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This story was originally published on Supermarketnews.
A group of Whole Foods Market employees is urging fellow store-level workers to unionize.
Under the effort, first reported Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, the organizing employees sent an email to workers at Whole Foods stores across the country that calls for the formation of a cross-regional committee to press their demands with the Austin, Texas-based grocer and parent company Amazon.com Inc.
Chief among the workers’ concerns are labor-related changes they said have taken place in stores since Amazon closed its acquisition of Whole Foods in late August 2017. In the email, a copy of which was obtained by Supermarket News, the employees said layoffs and the streamlining of store-level jobs at Whole Foods following the $13.7 billion deal are likely to continue as Amazon integrates its online-driven business with the supermarket chain.
“Over the past year, layoffs and the consolidation of store-level positions at Whole Foods Market have upset the livelihood of team members, stirred anxiety and lowered morale within stores. Many in leadership are well-aware of the fact that when [Whole Foods CEO] John Mackey sold WFM to [Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos last year, that deal came with an agreement to trim hundreds of millions of dollars of labor from our stores,” the email stated. “There will continue to be layoffs in 2019 and beyond as Amazon aims to aggressively trim our labor force before it expands with new technology and labor models.”
The “most vulnerable” jobs in stores, the employees said, include department order writers, supervisors, store scanners and customer service positions.
In the email, the Whole Foods workers contended that employees have been laid off with “meager severance packages, no health insurance” and thereafter were offered the chance to apply for another job “at a much lower wage.” They also claimed that Whole Foods stopped offering profit sharing, in the form of stock options, to lower-level employees since Amazon took ownership of the chain.
“We cannot let Amazon remake the entire North American retail landscape without embracing the full value of its team members,” the workers said in the email. “The success of Amazon and WFM should not come at the cost of exploiting our dedication and threatening our economic stability.”
The employees organizing the union drive are calling for a $15 minimum wage, a matching 401k plan, paid maternity leave, lower health insurance deductibles and equal profit sharing, among other benefits.
Whole Foods couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. However, Seattle-based Amazon said in a statement that it provides an open environment for employees to express their concerns with management.