Fights are brewed in the vast Hall Foods market in Philadelphia. Approximately 300 workers will vote on Monday on whether to establish the first union in the Amazon grocery business.
Several clerks said that the union would be able to negotiate a higher start wage of $ 16 per hour. They are also aiming to protect health insurance for part -time workers and dismissal with will.
There are also wider goals. The entire food chain inspires the waves of organizationalization, adding to a union drive between the warehouse worker and the Amazon who is already fighting.
“If all different sectors that function, if you have a little more control, and have more voices in the workplace, it will delete Amazon's power or at least. Eed Duprey, an employee of the maintenance department, has been working in WHOLE FOODS since 2016.
Management is looking at things different. “There is no union in the Whole Foods Market,” the company stated in a statement, adding the rights of employees to make decisions based on information.
Since the release of Union Live in the fall of last year, the store manager has strengthened employee monitoring, sending anti -union messages in the rest room, cutting posters, and throwing the union from a negative perspective. He said he was held.
Audrey TA, who has met online orders at the store, plans to vote in favor of union with united foods and commercial workers, but was worried among workers. She stopped wearing Union Pin at work.
“People bow down and try not to talk about it,” said Ta. “Management is really paying attention to what we are talking about.”
Whole Foods stated that all legal requirements were compliant when communicating with employees and unions.
The UFCW Local 1776, the representative of the Pennsylvania workers, has filed an unfair labor accusation to the National Labor Committee, and blame Hallfood in retaliation by supporting union live. I am. The union also accused all other workers in the Philadelphia region, excluding the store employees from this month.
“They treat them differently,” said Wendell Young IV, president of UFCW Local 1776.
Whole Foods has denied retaliation. The company argued that the wage could not be legally changed during the election process and delayed salaries until the election to avoid trying to affect the voting.
Last year, after the majority of workers' workers signed a union approval card, the union submitted an election petition. However, the organizational employee, Ben Lavett, said that the election was expected to be approaching.
Whole Foods is the latest segment of Amazon's business that confront the union's outlook. In 2022, workers on Staten were voted for establishing the first Amazon union in the United States. Currently, we are affiliated with the Team Star International Brotherhood. Amazon opposed the results of the election and appealed for the court and refused to recognize or negotiate with the union.
Delivery drivers working at a third -party package distribution company, which provide services from California to New York, have also started campaigns with team stars.
Rob Jennings, an employee of a food section prepared at the Philadelphia store, has been working for nearly 20 years. He said that after Amazon purchased a chain in 2017, he noticed a series of changes. Programs that provided some of the surplus of the store to employees have been discarded, part -time workers have lost their health insurance and have begun to decrease in personnel arrangements.
Although WHOLE FOODS was not a worker's paradise, Jennings said, “I have a fantasy to regain everything they robbed.”
WHOLE FOODS stated in a statement that the abandoned profit distribution program did not make any profit to all employees, and the company invested in wages instead. Part -time workers lost their ability to purchase health insurance throughout the company and did not lose their funded health insurance. The part -time worker receives other benefits, such as in -store discounts and 401 (K) plans. And the company is working to keep the staff of the store appropriate.
KHY Adams first knew the Philadelphia store as a high school hangout. She wanted to work there for many years, but in August she landed a job to supervise the hot food bar.
But she said she couldn't find the work -life balance she was looking for. She said she wanted the union to help improve conditions.
In addition to Amazon's pushback, political transformation in Washington can bring a hurdle. After the Biden administration has accepted the union, Trump is expected to appoint a new NLRB General Adviser, which could be difficult to succeed in the campaign.
“Amazon has the most difficult machine to extend it, shut it down, and keep working on it,” Adams said about the union campaign.
