r/worldnewsvideo • u/PlenitudeOpulence Plenty 🩺🧬💜 • Oct 01 '22
News Report 🌏 Trader Joe’s union-busting has reached a new low. The company shut down an entire store in New York—the only Trader Joe's Wine Shop in the country—days before its workers were set to unionize. Customers are appalled by the decision, and the workers are speaking out.
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Oct 01 '22
[deleted]
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u/underpaidworker Oct 01 '22
I’m pro union and in the CWA. But they fold up like a lawn chair when it comes contract time. It sucks when you strike and then they give you a small bump in pay and a massive jump in medical costs.
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u/perpeth Oct 01 '22
“Heard they’re moving to a more high end neighborhood”
Right, because living around Union square is cheap/low end….
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Oct 01 '22
Lol, who the fuck is gonna work there? Aren't most "opulent" places having a hard time finding workers?
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u/MaethrilliansFate Oct 01 '22
Only so many stores these folk can shut down before it hurts their bottom line too much.
"We shut down this store that tried to unionize. That's fine we have plenty more- wait what do you mean the others are unionizing too?"
Shut this one down, then the next, then the next till they've got no more wiggle room and get cornered with no choice but to allow the unions. If it hurts them more financially to bust the unions they'll capitulate. That's how to make a strike stick.
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u/icropdustthemedroom Oct 01 '22
How to report your employer for shitty practices anonymously (was made for healthcare workers but could be helpful for anyone): www.report.nursereed.com
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Oct 01 '22
Can't wait for the day that one of these videos has Walmart in the spotlight.
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u/Highmax1121 Oct 01 '22
I don't see it happening. They are brutal about unions. Big reason why the meat section of their stores doesn't have butchers for the last 20 years.
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u/ShootinStars Oct 01 '22
Cleared the store overnight? Ripped off signage?? Violated labor laws and practices?? Will see any charges, fines, or jail time? Never, there a well funded, connected corp. only way to stop them is to stop working for them and stop buying any of their products.
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Oct 01 '22
How bout I upvote you then go get some of that delicious garlic olive oil they sell? /s
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u/FilteredRiddle North America 🌎 Oct 01 '22
Capitalism sucks.
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u/GaliLeroy420 Oct 02 '22
You got a better alternative that hasn’t led millions to poverty and death?
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Oct 02 '22
Lmfao. I’m sorry are you trying to imply capitalism fucking hasn’t? The countless wars, coups, starvation, exploitation and degradation of our very planet from capitalism has caused way more deaths then socialism and communism ever has.
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u/GaliLeroy420 Oct 02 '22
How many people starved to death in the US last year or any developed country. Communist and socialist revolutions over the last 100 or so years have been responsible for 150-200 million people starved and murdered. Where did capitalism kill that many people?
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Oct 02 '22
Idk the twenty year war in the Middle East. Vietnam and Korea. We have done about 2 coups in each South American country since 1950s. Multiple coups in Africa, Middle East, and Eastern Europe. So the subsequent disruption to their government is on usa and capitalism.
And for starvation 9 million a year in the world. Most of the world is capitalist. Mean while just in the usa 108 billion pounds of food goes to waste. Air pollution kills 6.5 million each year. 26,000 a year die in America because of lack of health insurance. 5,800 a year die from homelessness while houses sit empty. Funny fact in the usa we have more houses empty then homeless. Even funnier fact is it’s cheaper to just house these ppl then leave em on a street but if we did that then like 5 ppl wouldn’t be able to buy their 4th yacht so that’s just a no go.
How did you miss all those?
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u/blagaa Oct 01 '22
Sucks that these guys are the tip of the spear and paved the way but are unlikely to benefit themselves.
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u/fokaiHI Oct 01 '22
This country is supposed to be "pro union" but a lot of these big name companies that shut down to stop unionizing is disgusting. Trader Joe's along with Amazon and Starbucks should be ashamed of themselves.
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u/longaaaaa Oct 01 '22
I’ve stopped buying so much from TJs, their produce is horrible and it’s not cheap anymore. This helps me to not go even more. Ralph’s seems to have similar prices and more selection.
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u/MiyamotoKnows Oct 01 '22
Well, looks like I need to find a new food market today sadly. I liked TJs but if I think about it it's really the employees that differentiated it.
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u/chipmunkchari Oct 01 '22
actually asking, do you boycott nestle, Amazon, Walmart, and other companies? Chick fil-a, etc.
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u/MiyamotoKnows Oct 01 '22
Yes I wouldn't be caught dead in a chickfila. I do not purchase anything nestle makes. A few others. I am close on Amazon but aside from that it's really not hard to buy ethically.
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u/axel52200 Oct 01 '22
What does unionize mean ? Édit : making an union I think, but for what ? Salary ? Working condition ? All of that ? Other ? I just don't know what this mean
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u/Claque-2 Oct 01 '22
Without any representation, discussion or bargaining, the average nonunion employee has no input into wage increases or benefits, no matter how long they have worked for a company.
A union represents the employees. It deals with management and is a resource.
Most employees do not know their own rights for things like FMLA, reporting, and or even the company procedures. A bad manager does not rectify this.
HR is usually not neutral and answers to managment. So who is on the employees' side behind closed doors?
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u/TehRiddles Oct 01 '22
To unionise is to form a union. The purpose of a union is for the employees to have collective bargaining power on important issues where one person alone would not. They work towards fair wages, proper working conditions and so on.
With some companies such as Trader Joes the management doesn't treat the workers fairly. So the workers decided that they would form a union to make it harder for TJs to deny their requests. This would include going on strike, so TJs would lose lots of work done until both sides came to an agreement. This can result in a lot of negatives for the company if they let the strikes go on, like lost revenue from clients and customers, investigation by the authorities and so on.
Unfortunately in this situation, Trader Joes is large enough that they can afford to just shut down the entire store in response to talk of a union forming. They would much rather lose the income from that store than to agree to what the union wants. It all comes down to proportions. One person in a company arguing for better wages doesn't hold much power, but a union in the company can hold a lot more. When Trader Joes is as big as it is, that union in the store may as well have been one person compared to them.
Unfortunately for Trader Joes, the backlash from this may hurt their reputation and encourage more unions to start up to the point where they will have to start listening. With companies getting so large these days compared to when unions first started, there need to be far larger unions to work.
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u/Current-Disaster8702 Oct 01 '22
Ever heard of Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters?? Similar to that.
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Oct 01 '22
Oh wow…. Found the troll!
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u/Current-Disaster8702 Oct 01 '22
Where's the troll? OP was asking about benefits of unions. I referenced the largest union in the market. Teamsters actually still exist and help many workers. https://teamster.org/why-join-the-teamsters/
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Oct 01 '22
You selected one corrupt example to represent the benefits they bring. This ensures that anyone looking unions up and trying to understand the actual benefits will see a very narrow, specific, and generally negative slice of union history.
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u/Current-Disaster8702 Oct 01 '22
Sorry you feel that way. They are still the largest for a reason and help many workers. Feel free to list all the ones you know. ☀️
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u/8Blackbart8 Oct 01 '22 edited Apr 10 '24
Corporate greed is so ugly *Edit: Greed is so ugly and u/Dtown1971 is either a pedantic tool bag or a sycophant for the Albrecht family.
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u/KyleThelegendxxXxx Oct 01 '22
Didn’t Trader Joe’s got bought out by a Chinese company a few years ago?
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u/Gkerilla Oct 01 '22
They should get in and squat, rename it something like "The True Based Joe's" and continue working, coop style.
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u/GaliLeroy420 Oct 02 '22
Did you mean coup or co-op? Hard to tell which you intended as they could both be fitting.
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u/Gkerilla Oct 02 '22
Coop. I mean work it for themselves.
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u/GaliLeroy420 Oct 02 '22
Coop is something you keep chickens in. A co-op would be an employee owned cooperative and a coup would be a violent overthrow of the management. So no, it’s not coop.
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u/Gkerilla Oct 02 '22
Not a native English speaker here, sorry for the misunderstanding. Yes, I meant a worker cooperative.
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u/GaliLeroy420 Oct 02 '22
All good. I was just trying to help. At least you have a good excuse. We have plenty of American born English speakers who have horrible spelling and grammar due to parents failing to make sure their kids aren’t morons.
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u/idk-hereiam Oct 01 '22
How do we, as consumers let TJ know this inst okay?
Go to our local TJ and...speak to the manager?
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u/Doktor_Earrape North America 🌎 Oct 02 '22
Stop shopping there. That's how you send them the message. Money talks to these greedy fucks, it's the only thing they'll listen to.
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u/idk-hereiam Oct 02 '22
True true. I don't shop there anyway. I was just wondering if there's a louder, more direct way to make it known its not okay
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u/Oldtimeytoons Oct 03 '22
So during Covid for EVERY case that was confirmed in the store they were supposed to (by law) close so that the store could be sanitized. after dozens of cases- not once did they close, just claimed we didn’t find out about the contamination the same day the people tested positive so it’s “too late” to close to sanitize. …. But you can close when your crew can vote to unionize? Ooo and after being exposed for union busting? In the last few years every chance Trader Joe’s is given a chance to operate with INTEGRITY (one of the core values of the company), they chose not to. Instead of saying “as our company expanded and made more profit than ever, let’s just treat our employees with human decency and let them KEEP the very basic benefits we used to always give them.” Instead they hire Littler Mendelson, a union avoidance law firm, to keep on retainer. DEAR DAN BANE, we already have Walmart, Luckys, Sprouts, Safeway, Costco, Winco, Ranch 99. Instead of doubling down on your corporate greed why don’t you double down on the things that made your company stand out: Core values, good treatment of workers, a fun place to work and shop, local sign artists, neighborhood hood feel- maybe more community outreach? TJs You can be better than this, you can be an example of ethical success.
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Oct 16 '22
You should see how far out of their way they go to protect their sexually predatory managers. This is right on track for them.
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