, hugely diverse roster of people who add value to their grocery store run, but dwindling support for staff from the corporate office is putting that experience at risk, Brown said.

“New people who come into this job are so close to the poverty line, they make barely enough over minimum wage to survive,” Brown said. “There is a malaise in the crew, and everyone talks about it.”

In an April 10 complaint to the NLRB, Chicago employees alleged Trader Joe’s used “coercive statements (threats, promises of benefits, etc.)” to try and stop the new union’s organizing efforts.

After employees started unionizing in other states two years ago, Trader Joe’s joined Amazon, Starbucks and SpaceXin union-busting efforts, employees claim.

When faced with NLRB complaints about the alleged actions, the grocery store chain’s attorneys have argued the federal agency is “unconstitutional,” Brown said.

“Trader Joe’s corporate is not in it for the crew members anymore,” Brown said.

Employees said they expect that even if they win the vote, the process of getting a first contract will likely be an arduous process. They are asking fans of the store’s employees to support them with donations and other forms of solidarity to help continue the work of organizing toward a contract, employees said.

“We still haven’t gotten a contract, so all of the work that’s being done now is mostly pro bono. Donations help with legal fees and all these organizing efforts,” said Dan Poppen, who’s been with the store for three years.

If employees are successful, the North Center store will be the first Chicago-area Trader Joe’s to have a union and will be the fifth location nationwide to unionize, Brown said.

Messages left with Trader Joe’s corporate offices were not immediately returned.

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