{"id":634,"date":"2025-01-28T14:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T15:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/?p=634"},"modified":"2025-01-28T16:57:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T16:57:19","slug":"whole-foods-store-workers-form-first-union-under-amazon-ownership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/28\/whole-foods-store-workers-form-first-union-under-amazon-ownership\/","title":{"rendered":"Whole Foods store workers form first union under Amazon ownership"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" height=\"3328\" width=\"4992\" alt=\"Whole Foods Market, store sign on building exterior\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/6798b09e7bb3f854015a98fc-scaled.jpg\"><figcaption>Workers at a Whole Foods store in Pennsylvania voted to unionize.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">: Plexi Images\/GHI\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul class=\"summary-list\">\n<li>Whole Foods workers in a Pennsylvania store voted to unionize on Monday.<\/li>\n<li>They will join a local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.<\/li>\n<li>This is the first successful unionization push since Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Workers at a Pennsylvania Whole Foods store voted to unionize on Monday, forming the first union at the grocery chain since Amazon acquired it in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Employees voted to join the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents more than 800,000 grocery store workers across the US and Canada.<\/p>\n<p>The union said 130 workers at the flagship store in Philadelphia&#8217;s Center City neighborhood voted in favor of union representation, while 100 voted against it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This fight is far from over, but today&#8217;s victory is an important step forward,&#8221; Wendell Young IV, the president of the local chapter of the union, said in a statement provided to Business Insider.<\/p>\n<p>He added, &#8220;We are ready to bring Whole Foods to the bargaining table to negotiate a fair first contract that reflects the workers&#8217; needs and priorities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>UFCW International President Marc Perrone said that &#8220;companies must remember that grocery workers play an essential role by helping families put food on their tables.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This win sends a powerful message to workers everywhere that when we stand together, we can take on even the largest corporations and win,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Amazon acquired Whole Foods, which has 521 US stories and more than 105,000 employees, for $13.7 billion in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement provided to media outlets, Whole Foods said it was &#8220;disappointed&#8221; by the result but added that it was &#8220;committed to maintaining a positive working environment in our Philly Center City store.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the statement provided to BI, workers at the Whole Foods store said they &#8220;faced a relentless campaign of intimidation, misinformation, and anti-union tactics from Amazon and Whole Foods management.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They underestimated our determination and unity,&#8221; the group said.<\/p>\n<p>National Labor Relations Board records show the workers filed to hold a union election in November 2024.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement announcing the petition, workers at the Philadelphia store said they hoped unionization would help them achieve fair compensation and better working conditions.<\/p>\n<p>In 2002, workers at a Whole Foods store in Madison, Wisconsin, voted in favor of a union, but it was dissolved the following year.<\/p>\n<p>Last October, Whole Foods said its sales had increased by more than 40% since Amazon&#8217;s acquisition, but it didn&#8217;t provide a dollar amount.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-original\">Read the original article on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/whole-foods-workers-vote-unionize-pennsylvania-store-amazon-owned-first-2025-1\">Business Insider<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Workers at a Whole Foods store in Pennsylvania voted to unionize. : Plexi Images\/GHI\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Whole Foods workers in a Pennsylvania store voted to unionize on Monday. They will join a local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. This is the first successful unionization push since Amazon acquired [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637,"href":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions\/637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtobigisland.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}