Workers at the Trader Joe’s Wine Shop ... spent the last four months laying the groundwork to unionize their store. A small organizing committee met regularly to discuss strategy around building support to join the United Food and Commercial Workers union, and they planned to go public with their effort the week of Aug. 15.But in the early morning hours of Aug. 11, Trader Joe’s abruptly informed them it was closing the popular wine shop, its only one in New York City.
In a statement to Gothamist, a company spokesperson said that its decision to close the store had nothing to do with the unionizing efforts.
A spokesperson called the 15-year-old outpost on 14th Street at Irving Place an "underperforming wine shop."
Meanwhile, the workers, whom Trader Joe's said they would pay through Aug. 28, have launched a petition demanding that the store reopen as it heads into the busy back-to-school season.
The petition reads in part:
Like our customers, we were shocked and saddened by the abrupt closure of the Trader Joe’s Wine Shop in Union Square. Most of the staff has been with the company for over 5 years, some since the store opened 15 years ago, and we have loved being part of the neighborhood and our customers’ lives for so long.Trader Joe's is not being transparent about its motives for closing the shop. This sudden closure comes just days after our coworkers in Minneapolis, MN, and Hadley, MA, successfully voted to unionize.Management in our store knew we were having organizing conversations and were planning on signing union support cards. Closing our store is textbook union busting. This kind of retaliation is exactly why we want a union at the Wine Shop — to guarantee we have real job security, consistent schedules, and wages we can live on.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Here's the midnight email that employees of the Trader Joe's Wine Shop received about the closing on Union Square (Aug. 12)
Typical union busting tactic instead of allowing the workers to unionize or have a vote to possibly unionize the corporate owners decided not to take a chance and to close the store.
ReplyDeleteSigned.
ReplyDeleteNot cool, TJ. Don't think your customers can't see what's happening here.
ReplyDeletePathetic. Trader Joes is really going downhill. Always backordered, can't keep up with keeping items in stock and sometimes have to wait weeks or months for them to restock. A lot of their items that get "hype" end up being disappointments or not that good. On more than 2 instances i've bought chicken that was expired or had a weird taste/smell to it. Seems every year there is a story of recall on one of their products. And, when i was in college, i had a classmate who worked at the local trader joes for some cash and he openly said it was common for Trader Joes employees to leave frozen items out and be too slow to put them in the freezer, therefore spoiling the item.
ReplyDelete@11:15 AM
ReplyDelete"Always backordered"
Hilarious. I wonder if you have been living on planet Earth with the rest of us the last two years or so?
11:42, hilarious. Do you see stores like Target and Whole Foods and others having issues with keeping stuff in stock? Not nearly as bad as TJ. Wake up and do some research before trying to be a smartass.
DeleteTwo can play this game, and they have. Why are you surprised?
ReplyDeleteI think 100% TJ is in the wrong here, but it's a bit of humorous rationale to say that the wine shop needs to be open for the "busy back-to-school season"
ReplyDeleteIf you’re looking for a good cheap wine to replace the Two Buck Chuck, get the Glen Ellen 1.5 L bottle of Cabernet. I’m sure Trader Joe’s will open a new wine store soon, but I’m not sure how much I can support them now after screwing over all those employees.
ReplyDeleteI want to boycott Trader Joe's so badly but I just can't.
ReplyDeleteSo according to another employee ( I think on Gothamist) said the Wine Shoppe had fewer customers due to the pandemic and had crackheads boosting shit leading to the store just about breaking even in terms of sales in addition to factoring in discount wine is not exactly raking in the same kind of money that beer and spirits would. So rather than union busting TJ's would be the one getting busted in terms of the added expenditure if it had to shell more money to pay for the additional cost of unionizing. I believe TJ's (and Aldis) are owned by a German conglomerate so obviously like any business person they're going close up if it's not profitable. Cheapo wine without beer and spirits just sounds like like a weird business concept because it's not for the Bro contingent nor the more affluent types. I mean it's not like they've been comparing notes on which is the more sensitive Two Buck Chuck.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised if a pending unionization fight turned out to be a factor in the decision to close, but I'd be surprised if it was the *determining* factor. The open-air trash-and-stolen-stuff market two avenues down has really dragged 14th Street down. I wish the city would put some thought into creative solutions, instead of the current brutality-or-nothing approach. Those people need a way to live like everyone else, but it's not good to have obviously stolen stuff hawked openly.
ReplyDeleteIt was really disappointing that the Times puff piece did not mention anything about this
ReplyDelete