Trader Joe’s #725 in Minneapolis has become the second of the chain’s locations to vote in favor of unionizing. Workers, media, and union supporters gathered at the store on Friday, August 12 for the vote count. The workers overwhelmingly voted in favor of unionizing by a margin of 55 to 5.
Minneapolis Trader Joe’s workers launched the union drive in late June, not long after the workers at a Hadley, Massachusetts, Trader Joe’s declared their intent to unionize. Minneapolis Trader Joe’s workers are fighting for improvements to pay, benefits and both worker and customer safety, along with protections for workers from being arbitrarily fired.
Trader Joe’s is just the latest in a wave of increasingly widespread labor organizing throughout the United States, following in the footsteps of Amazon and Starbucks unionization efforts, among many others. Workers involved in these organizing efforts have been able to make inroads in industries where unionization had been previously unsuccessful, and their victories are an inspiration to workers everywhere who know they deserve dignity.
