According to a tipster at one of the locations, a typical work week for a full-time employee is 35 hours/five days per week. For the past few weeks, the worker says that these two Trader Joe's locations have been cutting employee shifts from five days a week to two and three days.
Says the tipster, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal by management:
A lot of the Trader Joe's employees have kids, and with the holidays upon us, they don't know how they're getting by. Even the employees who don't have kids are having difficulty making ends meet. Some are late with rent, others have had their phones turned off, and we are all having to cut back on basic things like food, ironically.
The tipster continued:
It's even worse for those who have a second job as Trader Joe's is no longer accommodating their previously agreed-upon hours, leaving them no choice but to forfeit their overlapping hours.
Employees say they have discussed this problem with management but claim that the managers play good cop/bad cop.
"The store captains will say they'll take care of it, the supervisors who make the schedule say, 'Sorry, we can't do anything.'"
Our sources say that management has blamed slow sales for the cut in hours. However, a worker with knowledge of the finances noted that both of the 14th Street Trader Joe's remain busy, with daily tallies in early December between $192,000 and $260,000 at the East Village outpost.
"The real reason this is happening is the stores' management gets a higher year-end bonus the more the overhead is lowered, in this case, overhead being human beings," the tipster alleged.
The Trader Joe's corporate office did not respond to an email about the reduced hours and other worker claims.
And the challenges may extend into the New Year: Workers were recently told that as of January, there will be no set schedules.
13 comments:
You can help by donating to the unionizing effort: https://traderjoesunited.org/
Not surprised. Trader Joe's is a grinchy corporate enterprise. All of their food has gone up and the amount of product in everything has decreased more than 20 percent in some cases --- AT THE SAME TIME. Union busting, cheating labor, riding the fake inflation train...we notice. Too bad they forced independently owned Associated out, leaving us little choice but to participate in their monopolistic business practices.
American capitalism,
where "Greed is good",
"money is king"
and you can't spell America without "me'.
It's actually owned by a German multinational Aldi North, not to be confused with Aldi South, started by the feuding brother of Aldi North's founder.
the line starts at the entrance at TJ frequently... there are people buying... i think more now than rest of the year.
From Wiki:
"In 2024, Trader Joe's joined SpaceX in a lawsuit to have the National Labor Relations Board, which enforces U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices, deemed unconstitutional."
spacex had a point tho
The 14th A location's captain spent the past week integrating employees to find out which employees are speaking to the media. He told us the schedules were going back to normal in January. When the January schedules were published, nothing has changed. Unreasonably long lines throughout the day.
I've noticed the lines are longer and wondered why. The shelves are always empty at night. Shame on you Trader Joes! Do better to your own!!!
As a "crew member" at TJ's on 14th Street, my hours and income have been cut by roughly ONE-QUARTER for the month of December. Unfortunately my rent has not decreased. My landlord gave me some extra time to pay, so I'll start 2025 in hock. Additionally, my shifts were changed so that I work almost every evening. So much for the rest of my life. All this during the holiday season and from a company that loudly congratulates itself for being so wonderful to its employees and crushes unionization attempts with a heavy hand. I imagine that TJ's will be gratified when Trump retakes office and makes it more difficult for employees at TJ's and elsewhere to bargain collectively. Thanks TJ's and happy holidays!
Also a crew member on 14th Street. Mates regularly tell us to be extra nice to customers because the holidays can be emotionally tough for people. This is understandable but Trader Joe's has turned us into those very people with our hours being cut so much. We have kids and rent to pay, do you have a pep talk for children and landlords?
Okay, no more Trader Joe's for me.
Trader Joe's has a new book out!
https://www.whatsgoodattraderjoes.com/2024/12/the-art-of-trader-joes.html
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