Bargaining Update: 2/16/23 & 2/17/23 Minneapolis, MN

We had two days of negotiations in Minneapolis last week. Crew from Hadley, MA and Louisville flew in to join their union siblings in MN at the table.

While Louisville’s certification has been delayed due to an objection filed by Trader Joe’s, we remain #thecrewunited. As such, we have welcomed Louisville crew members into our discussions, so they can support us in bargaining as they await certification. 

While our stores in MN and MA approach bargaining together, with the goal of a national contract, Trader Joe’s continues to bargain with each store separately. So, after presenting our economic proposals in Hadley two weeks ago, we shared them again in MN.

We developed these proposals during hours of Zoom meetings where crew from unionized stores discussed some of the issues that matter most to us: wages, benefits, and paid time off. Here are our initial economic proposals:

Wages: We are joining workers across the country in asking for a starting wage of $30/hr, (plus adjustments for seniority, annual cost-of-living increases, and annual progression increases). 

Health care: We are done watching our coworkers lose their health benefits or struggle to afford care. We are asking for every crew member and merchant to be eligible for our employer’s best health care plan. No premiums, no hours requirements, no high deductibles.

Paid Time Off: It’s time for real paid time off. We are asking for increased Absence Reserve to cover vacation and personal days, plus (for the first time) dedicated sick days and bereavement time. 

Retirement: In 2012, Trader Joe’s offered eligible crew members a guaranteed retirement contribution equal to 15.4% of their annual earnings. Now, crew have NO guaranteed contribution.

This is unacceptable, especially from a company that continues to claim its benefits are “the best in the industry.” We deserve to be able to plan for the future.

Our employer dismissed our proposals, saying that they “aren’t based in reality,” or “aren’t something that any other grocery store would do.” This, from a company that has always prided itself on being the best in the industry, an outlier, an imaginative space in retail.

As it stands now, wages in the Minneapolis store are as low as $16.25 an hour. There are crew members on SNAP, crew members on Medicaid. We believe that our proposals are absolutely grounded in reality–the reality of working class people.

The reality is, we should be able to afford to buy food at the same store that we work at, have predictable retirement contributions, affordable and accessible health care, and enough paid time off that we can get sick without losing our health insurance, or missing rent.

In the end, Trader Joe’s did not engage with or counter our proposals, saying that they were not prepared to discuss economics. Well, we are–and we look forward to their counters.

At the end of the session, Trader Joe’s announced that they had filed an unfair labor practice charge against Trader Joe’s United. 

They claim that by including Louisville crew members in our discussions, and advocating for our goal of a national contract for MA and MN, we are bargaining in bad faith. We look forward to these baseless claims being struck down by the Board.

We also look forward to Louisville’s certification. The company has repeatedly promised “a fair vote” to stores seeking to unionize. Filing groundless objections after a store solidly wins their election is anything but fair.