Workers at a Whole Foods Market in Philadelphia voted to form a union, the first time employees of the Amazon-owned grocer have organized in decades. Monday’s vote, which passed 130-100, was prompted by workers’ push for higher wages and improved benefits.
The union win, at a Philadelphia store where workers are seeking higher wages, comes as Amazon is also fighting organizing efforts among some warehouse employees and delivery drivers.
Now, a battle lies ahead when working out the first contract between Whole Foods and the unionized workers. "This is going to be the longest uphill battle of our lives, but this is not just for us. This is for the people who come behind us and for the people who have been here," said Khy Adams, a Whole Foods employee.
Whole Foods workers at the Spring Garden store have expressed frustration about low pay and want better health-care benefits.
Whole Foods said it was "disappointed" by the vote but "committed to maintaining a positive working environment"
Workers at a Whole Foods Market in Philadelphia have voted to unionize under UFCW, making it the grocer’s first unionized location in decades, writes
Whole Foods workers at the Philly flagship store in Fairmount voted to unionize on Jan. 27. They are the first in the Amazon-owned grocery chain to do so.
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Whole Foods workers in Philadelphia voted in favor of union representation Monday, marking the Texas-based and Amazon-owned grocer's very first union. "Despite a tsunami of illegal union busting tactics, lies, intimidation, surveillance, workers persevered and won," workers wrote on Instagram after the results were revealed.
President Trump fired two Democratic EEOC commissioners and an NLRB board member, hobbling two independent agencies that are tasked with enforcing worker protections.
The grocery chain’s store in Philadelphia becomes the first to join a union, where workers hope to expand organizing to other outlets and across the Amazon empire.