In March 2020, with the coronavirus pandemic raging, Dan Bane, then CEO of Trader Joe’s, sent a letter to the popular grocery chain’s employees. He blamed union advocates for driving discontent among workers and dismissed potential organizing actions as a “distraction,” suggesting that unions were spreading misinformation and fear.
Bridget Arend, a worker at the Essex Crossing Trader Joe’s store in New York City’s lower Manhattan, found the timing and substance of the letter appalling. She and many of her coworkers wanted to unionize — not because they were victims of sinister manipulation but because they worried about unsafe working conditions and were fed up with the vast power asymmetry in determining compensation and benefits, she said. “It didn’t feel like they were willing to lose even one day of profit to make sure that we could all go get tested and not spread [the coronavirus],” Arend told Capital & Main.
