Trader Joe’s Follows SpaceX in Arguing US Labor Board Is Unconstitutional
Trader Joe’s Follows SpaceX in Arguing US Labor Board Is Unconstitutional
Grocery chain Trader Joe’s is joining Elon Musk’s SpaceX in arguing that the US labor board, which is prosecuting cases against both companies, is unconstitutional.
Grocery chain Trader Joe’s is joining Elon Musk’s SpaceX in arguing that the US labor board, which is prosecuting cases against both companies, is unconstitutional.
I'm disappointed. I really thought that TJs was more like Costco. You look at the employees and they are always smiling, just like Costco. Guess not all things are equal.
175Trader Joe's is overpriced Aldi. Their employees are told to smile, just like everywhere else you go that employees are always smiling. Nobody's that happy at work, and that shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody at this point.
84Joe literally ate the motherfuckers who don't smile.
18Costco aint much better and are very anti union, the warehouse workers get treated better than their counterparts at Walmart but the company doesn’t give a fuck about its workers, just its image of being ‘one of the good ones’. Their response to workers in Virginia forming a union is pretty telling, they also don’t give out a annual cost of living raise even for “exceptional workers”, its maxes out at 3%
-6
What the F, TJ? Want to make a loyal customer of 15+ years quit? This is how you do it. We’re a union family, we vote with our dollars too.
116Presumably union families have more dollars to vote with as well.
16Where are you gonna shop that's better? Kroger? Safeway? Walmart? Whole foods? It's fucked up.
15I used to shop at a kroger that had a UFCW sticker on the sliding doors out front. They represent 835,000 grocery workers. Unions have a strong foothold in American Grocery stores. Sounds like TJ's needs em.
23Kroger and Safeway are unionized
7Your local co-op?
5IGA!
4My qfc has a sticker at the front door that says the staff is unionized, so I'm shopping always there.
More than the chain l, I think it's better to shop of places that are unionized
4
There has been a push to unionize some TJ locations.
Here is an interview with one of the organizers from MA.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-below/id1713434162?i=1000634877458
Not all locations, such as my local one, are unionized. Hopefully there is some good progress soon since some lawsuits against the unions were tossed out of court late last year.
Edit: Just want to clarify that the existence of unions doesn’t justify their anti-union rhetoric, I do believe that corporate is shitty. I recently learned about their union struggle and wanted to share the story
7A TJ's in my area unionized last year. I went there and congratulated as many staff as I could find. You could tell which way they voted by their response to my good tidings. Most seemed to really appreciate the support.
7
I know I'm in the minority likely, but Trader Joes is shit it isn't because it can't survive unionization. Just because your chips are organic doesn't make buying it from overly outgoing cashiers any healthier. Prepackaged junk food is prepackaged junk food and they sell a ton of it. Frozen dinners are still sodium bombs even though they don't have "preservatives". That said, fuck these two anti-union shitstains of companies.
100They can survive it. Every company can survive it. They just don't want to give up their dictatorship.
77I shop at union grocery stores. The boutique chains see this as a something to exploit instead of a feature. Many union chains are local too, most boutique ones are national.
19"WHO RUNS BARTERTOWN?!"
1
I don't understand the trader Joe's love. It's a grocery store with a poor selection of fruits, vegetables, and fresh meats. They have a decent wine and beer selection. It's basically half frozen stuff, it's maybe higher quality than other places, but it's just frozen shit.
19It was better back in the early 2000s, in my opinion for two main reasons. First, the prices and quality were better. Second, and biggest of all, they carried a wide variety of products that had a limited presence in many American supermarkets, namely vegan/vegetarian meals, organic crap, and eclectic snacks. Most major grocers have caught up with demand and now they don't stand out all that much.
9The hype is definitely not worth it.
6I haven't been to a TJs in a while, but I remember I would go there for maybe one or two specific things that I couldn't get anywhere else. They were delicious.
But you know what? I don't even remember what they were anymore, that's how important TJs is over any other grocery store.
Fuck them for being anti union. Guess they'll continue not getting my money.
3Cheap vegan and vegetarian junk food that actually tastes good
2I mean they make good cookie butter
But that's about it imo
1
Come on, the quality of food at Trader Joe's is FAR better than the brands you find at a Safeway.
14Most of the food at Trader Joe's is just white label with fancy packaging. It's the same food you find at a Safeway.
13There are a few specific items that Trader Joe's is notable for... but ditto for Safeway, Hannaford's, Food Lion, Star, Superstore, and SaveOn - I think two decades ago Trader Joe's was a trailblazer in high quality offerings but they've slowly compromised for profits and competitors have realized that high quality offerings are valued by consumers - not just price.
9It's absolutely not, and it's almost certainly grown, picked, packed, and shipped by the same slave labor.
3
The no preservatives label needs better regulation. Every food that has it is loaded with either salt or sugar. The reason that they are loaded with salt and/or sugar is because salt and sugar are two of the oldest and most used preservatives. And that's my soapbox, thanks for listening.
7The other one that pisses me off is no added nitrates (except for all the nitrates in the additives we added). Just be honest, companies. It's really not hard to not be total shitbags.
6
The anti-unionization stuff makes me sad. They're really the only ones around here who carry vegetarian/vegan options. If I go to the chain store next door the prices are quite a bit more expensive, and all they have is a small corner of the refrigerated section of vegetarian options of questionable expiration.
7They have a lot of prepackaged junk but they do have good prices on bananas, blueberries and nuts. They also have a decent super high fiber, low sugar bran cereal.
I forgot to mention the little Persian cucumbers. They don’t always have them in stock at the co-op.
3I'm also of the opinion that produce is seasonal and should be treated that way. Some times of the year we shouldn't have bananas, blueberries, etc. They don't care where we get the good priced fruits from. Could be Peru or Vietnam, they don't care as long as they are on the shelves for consumers to buy. That ain't how we survive a climate crisis.
3
The end of our patronage of TJs.
94I ended it when I can't find half the crap I want to eat consistently.
5
No more Trader Joe’s for me.
65Same. I thought they were one of the good guys.
3
If people don't have the right to decide what their labor is worth, then they are no better than slaves.
45I agree with labor protections, but also let's not compare people who have a choice of workplace, paid a wage, have benefits, aren't owned by someone, cannot be bought or sold, and count as a full 5/5 of a person for the purposes of federal resource distribution to slaves who had none of those things.
-12Bud there's different kinds of slavery this includes way back when too
8
*Traitor Joe’s
41Well played
9
Wow so that kinda fuckin sucks. Guess I’m down to market basket.
33I guess labour has no choice but to go back to the old style of negotiating. Aka. Rocking up at the bosses house on mass and ‘asking nicely’ for a raise.
31Don't forget bidding them "a very good day" if they see them in the streets.
12
Is this the Michael Scott defense? Instead of yelling “I declare bankruptcy” they yell “I declare this unconstitutional”?
26It’s all very “Sovereign Citizen”.
5
wow. Tjoes is just throwing its goodwill away by aligning with spaceX. Its to bad as I like them and aldis.
25Yeah they frequently carry items no other grocer carries. Luckily I have a Sprouts nearby.
1
I didn't realize 2024 was the year I was going to stop shopping at TJ's.
24We can go back to mob violence if they don't like our mutually agreed upon legal framework???
22Being in agreement with Elon Musk is a clear sign you're an idiot.
20“The working class having a board that helps them is unconstitutional” for those who need a direct translation
20Hey Trader Joe's owners,,,Don't be a dick! I'm not a large customer, but I can always stop shopping there. Very disappointing.
17Im about to declare corporations unconstitutional. Their heads are so big their thoughts need launch vectors to get to their lobbyists.
12Permanently Deleted
1
Hmm. I couldn't read the full article because of a paywall, but from what I understand, the constitutionality of the NLRB was upheld by the Supreme Court in NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. 301 U.S. 1 (1937). I'm not sure there is any foundation to contemporary claims that the NLRB is unconstitutional.
12As with overturning Roe v. Wade, the legal foundation will be "our conservative cult says so".
34deleted by creator
2
These companies trying to do away with civilized negotiations, you'd think they want to go back to the bad old days when Labor got the bosses to come to the bargaining table by blowing shit up.
10Never spent a dollar there. Won’t start now, thanks
8It used to be a good store, but I guess the owner died and they've gone anti-union. I have not been in one for a few years and won't ever now (unless they change their tune).
11