https://themilitant.com/2018/09/15/workers-at-whole-foods-target-take-steps-to-organize/
Workers at Whole Foods, Target take steps to organize
By Seth Galinsky
Vol. 82/No. 35
September 24, 2018
Talk of the need for a union among retail workers is in the air. Workers
are getting fed up with low wages, speedup, threats of layoffs and
abusive work schedules. And the expansion in the capitalist economy
means workers are feeling more confident in seeking changes in pay and
conditions.
Despite Whole Foods being on Fortune magazine’s “Best Employers to Work
for” list for 20 years in a row, workers at the company — bought by
Amazon a year ago — are among those looking to get a union.
Whole Foods has more than 89,000 employees at 470 U.S. stores in 42
states, as well as 20 stores in Canada and the United Kingdom.
A group of workers calling themselves Team WFM’s Cross Regional
Committee sent out an email letter to co-workers around the country
Sept. 6 asking them to join in organizing “to force Amazon to meet our
demands.”
“Accomplishing this as individual stores is extremely difficult,” the
letter says. “If we organize our efforts on a national scale it will be
impossible for Amazon and WFM executives to ignore.” Their effort is
being backed by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
The letter says that Amazon has been combining jobs at Whole Foods
stores to cut labor costs, something that will sound familiar to workers
at Walmart and other retail giants. Among the workers’ demands are “a
$15 minimum wage, 401(k) matching, paid maternity leave, lower health
insurance deductibles” and “equal profit sharing.”
Amazon issued a statement saying Whole Foods workers should “bring their
comments, questions and concerns directly to their management team”
instead of joining a union.
Other bosses are paying close attention. Seattle-based Amazon, is the
second-largest private company in the U.S., after Walmart, with 575,000
workers. Many work in Amazon’s warehouses, where they are continuously
timed and monitored to push them to work faster and faster. Articles on
the organizing initiative appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune,
and the Supermarketnews.com website.
Amazon’s top boss, Jeff Bezos, is currently the richest person in the
world, sitting on $112 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which
keeps track of such things. And, Forbes says, if you add together the
loot owned by Jim, Robert and Alice Walton, the scions of the Walmart
empire, you have a few bucks over $138 billion.
Some 200 workers at Target in Huntington Station in Long Island, New
York, voted Sept. 7-8 on joining United Food and Commercial Workers
Local 1500.
“They called us. This is not a case when we sent union organizers,”
Local 1500 President Tony Speelman told New York Newsday.
Target Corp. employs 350,000 people in 1,839 stores, but none have a
union. The company tried to block the vote, but failed.
The Dayton family, whose ancestors founded the company, can’t hold a
candle to Bezos and the Waltons. Forbes says they’re worth a measly $1.6
billion.
After a union-organizing drive forced a vote at its store in nearby
Valley Stream in 2011, Target bosses shut down the store for
“renovations” and dispersed workers to other stores, even though the
company won the vote.
Target bosses say workers at Huntington Station voted 118-39 against
joining Local 1500, but the fight for a union won’t go away.
Meanwhile, Walmart workers won a victory earlier in the year, forcing
the company to recognize their right to wear pro-union insignia on their
clothes at work.
The May agreement, signed by Walmart, OUR Walmart and the National Labor
Relations Board, stems from the retail giant’s anti-union actions after
workers went on strike at its Richmond, California, store in 2012. The
company also agreed to stop threatening to fire workers who support
strikes or union-organizing efforts.
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In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Demand US rulers sign peace treaty with NKorea
•‘Workers need independence from capitalist state, parties’
•Iraq protests demand gov’t provide services, end to Tehran interference
•Liberals’ frenzy against Trump falters in face of workers’ distaste
•Join fight against prison censorship of ‘Militant’ in Florida, Illinois!
Feature Articles •Mexico election registers crisis for capitalist
rulers, parties
Also In This Issue •Steelworkers authorize strikes at U.S. Steel amid
contract talks
•‘Convict Chicago cop who killed Laquan McDonald’
•Workers at Whole Foods, Target take steps to organize
•Sankara books welcomed at NY Burkina Faso festival
•Kentucky UFCW workers strike at Four Roses plants
Editorials •Decay of US rulers ‘world order’ opens room to fight
On the Picket Line •Chicago hotel workers fight for health care, higher
wages
•Miami airport workers rally, press for union contract
Books of the Month •‘First years of Communist Party heroic part of our
continuity’
As I See It •Gangs, drugs and violence are built into capitalist rule
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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