Workers at a Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn have filed a petition to unionize, following in the footsteps of a slew of Starbucks outposts and other retail chain stores across the five boroughs.
Staffers at the Williamsburg location, which opened less than a year ago, filed Friday for a unionization election, according to a docket posted to the National Labor Relations Board’s website.
If successful, the store would be the first Trader Joe’s in New York to unionize.
Trader Joe’s workers in Massachusetts and in Minneapolis voted in favor of joining Trader Joe’s United earlier this year, according to the union.
The Brooklyn store, which employs about 185 people, has filed to join the same fledgling union, according to the docket.
In a statement, the union claims management at the Brooklyn Trader Joe’s fired a Black employee a day after learning about her efforts to unionize the store.
“Jaz’s firing was surprising but not shocking to us, because we know of our store’s pattern of applying discipline in ways that reflect our society’s racial bias,” said Amy Wilson, a crew member and organizer in Williamsburg.
Trader Joe’s could not immediately be reached for comment.