{"id":36522,"date":"2024-09-28T12:06:47","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T19:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=36522"},"modified":"2024-09-28T12:06:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-28T19:06:48","slug":"workers-at-progressive-trader-joes-face-rampant-union-busting-two-years-after-first-store-unionized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/09\/28\/workers-at-progressive-trader-joes-face-rampant-union-busting-two-years-after-first-store-unionized\/","title":{"rendered":"WORKERS AT \u2018PROGRESSIVE\u2019 TRADER JOE\u2019S FACE RAMPANT UNION BUSTING TWO YEARS AFTER FIRST STORE UNIONIZED"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Like Starbucks and Amazon, the \u2018progressive\u2019 grocery chain Trader Joe\u2019s has experienced a wave of unionization efforts in the COVID era\u2014and has fought to crush them at every turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BY\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/author\/maximillian-alvarez\">MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ<\/a><\/strong> SEPTEMBER 25, 2024 (therealnews.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therealnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/GettyImages-2150415739-scaled.jpg?fit=2000%2C1333&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Trader Joe's employees and crew members from left Will Greene, Mandi Vogel, Nigel Brown, Dan Poppen, and Bulat Schamiloglu pose for portrait on April 27, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Joshua Lott\/The Washington Post via Getty Images\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Trader Joe&#8217;s employees and crew members from left Will Greene, Mandi Vogel, Nigel Brown, Dan Poppen, and Bulat Schamiloglu pose for portrait on April 27, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Joshua Lott\/The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Reporting from the front lines is at the&nbsp;<strong>heart of our mission<\/strong>. As a TRNN viewer, you know the difference our coverage makes. Will you<strong>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/support.therealnews.com\/-\/XQCPXMQT\">contribute today to help us continue providing in-depth, on-the-ground reporting<\/a><\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/support.therealnews.com\/-\/XUCQHDZJ\"><strong>YES! SIGN ME UP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Two years ago, workers from several different Trader Joe\u2019s grocery stores joined the wave of unionization efforts spreading across the country. Workers in Hadley, Massachusetts, made history in 2022 by not only becoming the first Trader Joe\u2019s store to vote to unionize but also by opting to form an independent union, Trader Joe\u2019s United (TJU). However, like with Starbucks, Amazon, Medieval Times, and other companies where workers have been exercising their right to organize in recent years, rampant union busting has been part of the Trader Joe\u2019s story from the beginning. What\u2019s worse, as Alex Press writes in Jacobin, rather than be compelled to follow the law and play by the rules, the supposedly progressive grocery chain has joined Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX in attacking the very constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board. What is the current state of the union drive at Trader Joe\u2019s? What issues are employees (\u201ccrew members\u201d) still dealing with on the job, and what can supporters do to help? In this episode, Max speaks with Alec Plant, a worker organizer at the Lincoln and Grace Trader Joe\u2019s in Chicago and a member of Trader Joe\u2019s United.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Additional links\/info below:&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Trader Joe\u2019s United&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/traderjoesunited.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/traderjoesunite\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter\/X<\/a>&nbsp;page, and&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.instagram.com\/traderjoesunited\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lauren Kaori Gurley, The Washington Post, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2024\/04\/30\/trader-joes-union-chicago-nlrb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">As Chicago Trader Joe\u2019s votes on unionizing, grocer fights other efforts<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Alex Press, Jacobin, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/02\/trader-joes-nlrb-new-deal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Trader Joe\u2019s rejects the New Deal<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dave Jameison, HuffPost, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/trader-joes-accused-threatening-workers-labor-board_n_65ef8ab2e4b05cfcf680b337\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Trader Joe\u2019s threatened workers ahead of union vote, feds allege<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Talia Soglin, Chicago Tribune, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2024\/04\/08\/trader-joes-north-center-union-filing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Workers at North Center Trader Joe\u2019s are first in Chicago to file for union election<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Steven Greenhouse, The New Republic, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/177557\/trader-joes-union-busting-bargaining-table-first-contract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How corporations crush new unions<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Steven Greenhouse, The Guardian, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/mar\/10\/starbucks-trader-joes-spacex-challenge-labor-board\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Major US corporations threaten to return labor to \u2018law of the jungle\u2019<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Maximillian Alvarez, Working People \/ The Real News Network, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/want-to-unionize-your-workplace-these-worker-organizers-have-some-advice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Want to unionize your workplace? These worker-organizers have some advice<\/a>\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Permanent links below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.speakpipe.com\/workingpeople\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Leave us a voicemail<\/a>&nbsp;and we might play it on the show!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Labor Radio \/ Podcast Network&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.laborradionetwork.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LaborRadioNet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a>&nbsp;page, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/laborradionet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a>&nbsp;page<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In These Times&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/inthesetimes.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/inthesetimesmag\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a>&nbsp;page, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/inthesetimesmag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a>&nbsp;page<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Real News Network&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/therealnews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube<\/a>&nbsp;channel,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/our-shows-podcasts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">podcast<\/a>&nbsp;feeds,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/therealnews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a>&nbsp;page, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheRealNews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a>&nbsp;page<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Featured Music:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Jules Taylor, \u201cWorking People\u201d Theme Song<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Studio Production: Maximillian Alvarez<br>Post-Production: Jules Taylor<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-transcript\">TRANSCRIPT<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All right. Welcome everyone to another episode of Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles of the working class today. Brought to you in partnership within these Times Magazine and the Real News Network produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like You Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast network. If you\u2019re hungry for more worker and labor focused shows like ours, follow the link in the show notes and go check out the other great shows in our network and please support the work that we are doing here at Working People because we can\u2019t keep going without you. Share our episodes with your coworkers, your friends and family members. Lead positive reviews of the show on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and reach out to us if you got recommendations for folks you\u2019d like us to talk to on the show or topics you\u2019d like us to investigate and please support the work that we do at The Real News Network by going to the real news.com\/donate, especially if you want to see more reporting from the front lines of struggle around the US and across the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My name is Maximillian Alvarez and we\u2019ve got a great episode for y\u2019all today. As you guys heard there at the top of the episode, we\u2019re talking today with Alec Plant, a worker organizer at the Lincoln and Grace Trader Joe\u2019s store in Chicago, and a member of Trader Joe\u2019s United. It\u2019s been a little while since we checked in with workers who have been fighting to unionize Trader Joe\u2019s, but it\u2019s really important that we do and that we keep checking in because workers struggles don\u2019t just go away when their store votes to unionize and workers struggles at a company as big as Trader Joe\u2019s. Don\u2019t just go away when a few stores vote to unionize. In many respects, sadly, the opposite is true as we know. It was two years ago in 2022 when workers from several different Trader Joe\u2019s grocery stores voted to unionize, starting with workers at a store in Hadley, Massachusetts where workers not only voted to unionize, but opted to form an independent union Trader Joe\u2019s United.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now other stores in Minneapolis and Louisville and Oakland also voted to unionize under the banner of Trader Joe\u2019s United. While workers in Boulder, Colorado and workers at the Trader Joe\u2019s New York City wine shop were working to unionize with the UFCW or the United and Commercial Workers. Now, the New York City Wine Shop store was abruptly closed. The same week workers were planning to go public with their union campaign in a suspected act of retaliation, which the company of course denies and workers in Boulder withdrew their election petition. One day after UFCW Local seven filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board saying that the company was illegally coercing and intimidating workers, which the company also denied. Now, like with Starbucks, like with Amazon Union busting or alleged union busting has been part of the Trader Joe\u2019s unionizing story from the jump. In a HuffPost article from March of this year, Dave Jamison writes, quote, prosecutors at the National Labor Relations Board say, trader Joe\u2019s illegally interrogated workers and threatened to take away their pay raises when they were trying to form a union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year, the alleged threats came in the runup to a January, 2023 election at a Louisville Kentucky store where workers voted in favor of joining a new union. Trader Joe\u2019s United. The company has challenged the election results by claiming the union illegally influenced the vote. But according to the complaint filed Monday, prosecutors say it was Trader Joe\u2019s that committed unfair labor practices meant to sway workers against unionizing. And these types of rulings against Trader Joe\u2019s for rampant union busting have become a near constant affair. As Alex Press writes in Jacobin in March of 2023, the NLRB ruled that Trader Joe\u2019s had illegally asked another worker this time in Houston, Texas for raising concerns about working conditions. The board ordered the company to rehire the worker with back pay. In May, the board issued a complaint against Trader Joe\u2019s for removing union literature for the employee break room at a unionized Minneapolis Minnesota location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Join thousands of others who rely on our journalism to navigate complex issues, uncover hidden truths, and challenge the status quo with our free newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox three times a week<\/strong>:SIGN UP<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two months later, trader Joe\u2019s sued TJU for trademark infringement taking issue with the union\u2019s logo, which is designed to evoke Trader Joe\u2019s branding. Vera, a judge for the US District Court of the central District of California threw the case out earlier this month of the company\u2019s claim that customers might accidentally purchase union merchandise from the Union website under the assumption that they were buying official Trader Joe\u2019s merchandise. Vera judged it so ludicrous as to constitute an attempt to weaponize the legal system against Trader Joe\u2019s United for the purpose of gaining advantage in an ongoing legal labor dispute. Vera, that Trader Joe\u2019s litigation strategy came close to deserving sanction for its improper claims. Another judge dismissed a similar case brought by medieval times against Medieval times performers united the workers union at that company. But that\u2019s not all. I mean. Now, rather than be compelled to follow the law and play by the rules like so many other companies are doing, now that the judiciary all the way up to the Supreme Court is just stacked with corporate serving Trump appointed judges, trader Joe\u2019s is flipping over the table and challenging the nlrbs very existence. Trader Joe\u2019s. Alex Press writes, the supposedly progressive grocery chain has joined Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX in attacking the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s not forget that at the center of all of this always is working people bravely exercising their rights and trying to improve their lives and their jobs for themselves and their coworkers. And not only has Trader Joe\u2019s been fighting that tooth and nail, but they are now fighting the very foundation upon which workers in this country across the board, not just at Trader Joe\u2019s can exercise those rights. And so we need to continue to care about this and to show solidarity. We need to continue to follow up on this story and to lift up the voices of workers themselves, workers like Alec Plant, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re here to do today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am Alec. I am an employee, a crew member at Trader Joe\u2019s on Lincoln and Grace in Chicago, Illinois. I\u2019m a member of the organizing committee. I\u2019ve been on the organizing committee for probably six or eight months now, and we\u2019re in the process, we\u2019re in the middle of, we had our union election and in the middle, we\u2019re still in the middle of a campaign to make sure our store gets unionized. So that\u2019s who I am and what I\u2019m doing right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, Alec, again, thank you so much for joining us today on the show. Man, I really appreciate it. I know you got a lot going on with the Union Drive and also with your working life and all that stuff, so really appreciate you taking the time to sit down and chat with us and really excited to get an update on where things are with the Trader Joe\u2019s United struggle because this is a crucial, pivotal struggle, not only in the sense of workers standing up for themselves, working together to improve their lives, but also the Trader Joe\u2019s United struggle has really kind of taken an important place in the imagination of the labor movement today and the backlash from Trader Joe\u2019s like in the courts and the ways that they\u2019re trying to union bust like Starbucks and other companies like Amazon. I mean, these are stories that have really been at the forefront of the labor discussion over the past couple years. And of course, we\u2019ve had a fellow Trader Joe\u2019s workers on the show before. We\u2019ve done some live shows with the great Sarah Beth Ryther out there in Minnesota. Shout out to Sarah Beth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Love Sarah Beth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh yeah, Sarah Beth\u2019s a g man. So if you guys haven\u2019t definitely listened to those live shows we did with Sarah Beth, we\u2019ll link to them in the show notes. But yeah, as I said in the intro, it has been a minute since we\u2019ve been able to really check in with you guys and see how things are going and what folks out there can do to continue to support y\u2019all. And so I kind of wanted to start there and ask if we could just sort of take a quick step back and give folks a refresher here, because this has been a protracted struggle. I mean, the Trader Joe\u2019s Union Drive is one of those crucial stories that emerged out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first story unionized in 2022 amidst as we were all reeling from CO. But so I wanted to ask if you could just sort of give our listeners a bit of refresher on the Union Drive itself, where it came from, what role Covid played in that, but also what the longstanding issues were that proceeded Covid that really came to a head in this union drive. And then we\u2019ll talk a bit more about your own kind of personal path into working at Trader Joe\u2019s and being involved in that campaign. But I guess for folks who haven\u2019t checked in a while, yeah, give us a little refresher here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So some of the longstanding concerns have been to do with healthcare. They\u2019ve increased the number of hours we need for healthcare, and that\u2019s been going on for a long time. It used to be you could work, I think two or three days and get healthcare, and now they\u2019ve significantly increased the number of hours you need to work. There have been problems in different stores with management. At our store we call our sort of general manager, the captain, and in a lot of the stores that have unionized, there have been big issues with captains, treating people inappropriately. There have been complaints of sexual harassment at stores. There have been complaints of L-G-B-T-Q, people not being treated appropriately, especially for trans workers. They\u2019ve been deadnamed and harassed at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So those have been two long-term issues. Obviously during Covid, there was a sense in the whole country that workers were essential, that we were part of the essential worker category. And we actually, we got a pay bump during Covid, which was we got, they called it Thank you pay. And then basically as soon as Covid started receding, they took that away. There were a lot of workers who weren\u2019t satisfied with the sort of covid protection measures that they had put in place. It took \u2019em a long, long in most stores, or at least in the store I worked at. Eventually we got a little glass thing in front of the registers, but for a long time we didn\u2019t even have that. So it was just sort of people breathing on us all day. So that made people upset. And I think a lot of that led to the first wave of union activity in 2022 at the Hadley store, which was the first store to unionize. They also had a lot of individual problems that weren\u2019t quite as broad as the whole company, which stores tend to have. But there are big company wide problems like that that are, I dunno, good enough reason for any Trader Joe\u2019s store to unionize, I think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, man. I think one of the biggest and most infuriating grifts that emerged during the intense covid period, I mean, to be clear, COVID is still here, right? I mean, we\u2019re in the midst of a wave now. I was just at the DNC covering that for the Real News, and that was a bonafide super spreader event. So we fucked up here. Now workers are going to continue to get sick and die, and employers are going to continue to not be held accountable or responsible for that. We\u2019ve talked about that ad nauseum on the show, but I just wanted to underline that here for folks as we move forward. But yeah, one of the things that I learned in doing the work that I do, interviewing workers like yourself throughout the Covid Pandemic, doing a book of interviews with workers in year one of Covid was the thank You Pay Grift or other companies called it different things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think Amazon called it Hero pay, but they explicitly did not call it hazard pay because then you got to keep paying it as long as the hazard persists. If you call it something like hero pay or thank you pay, it\u2019s this sort of thing that the bosses are giving us out of the kindness of their own hearts, but they can rip it away whenever the hell they want, which they did. But it\u2019s just one of those things that I really feel like folks are forgetting about those first couple years of covid that was so egregious and awful that we just ended up accepting and we shouldn\u2019t have. But I wanted to just ask about that a little more. Looking back, are there sort of things that you and your coworkers experienced during Covid or saw you saw the nature of the company you work for in Covid that you feel like folks out there are forgetting, but they shouldn\u2019t? Are there parts of that experience that you really want our listeners out there to remember and really not forget?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, there are some things I think they had to tell us when someone in the store got covid. So we would just get messages through our scheduling app and it would be like 10 people a week would get covid. And that was at a time when we still didn\u2019t know how bad it was. That was terrifying. It was very scary to just know that people were getting covid and the company knew it was happening, and it was, you knew these people, they were your friends, and it was just like, okay, come back to work. It was scary. It was just message after message after message, so you sort of got the sense of when is it going to be me and what\u2019s going to happen? So that was horrible. I guess just life under a pandemic is that uncertainty, but we didn\u2019t have that. We felt like it was happening to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was inevitable and we had no choice but to keep going to work. And then also it was just hard because customers, it was hard to work with customers too, because customers were, you got to go to the grocery store, you don\u2019t have a choice most of the time, but customers were going nuts. When I say nuts, I don\u2019t mean to disparage anybody for being scared of covid, but all the fears that people had were our sort of burden to deal with. So we would have people who would yell at us if we weren\u2019t wearing gloves or if our hands touch stuff, we work at a grocery store, sometimes stuff falls on the ground or I don\u2019t know, just things happen at a grocery store and if anyone interpreted it as any violation, we would get yelled at, even though obviously we\u2019re all doing our best to keep everything safe and clean. So it was an incredibly high stress time to be at work, and that just was just part of our experience and we just had to live through that. And it sucked. I dunno what else to say<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About it. Yeah. Oh man. I mean, what else needs to be said? We saw a lot of ourselves in the past four years, and a lot of those things you can\u2019t unsee. I mean, I think we saw the best and worst of humanity over the past four years, and that\u2019s a complicated thing to sort of deal with. But I think there\u2019s no going back. I mean, just the sort of harassment that frontline workers faced during Covid, the open admission by so many employers that they did not care that workers\u2019 labor was essential, but their lives were not. And so many of our brothers, sisters and siblings lost their lives just trying to keep a roof over their heads and make a paycheck because they had no other option to say nothing of all the political bullshit that we saw, pardon my French, we don\u2019t have to get into that now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The point being just that we revealed a lot to ourselves in the past four years, and I just really wanted to impress upon people out there listening that when you go back into your grocery store, when you go in and talk to a service worker, or when you are going to a medical facility and talking to healthcare workers, or you\u2019re on a plane talking to flight attendants, keep that in mind. Keep in mind what our fellow workers have had to endure over the past four years and the impression that our actions, our government\u2019s actions, our media\u2019s actions, think of the lingering impression that that shit leaves on you. And at the very least, be kind respond to that with kindness and solidarity and sincerity and just remember how much we\u2019re all going through and how little we\u2019re actually talking about it together as fellow workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is essential, especially as we go further into the gullet of a horrifying 21st century where we encouraged at every step of the way to see one another as enemies and their powers that be are constantly trying to pit us against one another. So apologies for Soapboxing. It\u2019s just something that obviously is very near and dear to my heart. And I wanted to pick up on that Alec and ask, when did you start working at Trader Joe\u2019s? Let\u2019s take a step back and kind of talk about that because curious to know what it\u2019s been like as a worker there for yourself. Did you start at Trader Joe\u2019s before Covid?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I started right in the middle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay. Okay. So tell me about that. So walk me through the path that led you to being an employee of Trader Joe\u2019s in the middle of Covid and then what that experience was like. Okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. So I was a bike messenger and I didn\u2019t have any health insurance and I wasn\u2019t getting enough hours, so I decided to get a new job. I had a friend who worked at Trader Joe\u2019s, so I applied there. This was right in the middle of Covid. I got the job and when I first started working at Trader, I worked at a different store. I worked at the downtown location in Chicago, and it was a ghost town in the store. Nobody would come in. They were basically asking us every shift. They were like, alright, does anybody want to go home early? Because they were overstaffed and there was no work to do. We had a certain number of people that could be, we could only allow a certain number of people in the store at a time. So when it was busy, which was kind of rare, at that point, we would\u2019ve a huge line out the door and we would have to have somebody who was basically a bouncer just being like, stop, you can\u2019t come in. It was like a one in one out type deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it was a strange, and then every day since I had just started, everyone was teaching me everything. Every single thing I learned about the job was always like, well, this is how we\u2019re doing things right now. This is way different than how we normally do it, but this is how it is right now. So yeah, I guess, I mean, I just settled in and Trader Joe\u2019s is an interesting place to work because people who work there are Trader Joe\u2019s people. They\u2019re all very incredibly exuberant all the time. So I had never worked in a place like that before. So that was kind of fun and interesting, and the coworkers at Trader Joe\u2019s are generally really, really, really good. So that was a big plus. They\u2019re nice people, and I dunno if you\u2019ve been to Trader Joe\u2019s, you probably know that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that was good. And then so Covid just sort of kept rolling. There\u2019s a lot of high turnover rate at Trader Joe\u2019s, so people are constantly sort of getting in and out, where was I going with that? And then we would get messages about people getting covid all the time, and you get that weird sense of like, huh, I hope everybody\u2019s okay. I hope no one\u2019s seriously getting damaged long-term because of this. But I mean, you just keep going to work. And that\u2019s what we did during Covid for that whole period. We got Thank you pay, and then thank you Pay was interesting. It was like, oh, I guess they can pay us more money. And then that ended and that was gone. So that was basically how I got in. That was the vibe during the Covid era, it was a total state of exception. Everything is different. The store feels kind of like a ghost town. So it felt like that was, I feel like the vibe of Covid at large was like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And when, for you as a Trader Joe\u2019s employee, did that start to end and what has the job been like since, I guess, what are you dealing with on a day-to-day, week to week basis there in Chicago?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, let\u2019s see, I don\u2019t know the exact date for when that started. It felt like the same time everybody else stopped wearing masks. We stopped wearing masks, and our Covid protocols sort of melted away. So on a day-to-Day basis, I think it\u2019s alienating work, putting stuff on a shelf for hours and hours at a time. And I like talking to people, so I don\u2019t mind. So that\u2019s half the job, half the job is putting stuff on the shelf and breaking down boxes, and the other half of the job is standing at the register and saying, hello, how you doing? Oh, you\u2019re really going to love these peas. Which is, I don\u2019t mind. It\u2019s nice to talk to people, but it\u2019s also, it can be grueling to do that for a lot of hours a day. So our day is basically split up. It\u2019s half basically usually about half and half just putting stuff on a shelf and then standing at a register, checking people out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, and that\u2019s a big part of the job. I mean, like you said, there\u2019s certainly a type of Trader Joe\u2019s employee, and that\u2019s one of the reasons so many people go to Trader Joe\u2019s is they love the vibe. They\u2019ve loved it for years and decades. You guys, one of the first interviews I ever did on this show was with Glen Chevlin. She works at Disneyland in Anaheim, and she talked about making the magic happen and all the workers there who make that magic that people from around the world tourists come to see every day of every year. I mean, there is a component of the work that you guys do that is that kind of emotional labor, the performative labor, the sort of social labor that people come to Trader Joe\u2019s for. And as a former service worker, as a waiter there in Chicago, I used to work at Reza in Lincoln Park. The location\u2019s not there anymore. But yeah, you\u2019re putting on a performance for eight hours and then it\u2019s like when you\u2019re done, you get the come down a little bit. So I wanted to just sort of ask, what do you wish that customers and folks who come in to the stores every day new or just considered about what you and your coworkers, the work that you guys do, if you could just sort of give folks out there who frequent Trader Joe\u2019s like a little, Hey, think about this next time you go in,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Boy, only sort of, there\u2019s almost no customers that do anything wrong or have any problem or are rude to us in any way. The way a grocery store is set up, it\u2019s like we all know the roles we\u2019re supposed to be playing. Everybody acts nice and appropriate, acts nice and appropriate in that way. There\u2019s a sense of that service workers hate customers and stuff. It\u2019s like a very nineties attitude kind of where it\u2019s like, ah, these stupid customers, most of us at Trader don\u2019t feel that way because the customers are just normal people like us. It\u2019s only in one in 500 people who are incredibly rude and there\u2019s nothing I can tell them. There\u2019s no advice I could give them because they\u2019re the type of people who don\u2019t care what I think and who don\u2019t care about other people\u2019s experiences. So it would be futile. But yeah, I don\u2019t know. Most of the customers don\u2019t bother us. We don\u2019t have any problem with them generally. I don\u2019t think so. I wouldn\u2019t keep on doing your thing, guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some people are just dicks the can be<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Out. Yeah, I mean, those people got to worry about. Yeah, I think as far as the personality and the performance element of Trader Joe\u2019s, I think a lot of the people who work at the store have a sense of, oh, this is sort of a job that anybody can do. We can\u2019t ask for more because this is just a job. That\u2019s sort of a job of Laughter resort because they don\u2019t have a skill. They didn\u2019t go to college to get a specific skill, or they\u2019re like, we\u2019re just putting stuff on the shelf. But a lot of them don\u2019t realize that they do have personalities that people, and they do have special characteristics that make them particularly valuable for this job. And people don\u2019t value that. And that\u2019s difficult because it\u2019s like you\u2019re not just an irreplaceable person at this job, or you\u2019re not a replaceable person at this job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You actually do have a special trait that makes you special and worth being paid more than you\u2019re getting and being valued more than just some cog. And it\u2019s hard to get that across to some people that their personalities really are special in that way, but Trader Joe\u2019s knows it because they go through a really elaborate hiring process. So yeah, that\u2019s something, I don\u2019t know, I kind of try to communicate to people is that you\u2019re not just a replaceable drone here. You really are bringing something to the table, and they can\u2019t just fire us all the drop of hat or whatever because we\u2019re special people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I mean, I think that\u2019s beautiful, man. I mean, that\u2019s the burning core at the heart of organized Labor\u2019s message is that we are worth more than this. You are worth more. And I think that that\u2019s one of the things that I constantly marvel at the most doing this show, because I\u2019ve only had one union job in my life, and I was as a grad student at the University of Michigan, I worked service jobs, I worked in factories, worked in warehouses, worked as a pizza delivery guy. I never had any idea that I had other options besides quit and try to find a better job or just stay at my current job, take the crap and accept that, yeah, I was worth as little as my bosses were telling me I was. And so when I meet folks like you, and when I talk to folks like your coworkers around the country, I am just constantly in awe of those who are taking that step that I never could or never thought to when I was working these jobs, which is to say, no, we\u2019re worth more than this. We can in fact band together to improve our lives and our jobs and our workplaces, and we\u2019re going to do something about it that is heroic in my view. And the everyday heroism of workers standing up and fighting for better is just something a constant source of inspiration. And I wanted to ask a little more about that. The Union Drive itself. Can we talk about your store and where it fits in this struggle across the country starting in Hadley and then now expanding to multiple stores that have voted to unionize?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So yeah, Hadley organized in 2022, and there are I think four total stores that are unionized now. There\u2019s one store that lost an election, so that\u2019s been in three years. There been four stores that have organized, it\u2019s difficult. The people who work at Trader Joe\u2019s, there\u2019s a tendency to be that they feel an extreme loyalty to Trader Joe\u2019s. So a lot of times they don\u2019t think so that can make the organizing process difficult. So at the Hadley store, one with 90%, it was like an incredible union victory. The elections since then have been a lot closer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was one election in, I think New York where they won by I think one vote and the other two were close as well. When the elections are very close, the company usually contests the election. So that means that the union has to go through a lengthy court process and we have to pay lawyers and we have to put people on the stand and it\u2019s arduous. So that\u2019s where we are right now. Trader Joe\u2019s United is we\u2019re working on getting more stores organized because we\u2019ve got four now. As we try to negotiate a contract, we have to negotiate. It\u2019s hard because we need more leverage before we\u2019re able to effectively start negotiating because the company won\u2019t negotiate in good faith. The stores that are unionized right now are trying to negotiate, and the company is just stonewalling. They\u2019re not opening the books, they\u2019re not making reasonable responses to any proposals that the union is making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So right now, things are tough because we\u2019re sort of in a limbo because we just need more stores to organize before we can really start effectively bargaining. So that\u2019s sort of the macro picture. How things are going at my store is our union campaign started I think two years ago. It was very small, and then within the last eight months or so, we had a worker from our store who helped do everything organized, and we got more serious and more organized with our campaign. We made lists and we made sure to talk to everybody. We went public in April. We had our election a month and a half later. The election was crazy. There are like 140 people in the store, and there were 70 against the union, 74 with one more vote for the union that is being challenged in court. And the challenge is ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once that challenge vote is accepted, then we\u2019ll be a certified union. So we basically won our election. It just has to get officially certified. But the process, because the company is challenging, it may be two years before we\u2019re certified since we won our election, which is crazy. It\u2019s so hard to keep the energy up during that time. We have to pay lawyers during that time. So it makes our life a lot more difficult. And I mean, it\u2019s a wildly unfair, just in a moral sense, it\u2019s a wildly unfair thing to do to people who\u2019ve chosen to organize. So that\u2019s where we\u2019re at right now. We\u2019re in court trying to get this ballot issue resolved. And also the company has some other objections to the election, which we think aren\u2019t, they\u2019re ridiculous. We think they\u2019re just stalling to try and make our lives more difficult and try and beat the union sort of by attrition, just by wearing us down with time and resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s their go-to strategy. Man. Wait, folks out, delay demoralize, tie things up in the courts. If you guys listen to this show, this is the same script we hear everywhere. Again, whether it be Trader Joe\u2019s, Starbucks, Amazon, Chipotle, I mean there\u2019s all the same crap out of the same playbook. And I do want us to circle back to that at the end and sort of talk about the lessons that you guys have learned that other stores out there that are thinking of unionizing should take to heart and could use in their own struggle to unionize. But I guess before we get there, I wanted to talk about that response from Trader Joe\u2019s at the national and local level, because this has been really nuts. I mean, trader Joe\u2019s tried to get your Instagram taken down if we\u2019re using the Trader Joe\u2019s Insignia, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah. They\u2019re challenging. They\u2019re among the businesses that are challenging the very premises of the National Labor Relations Act. Thus you\u2019re right to organize. They\u2019re putting at question. And then on top of that, we\u2019ve heard stories from other folks around the country, right? About the local managers responses you mentioned, right? The long running issue of managerial harassment that folks have been dealing with. So I wanted to ask if you just talk a little more about that grueling slog and what you guys have been experiencing from Trader Joe\u2019s, both at the corporate level and anything that you you\u2019re going through on the local store level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I can talk about what happened during our campaign. So in previous Trader Joe\u2019s organizing campaigns, there have been a lot of very obvious violations of the National Labor Relations Act, which we call unfair labor practices. So that\u2019s things like when management will force workers to have one-on-one meetings, they\u2019ll threaten. They\u2019ll threaten people with their jobs, they will do transfer freezes, and that\u2019s all illegal because you can\u2019t, under the law, you\u2019re not allowed to penalize anybody for wanting to be in a union. It\u2019s a legal thing and it doesn\u2019t have anything to do with management. It\u2019s a decision we make among ourselves. So Trader Joe\u2019s got, in those previous campaigns, they had a lot of LPs, unfair labor practices filed against them. When we did our campaign, there had been a change in the law, and this is a Biden thing, it\u2019s called Cemex. It\u2019s a supreme, I can\u2019t remember if it\u2019s a Supreme Court decision or a law, but the legal environment changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So now if there\u2019s an unfair labor practice during the election and the union has already gathered enough cards to trigger an election, and when we say gather cards, that means people sign a card that says, yes, I would like to have a union. So if we\u2019ve got the cards and then the company starts violating labor practices, the courts can say, we\u2019re not going to have an election. We\u2019re just going to say that this is a union. So since that decision, trader Joe\u2019s has been a lot more careful about violating the National Labor Relations Act and doing unfair labor practices. So in our election, we did not have the same level of egregious ULP violations that they had at other stores. And this was different for us because we prepared really hard for all this sort of heavy handed management intervention in our union campaign, and we really didn\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All of our anti-Union stuff was spearheaded by coworkers at the store, which was a totally different ballgame, and which was really hard for us because we weren\u2019t prepared for it. And it was shocking because I hadn\u2019t considered it that the people who would be opposed to the union, it would be that vociferous about it, would be that angry about it and would spearhead a whole campaign about it. I sort of assumed it would be a type of thing where some people, I assume I knew people wouldn\u2019t want to be unionized, but I thought it would be a type of thing where it was like, okay, we would just sort of respect each other\u2019s opinions, but wasn\u2019t how it turned out. So our effort, the sort of struggles we faced, or the opposition was, it wasn\u2019t company led, which was new and surprising for us and very tricky, I got to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Very, very, very tricky. And those are our coworkers. So when management does all this heavy handed stuff, it\u2019s easy to say, oh, these are the bad guys. This is management. This just proves they don\u2019t care about us with your own coworkers, those are people that you still work with in a lot of cases. Those people you still like. And I still do a lot of those. This is why it\u2019s tricky. I still like a lot of those people, a lot of them don\u2019t want to have a union. I still like those people. And not only do I still \u2019em personally, we still want to win \u2019em over to our side because we still think a union\u2019s a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that was very tricky for us. So that was during the election, we had this worker led anti-Union campaign that was very hard. Then after the election, after election is over, the whole Cemex thing is over. So after the election, they can start violating u ps if they want to, and they can start doing unfair labor practice if they want to. They can still get fined or whatever, but we got to go through court and I mean, they don\u2019t care that much if they get fined. So since then we\u2019ve had hiring transfer, we\u2019ve had transfer freezes, we\u2019ve had firings of union supporters that have never been explicitly for supporting the union. There\u2019s always a pretext, but it\u2019s union supporters who are getting fired. So we do, and we\u2019ve had this dislike absurd court cases. So now it feels like, okay, now that the election is over, now they\u2019re free to clamp down a little bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yeah, different stores have different relations. I don\u2019t know. A lot of stores have the atmosphere gets turns very sour. And we had that happen at our store, which was very rough. And then that\u2019s something that could be used against you and your campaign is things used to be fun and now things feel kind of sour, even though we don\u2019t think we were the ones who are trying to make everything sour. So yeah, that\u2019s sort of how things have been. That\u2019s sort of the character of the campaign and then how things have been going on after that. Now everything, there\u2019s a lot of legal stuff that we\u2019re going through. So as an organizing committee, we have less control over that. So we\u2019re trying to control act in the sphere we have control over, which is trying to make sure that just win more people over, try and improve the environment at the store use. This time we have to build relationships and counter a lot of the untrues that we\u2019re told by people who have something against the union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, I want to kind of pick up on that because like you said earlier, you\u2019re at a stage in this struggle where Trader Joe\u2019s corporate is really trying to isolate the unionized stores. And this is again, something like we\u2019ve seen in the Starbucks campaign. The more stores unionized, the more power they have to put pressure on the company and the less capable Starbucks is to say like, oh, there\u2019s just a few outlier stores. No, there\u2019s like 300 plus stores. There\u2019s something happening here. So it\u2019s kind of that principle, more stores that unionize more pressure that the corporate office feels to address this. So I wanted to ask for folks out there listening, especially folks out there who are working at Trader Joe\u2019s, are there lessons that you are imparting to other employees around the country when you talk to them that say like, Hey, learn from what we went through or be prepared for this. I wanted to ask if there are other lessons there that you\u2019d want to communicate to folks and also specifically about going the independent union route. I mean, trader Joe\u2019s United is part of this independent union movement within the broader kind of labor upsurge that we\u2019ve been seeing in recent years. So if you could say a little bit about where that has benefited or hampered you specifically, but also any other lessons that you\u2019d want to impart to folks out there who were thinking of unionizing their store?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, yeah, so I was kind of concerned about having an independent union because we can\u2019t collect dues yet, which means we can\u2019t pay people to be a bureaucracy. And I was concerned about whether or not we\u2019d be able to have, how do we even have lawyers if we don\u2019t collect dues and questions like that. So far it\u2019s been great. The lawyers we have are fantastic. I think that the people who are involved there are a lot more active and interested in doing the work. So it doesn\u2019t feel like there\u2019s some bureaucracy that you have to sort of appeal to. It feels like we\u2019re doing it, so that\u2019s great. It\u2019s harder because it, it\u2019s a harder case when you have to tell people it might be a few years before we can bargain. So that\u2019s rough. I think it\u2019s worth it to have the type of union we want to have, which is an active union, a union with people who are not to denigrate any other unions, but this is what we\u2019re trying to do is have a really active one with highly democratic features. So that\u2019s great. If you\u2019re at another store and you\u2019re thinking about organizing, I mean get in touch with TJU, the change in sort of strategy between, in a post MX world where it does feel like Trader Joe\u2019s is more reluctant to of bring the hammer down from the side of management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s what I would tell \u2019em is it makes your campaign tricky. You\u2019re not going to be fighting the bosses, or at least not as openly, it won\u2019t. Yeah, that\u2019s what we\u2019ve learned from our campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, and I mean, another that you already mentioned is be prepared for some of the most virulent, anti-union opposition to potentially be coming from other rank and file members and just understanding that that is a reality and that it\u2019s going to require one-on-ones talking to your coworkers, no shortcuts as the great late Jane Alvy once said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yeah, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, let me ask you this, because this has been so great, and I really appreciate you taking the time to lay this all out for us, and I promise I\u2019ll let you go here in a second. But I did want to kind of ask a big picture question here. As someone who\u2019s been in the middle of a thing that all of us have been talking about for the past couple years, which is this labor resurgence. I mean this new union wave, this new generation of organized labor energy, which I\u2019ve had the privilege and honor of covering on this show on the Real News Network for breaking points, so on and so forth. So I\u2019ve gotten to hear from folks like yourself when the Buffalo Starbucks unionize or when Hadley Trader Joe\u2019s unionize, right? Or when Amazon Staten Island unionize. I mean, I\u2019ve seen just as you have the kind of excitement that people have had around the country about this labor upsurge, the independent unions that are emerging, the unions like the Union of Southern Service workers that are really changing the paradigm for how to organize workers in the service industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/working-people\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/therealnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/working-people-show-logo.jpg?resize=780%2C410&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Working People Podcast\" class=\"wp-image-269317\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/working-people\">SEE THE LATEST EPISODES<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-working-people\"><a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/working-people\">WORKING PEOPLE<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Working People is a podcast about working-class lives in the 21st century. In every episode, you&#8217;ll hear interviews with workers from all walks of life. Working People aims to share and celebrate the diverse stories of working-class people, to remind ourselves that our stories matter, and to build a sense of shared struggle and solidarity between workers around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a lot going on, and there have been a lot of strikes and a lot of new union filings with the NLRB. So I absolutely do not want to discount that. But I wanted to ask, there are also sober realities here. I mean, because people have been cheering on, they\u2019re like, rah, rah, rah, the labor resurgence is happening. General strike is next. But then a lot of people forget. They forget that even if you voted to unionize at your store, that does not mean you have a first contract. That does not mean your coworkers are not going to get fired and harassed or even your store closed down. I mean, that doesn\u2019t mean that we\u2019ve won everything. And so I guess I just wanted to ask you, as someone who\u2019s there on the front lines of this story, I guess how much of it is real or where do you think we are right now? Where do you think folks out there who are excited about, who want to see this labor upsurge succeed, but maybe aren\u2019t paying attention to the realities of the struggles that you and other workers around the country are dealing with? Where would you say we are in that moment and what would you want folks out there supporters to know about what they can do to keep that momentum going if they really want to see it succeed and they want to see you and your store succeed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alec Plant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, I mean, I\u2019m more optimistic than I\u2019ve ever been in my life. Been, yeah, because been following labor stuff for a long time. I\u2019m more optimistic than I\u2019ve ever been. It\u2019s still an uphill battle in a lot of ways. There\u2019s still a lack, a general sense of the sort of malaise and the sort of sense of disinterest. It hasn\u2019t gone away. It\u2019s still there, but there is a sense that we can break through it. So for the first time, it does feel like there\u2019s a light at the end of the tunnel, which is enormously appealing, but it also feels like we\u2019re still just sort of striking embers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it\u2019s still hard. So a lot of my thinking about it is just colored by my experience in my own store. So you can\u2019t generalize it that much, but that\u2019s fine. But the process of organizing can be incredibly difficult. And there are times when you\u2019ll feel incredibly down when you\u2019re on Twitter or just watching the news and seeing this labor stuff. It\u2019s so easy. Just be like, yeah, yeah, everything\u2019s going good. When you\u2019re actually doing it, it can be devastating. So that\u2019s still part of the process is there are times when it will still feel hopeless, but then there are times when you do truly feel inspired. And I do feel like we are making progress. I don\u2019t think 15 or 10 years ago we would\u2019ve won this election, and we did. And to me, that\u2019s incredible. And that\u2019s one of those things that allows me to stay optimistic about the movement, even when it gets really, really, really hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If people out there want to help, you can donate to TJU if you want to support the movement more support politicians who don\u2019t hate unions, obviously it\u2019s super hard to find the good politicians out there because I mean, darn for everybody. But supporting somebody who won\u2019t destroy the National Labor Relations Act or appoint a judge who will destroy the National Labor Relations Act is huge. The legal environment is important for us. So it\u2019s really important that we have people who support us in that way. And I mean, if you really want to support and you work at a place that needs to be unionized, start unionizing it because as the old saying goes, a victory anywhere is victory everywhere. And the more people that start doing it, the more it\u2019ll be both sort of normalized culturally and the more leverage we\u2019ll have together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I mean, maybe you can\u2019t do any of that stuff. Maybe you live in a red state, you can\u2019t vote for anybody good, and maybe you work in some field that\u2019s impossible to organize or you\u2019ve tried to organize it or you just have some job where that won\u2019t work out if you can\u2019t do any of that stuff, if you\u2019re just cheering for us on social media, Hey, you know what? It\u2019s not much, but it\u2019s something and we appreciate it. It\u2019s really like no gesture is too small because there are some, maybe just not in a position where you can really do anything that\u2019s going to help that much. But even if that\u2019s the case, we really do appreciate even the tiny gestures, at least I know I personally do. When people come through my line and they see my pin and they go, Hey, stay strong, man. Sometimes it\u2019s that breath of air you need when you feel like you\u2019re suffocating and it really does matter to us. So that stuff helps. It all helps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maximillian Alvarez:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All right, gang, that\u2019s going to wrap things up for us this week. I want to thank our amazing guest, Alec Plant. Alec is a worker organizer at the Lincoln and Grace Trader Joe\u2019s in Chicago, and a member of Trader Joe\u2019s United. Be sure to keep up to date with Trader Joe\u2019s United and their organizing efforts around the country, and we\u2019ve included links to their website and their social media accounts in the show notes as well as to the articles that we\u2019ve been referencing throughout this episode. And as always, I want to thank you all for listening, and I want to thank you for caring. We\u2019ll see y\u2019all back here next week for another episode of Working People. If you can\u2019t wait that long, then go subscribe to our Patreon. Check out all the awesome bonus episodes that we put out there for our patrons over the years, and go explore all the great work that we\u2019re doing at The Real News Network where we do grassroots journalism that lifts up the voices and stories from the front lines of struggle. Sign up for the Real News newsletter so you never miss a story and help us do more work like this by going to the real news.com\/donate and become a supporter today. It really makes a difference. I\u2019m Maximilian Alvarez. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Solidarity forever<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>RELATED<\/em>:<a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/amazon-workers-affiliate-with-the-teamsters-next-up-electing-top-officers?relatedposts_hit=1&amp;relatedposts_origin=323872&amp;relatedposts_position=0&amp;relatedposts_hit=1&amp;relatedposts_origin=323872&amp;relatedposts_position=0\"><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/amazon-workers-affiliate-with-the-teamsters-next-up-electing-top-officers?relatedposts_hit=1&amp;relatedposts_origin=323872&amp;relatedposts_position=0&amp;relatedposts_hit=1&amp;relatedposts_origin=323872&amp;relatedposts_position=0\">Amazon workers affiliate with the Teamsters, next up electing top officers<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/a-great-day-workers-at-second-southern-auto-industry-plant-join-uaw?relatedposts_hit=1&amp;relatedposts_origin=323872&amp;relatedposts_position=1&amp;relatedposts_hit=1&amp;relatedposts_origin=323872&amp;relatedposts_position=1\"><\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/a-great-day-workers-at-second-southern-auto-industry-plant-join-uaw?relatedposts_hit=1&amp;relatedposts_origin=323872&amp;relatedposts_position=1&amp;relatedposts_hit=1&amp;relatedposts_origin=323872&amp;relatedposts_position=1\">\u2018A great day\u2019: workers at second southern auto industry plant join UAW<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/as-biden-bows-out-labor-begins-to-coalesce-around-harris-and-sets-sights-on-defeating-trump?relatedposts_hit=1&amp;relatedposts_origin=323872&amp;relatedposts_position=2&amp;relatedposts_hit=1&amp;relatedposts_origin=323872&amp;relatedposts_position=2\"><\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/as-biden-bows-out-labor-begins-to-coalesce-around-harris-and-sets-sights-on-defeating-trump?relatedposts_hit=1&amp;relatedposts_origin=323872&amp;relatedposts_position=2&amp;relatedposts_hit=1&amp;relatedposts_origin=323872&amp;relatedposts_position=2\">As Biden bows out, Labor begins to coalesce around Harris and sets sights on defeating Trump<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/author\/maximillian-alvarez\"><\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/author\/maximillian-alvarez\">MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Editor-in-Chief<\/strong><br>Ten years ago, I was working 12-hour days as a warehouse temp in Southern California while my family, like millions of others, struggled to stay afloat in the wake of the Great Recession. Eventually, we lost everything, including the house I grew up in. It was in the years that followed, when hope seemed irrevocably lost and help from above seemed impossibly absent, that I realized the life-saving importance of everyday workers coming together, sharing our stories, showing our scars, and reminding one another that we are not alone. Since then, from starting the podcast Working People\u2014where I interview workers about their lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles\u2014to working as Associate Editor at the Chronicle Review and now as Editor-in-Chief at The Real News Network, I have dedicated my life to lifting up the voices and honoring the humanity of our fellow workers.<br>&nbsp;<br>Email: max@therealnews.com<br>&nbsp;<br>Follow:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/maximillian_alv\">@maximillian_alv<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/therealnews.com\/author\/maximillian-alvarez\">More by Maximillian Alvarez<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like Starbucks and Amazon, the \u2018progressive\u2019 grocery chain Trader Joe\u2019s has experienced a wave of unionization efforts in the COVID era\u2014and has fought to crush them at every turn. BY\u00a0MAXIMILLIAN ALVAREZ SEPTEMBER 25, 2024 (therealnews.com) Trader Joe&#8217;s employees and crew members from left Will Greene, Mandi Vogel, Nigel Brown, Dan&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/09\/28\/workers-at-progressive-trader-joes-face-rampant-union-busting-two-years-after-first-store-unionized\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36523,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36522\/revisions\/36523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}