Trader Joe’s is in trouble, once again

Trader Joe’s United, a union representing Trader Joe’s workers, accused the grocer of illegally firing an employee because he was an outspoken supporter of the union trying to improve working conditions at his store.

The employee, Stephen Andrade, worked for Trader Joe’s for nearly 18 years and made signs at the Hadley, Massachusetts, store, the company’s first to organize. Trader Joe’s United filed an unfair labor practice carry with the National Labor Relations Board for his firing on Friday.

“We believe this groundless firing is a flagrant act of retaliation, and we call on Trader Joe’s to do the right thing – reinstate Steve immediately,” said Maeg Yosef, spokeswoman for Trader Joe’s United and an employee at the Hadley store.

A Trader Joe’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment on Friday.

In an interview, Andrade said his manager told him he would be fired because he never removed a puzzle from the back of the store like he was told to do. Andrade said the tool actually belonged to the store and predated his transfer to the Hadley location nine years ago. He had been asked to remove it last October, but he said he forgot because it was during the store’s peak season.

“In the time between October and now, that saw had been used multiple times by managers,” Andrade said.

Andrade is one of the store employees that make Trader Joe’s famous. custom signage. The puzzle was there because workers sometimes cut wood, he explained. But it had mostly fallen out of use and was at the back of the shop.

The “crew member incident report” detailing Andrade’s firing says he was fired because employees “are not allowed to have power tools in the shop” and that he had shown “disregard for crew safety practices.” the company” by not taking them off. “This follows an ongoing pattern of you not following direction,” the incident report read.

But Andrade said he didn’t buy the tool and didn’t understand why it was his responsibility to get rid of it. He estimates that he had been in the store for 15 years.

“I don’t know why I was the person designated to have possession of the sierra,” he said.

Andrade said he was a union supporter who expressed concern that Trader Joe’s had become less invested in its custom signs. He said managers have been steering sign makers into other jobs, like product warehousing, making it difficult for them to find time to design and build the signs.

Many of the sign-making workers have artistic backgrounds, including Andrade, who is a illustrator.

“If you’re going to make handmade signs, you have to have time to do it,” said Andrade, whose wife also makes signs at Trader Joe’s in Hadley. “I feel like the fact that I was the most vocal in declining and saying we need time to get the job done, that was part of it. I also think part of this is related to unions. I am one of the pro-union (employees).

It is illegal to fire a worker for union activity or because they were trying to improve the working conditions of their co-workers. Labor board officials will now investigate whether the union’s claims regarding Andrade’s firing have merit, and then potentially launch a case against the company.

The Hadley store is one of four that have unionized with Trader Joe’s United since last year, part of a wave of organizing that has hit brand name companies including Starbucks, Amazon and Apple.

Late last month, labor board prosecutors filed a complaint against Trader Joe’s accusing the company of violating the rights of workers at a union store in Minneapolis. Officials said managers had illegally removed union literature from the break room and prohibited employees from posting union fliers on the bulletin board.

Trader Joe’s United was started by workers in Hadley and is not affiliated with an established labor group. The union is trying to negotiate the first contracts for its organized stores.

Last year the company abruptly closed the company’s wine store in New York, where workers were considering joining a different union, the United Food and Commercial Workers. The employees told HuffPost they believed the company closed the store because of their union activity, a charge the company denied.

Trader Joe’s has actively opposed the union’s efforts, and Andrade said some workers at Hadley have circulated a decertification petition, an effort to have the union removed from the store. He said that he suspected that this could be another motivation for his dismissal, since it would mean one less vote for the union if another election were held.

He said he has to find new health care coverage for himself, his wife and their 8-year-old daughter, since his wife doesn’t work enough hours at Trader Joe’s to qualify for the company’s plan.

“I’m trying to see this as an opportunity. I’ve been doing illustration and gallery work, and this is an opportunity to do it more and see if I can do it full time,” she said of her firing him. “At the same time, I am very disappointed…. They damaged my family’s livelihood, and now we have to fight and find medical care.”