. While the company has painted itself as a progressive organization that prioritizes the wants and needs of its employees, workers say that their relationship with management has been steadily eroding as the company reduces their benefits and pay and increasingly views the workers as disposable. This sentiment especially increased during the pandemic, workers say.
“Over time, Trader Joe’s has slashed benefits, retirement benefits in particular,” Minneapolis Trader Joe’s worker Sarah Beth Ryther told. Ten years ago, the company offered a 15 percent guaranteed retirement contribution, but that benefit has been slashed to zero — what the company calls a “discretionary contribution” — which Ryther said “leav[es] employees with absolutely no idea how much they’re going to be receiving.
Workers in both Hadley and Minneapolis say that the company has been harshly retaliating against pro-union workers. The unionunfair labor practice charges against the company over the Hadley unionization effort, saying that the company sent a worker home for wearing a union pin and has barred workers from discussing their wages.
Meanwhile, workers in Minneapolis say that the company recently fired a pro-union employee who had worked for the company for 13 years, claiming that the employee had a “negative impact” on other workers. The campaign comes as workers at other companies are winning unions in spite of harsh union-busting tactics. Last week, REI workers in Berkeley, California, officially kicked off their union campaign
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