BARGAINING UPDATE 11/29/22 and 11/30/22 Minneapolis, MN

We just finished our second bargaining session with Trader Joe’s. Here’s how it went.

This session proved that we need a contract, & that TJ’s is committed to drawing the process out. If they think they are going to wear us down, they’re wrong. Our committee has been collectively bagging groceries for at least a century. If that doesn’t wear us down, nothing will!

Again, the company failed to send any representatives with direct experience (or sufficient knowledge) at the store level…

While the company has the right to choose its reps, this means that we must stop while presenting each proposal to explain basic things that a crew member would learn on their first day on the job. It’s a drain on our limited resources, and it’s a time waster.

Much of our attention this session was focused on two things: discussion around a 401k bonus benefit, and anti-discrimination issues, mainly the right to wear effective pronoun pins.

Long story short on the 401k bonus–we thought we had an immediate victory when the company extended the deadline for us to negotiate this item, which was offered to non-unionized stores as well (albeit with different deadlines). But then we read the fine print–

–and found their proposal rife with legal ‘poison pills’--like waiving our right to file ULP charges if the company botches the implementation of this benefit. Or language that could exclude unionized stores from our current retirement plan entirely.

Well, we aren’t easily fooled and we aren’t easily scared. We knew our stores wanted this benefit but we were not going to harm our members in order to get it.

Repeatedly we proposed adjustments to their language, and repeatedly the company came back with changes….that meant the exact same thing as the original language. Seriously, by the last iteration it felt like we were in a Twilight Zone episode, corporate legal edition.

Still, we held strong, and left them with a final counter proposal. The day after bargaining ended, the company relented and we won this benefit, all poison pills removed. Take note, TJs–we will hold our ground. #thecrewunited

Another huge topic of this session was pronoun pins. In Minneapolis, per a supposed ‘official policy’ that exists nowhere in our handbook and could not be produced by the company’s reps, there has been a crackdown on pronoun pins worn at work.

Crew members are being told that they cannot wear pins larger than one inch in diameter, and pins cannot contain any language other than a simple listing of pronouns.

The issue? These pins aren’t large enough to be legible to customers, and crew are constantly misgendered at work without larger, more effective pins.

Our committee members spoke out about what that means for their day to day. It’s the difference between feeling safe and secure at work, or a workday full of emotional and mental pain and stress.

TJs came back with a proposal…for pronoun pins that are 1.5 inches in diameter. Still not big enough to be read by others while we are working, and still far smaller than the union pins worn by crew in MN.

Our only conclusion is that Trader Joe’s, while enjoying the “progressive” image that a highly queer crew can bring to the company, doesn’t actually care about or understand what it takes to care for those crew, and doesn’t want our queerness to be *too visible* to our customers.

We think it’s important to note that while the company argues for hard-to-see pronoun pins under the guise of following our uniform policy, we are often asked/encouraged to dress up as turkeys for Thanksgiving, or wear football jerseys for the Superbowl.

Again, we presented our anti-discrimination proposal, and again the company countered with the status quo, arguing that our company handbook covers anything that needs to be covered.

We brought up the issue of hair discrimination as an issue not covered by company policy, pointing out that some tasks require hair coverings, but company does not provide headgear suitable for all types of hair…

The company’s response: instead of providing hats or coverings for all hair types, Trader Joe’s could accommodate folks by assigning them different responsibilities entirely. Yeah, you read that right. Their solution to discrimination is…more discrimination.

Another highlight: we presented a proposal that would prevent subcontracting in unionized stores. The company’s response was a counterproposal to retain the right to subcontract our work out–despite the fact that historically, our work has NEVER been contracted out.

As if we don’t have families and commitments of our own, one of the company’s reps tried to gain our sympathy by sharing that she was away from her family in order to bargain. We were not impressed. As a lawyer, bargaining is part of her job.

It does not escape us that the company’s reps, who earn hundreds of dollars per hour, are building their own wealth through this process while we charge plane tickets to our credit cards, miss shifts, & use up what little paid time off we might have left to fight for a contract.

Despite all this, we are thrilled to sit down at the table each session, because we care about our coworkers, we care about getting a contract, and we aim to hold Trader Joe’s to their purported core values.