Wine Shop at Home Closed: Trader Joe’s Shocks Workers

The morning of 11 Aug 2022 brought bad news for New York City wine lovers. The city’s famous wine shop at home, Trader Joe’s, was closed. The decision came into force when the workers were preparing to unionize the store. The groundwork was going on. An organizing committee discussed the strategy to join the United Food and Commercial Workers union. As per reports, they planned to execute their plans officially on 15 Aug. But before it could happen, the company suddenly announced the closure of the wine shop in New York City.

Reaction of workers at wine shop at home

The workers are naturally stunned by the news. According to them, the reason behind this decision could be that the company wants to restrict other workers from following the same path of unionization. Shocked by the news, the wine shop at home workers said that most were willing to join the union. They planned to sign the union cards and submit them to the National Labor Relations Board, and they had thought of submitting them by Friday to petition for election.

The decision came as the company was aware of their intentions of unionizing, says a worker. The company noticed that it wants to explore another location with the same license. Trader Joe’s, however, was not available to make any comments on their decision.

The company posted a notice on its internal human-resource portal on Thursday. The notice showed that the company wants to explore another location for selling wine in New York State using one license. The notice also stated that the company would use the closed store for better operations of its grocery store.

The workers who have worked for a long time in the wine shop at home company expressed grief that this decision was complete “out of character” for their company. They are disappointed in becoming workless on such short notice.

Fate of workers

The United Food and Commercial Workers union stood by the workers of the closed shop. They said that they were ready to go for legal action. They also promised that if Trader Joe’s didn’t fulfill their commitments to the workers, the union would try to provide them jobs in the union stores.

Trader Joe’s has, however, promised that it would pay the stuff through 28 Aug and also try to transfer the workers to other stores.

The workers at wine shop at home now realize the necessity of a union more after becoming jobless on short notice.

News source: HuffPost