PHILADELPHIA—In a blatant act of union busting, after a majority of workers at the Philadelphia Whole Foods Market on Pennsylvania Ave voted to affiliate with UFCW Local 1776, the company filed a set of objections to the National Labor Relations Board in an attempt to get the Board to “set aside” the election results.
In one objection, Whole Foods Market claimed that, when the NLRB determined captive-audience meetings unlawful through a November 2024 ruling, it violated the company’s first amendment rights to talk to its employees through mandatory staff meetings containing anti-union messaging.
Captive-audience meetings are a common tactic of companies seeking to squash union campaigns, and a 2009 study found that their use in the lead-up to union elections decreased the chance of a successful vote in favor from 73% to 47%. Until this past November, the right of employers to hold these mandatory meetings was protected by a separate ruling from 1948.
Other objections include allegations that UFCW 1776 “promised” workers wage increases, that the union aided workers in getting to the job site on the day of the vote, and that the union intimidated anti-union workers during the campaign. But the union and the workers have pushed back on this, calling the accusations unfounded and predictable.
“It was workers giving people a ride to vote at the election,” said Daniel Bard, a worker at the Pennsylvania Ave store, in response to allegations of free transit provided by UFCW. In regards to the claims of intimidation, Bard told People’s World, “I never saw people being mean or rude to the people working there who were anti-union.”
“I actually think it’s typical and classic from a large corporation that requires control over their employees’ wages to object to collective bargaining,” he said. “I’d be surprised if they would’ve negotiated contracts immediately.”
He referenced a reason behind Whole Foods’ strategy of objections: decertification. A decertification vote can only take place one year after a successful union election, and removes the legal recognition for the union at that location. Decertification also requires low union support, which gives companies incentive to stall by contesting elections, firing organizers, and even refusing to show up for bargaining sessions.
“One of the other times at Whole Foods, they got the union vote, and almost a year later they voted against it because… I don’t even think a contract was ever negotiated and agreed upon by Amazon. So I think it’s more about delaying, and losing morale among workers,” he told People’s World.
While the previously mentioned objections were focused on specifics at the company and the store, the primary objection from the company is that the NLRB currently lacks quorum due to a recent, illegal, Trump-ordered firing of Board member Gwynne Wilcox.
Push to limit labor’s power
In addition to Wilcox, who is now suing for reinstatement, Trump’s efforts to limit the power of labor have included a slew of other firings: Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Jennifer Abruzzo, the pro-labor former General Counsel of the NLRB.
Similarly, legislation to eliminate the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (the “NOSHA” bill) was introduced into Congress this past week, and billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk’s DOGE attempted to take over (and gain sensitive data from) the Department of Labor, resulting in more protests, lawsuits, and the AFL-CIO launching an aptly named counter-DOGE campaign—the “Department of People Who Work For A Living.”
The frequency of these attacks on labor follow the trend of Trump’s efforts against working people on other fronts, echoing the strategy of “muzzle velocity” termed by Steve Bannon. Bannon, a close associate of Trump, described the strategy in an interview in 2019 and again this past Thursday:
“All we have to do is flood the zone. Every day, we hit them with three things, they’ll bite on one, and we’ll get all of our stuff done,” Bannon said.
“What you’re seeing is the culmination of that. The political and public policy coming together, and the hammer blows every day… we flood the zone to take down the established order here in the United States.”
However, these predictions of mass confusion and inaction are proving to be not entirely accurate, and workers are increasingly naming and resisting the general character of these attacks.
“We’re run by an oligarchy. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, and Trump, a business-man of the like, representing the interest of capitalism,” Bard said.
In a statement upon her termination, Jennifer Abruzzo implied that the fight for worker dignity isn’t over.
“We have accomplished so much […] so there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle,” she said, continuing, “…if the Agency does not fully effectuate its Congressional mandate in the future […] I expect that workers with assistance from their advocates will take matters into their own hands in order to get well-deserved dignity and respect in the workplace, as well as a fair share of the significant value they add to their employer’s operations.”
Still, when asked what he had to say to workers at non-union Whole Foods stores who want to organize, Bard emphasized caution.
“It’s important to keep quiet about it… keep it on the low, because Amazon had a massive disruption to everything that happened in the operations at Whole Foods. They disrupted all of our management… they have a really effective campaign at being anti-labor.”
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