Employees at Whole Foods Market in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Spring Garden have filed for a union election, marking the first time one of the Amazon-owned grocery stores has moved in that direction.
Representatives for pro-union Whole Foods employees at the Philadelphia store filed for a union election Friday with the National Labor Relations Board, hoping to be represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
According to reports, workers collected union pledge cards in the spring and reached a majority of support within three months.
If the workers vote to recognize the union, it would mark the first successful union push at Whole Foods. Workers began discussing the possibility of forming a union before the pandemic, with employees sharing concerns over safety, unhealthy work conditions and pay.
Some long-term employees have criticized the direction of Whole Foods since 2017, when retail giant Amazon acquired the store.
Whole Foods said it respects the rights of employees to organize, but implied a union could complicate worker-employer relations.
“Whole Foods Market recognizes the rights of our Team Members to make an informed decision on whether union representation is right for them,” the company said in a statement. “We agree with the overwhelming majority of our Team Members who value our open door policy and our ability to quickly respond to the needs of our workforce.”
A date for the election has yet to be set, but UFCW leadership says it expects the NLRB to set a date before the end of the year.
The filing comes as Amazon continues to resist unionization at its many warehouses across the U.S. and is challenging the constitutionality of the NLRB in federal court. Only one Amazon warehouse has successfully unionized but has failed to secure a contract with the company.
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