Trader Joe's has a new unionized store–and came oh so close to two new unionized stores–as the fates of two unionization efforts by Trader Joe's United were determined yesterday. The Oakland Trader Joe's has become the fourth store to unionize by a vote of 73-53; in New York City, a tie of 76-76 occurred, which unfortunately goes to the employer in this case. It was believed that over 120 store employees had signed cards here, but it seems that hasn't borne out in the result. Still: an amazingly close effort by TJU. This account may sometimes make it seem easy to win a union election due to how many profiled here are landslide victories, but even those victories are tough to organize–and there's a degree of selection bias to the industries that are seeing big, successful unionization efforts right now too.
It remains to be seen how Trader Joe's responds to this successful effort in Oakland. As noted in the last post, they've gone pretty far in retaliating against the Louisville, Kentucky unionization effort (and are still suing to invalidate it)–and it's hard to say if they think it's a good strategy to duplicate elsewhere. This store has a slightly larger margin of victory and raw number of votes cast which might deter them from that, but you can really never be too cynical.