LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Trader Joe’s in Louisville is joining a wave of unionization taking place within the national grocery chain. This comes in the midst of a broader effort to unionize in Louisville and across the country.


What You Need To Know

  •  Workers made the announcement in a video posted on Twitter

  •  They are working with a group called Trader Joe's Unite, a "worker-led movement organizing Trader Joe's"

  •  The Louisville store would be the first Trader Joe's in the south and third in the country to unionize

  • Recently, Starbucks and Heine Brothers Coffee workers have begun to unionize

Workers at the Louisville store are working with a group called “Trader Joe’s Unite” which said it is a “worker-led movement organizing Trader Joe’s” in its Twitter bio. The announcement was made in a video that was shared by the group More Perfect Union.

In the video, Connor Hovey, a worker at the Trader Joe’s in Louisville, explained the reasoning behind the push to unionize.

“At this current moment, it seems like the company’s scope of core values is broken and shattered on the inside. We want to fix that,” Hovey said.

Hovey continued, “One of the values that we have is ‘No Bureaucracy.’ And the perfect way to express ‘No Bureacracy’ is for everyone to have a seat at the table. So let us have a seat.”

He also tried to ward off attempts by the company’s management to undermine the unionization process.

“Let us have a fair election. Don’t union bust us. Let us make a democratic decision as a store,” he said.

If they are successful, the store will be the first in the south to join the Trader Joe’s union wave, and the third in the country to do so. The two other stores to unionize are in Massechusetts and Minnesota.

In Louisville, workers at Starbucks coffee shops and workers at local coffee chain Heine Brothers Coffee have begun to unionize, citing the need for better pay and working conditions. Journalists at the Louisville Courier-Journal also voted to unionize and just this month and, just this month, the Amazon Air Hub in northern Kentucky attempted to begin unionizing.