An Amazon Prime delivery van sits parked outside of a Whole Foods Market grocery store on August 26, 2024 in El Segundo, California.
Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images
Whole Foods, the Amazon-owned grocery chain, has asked the National Labor Relations Board to overturn a union victory at a Philadelphia store, pointing to President Donald Trump’s recent ouster of several top officials at the agency.
Trump last week fired former NLRB chair Gwynne Wilcox and the agency’s top lawyer, Jennifer Abruzzo. Wilcox’s firing leaves just two remaining members on the five-member NLRB panel, which already had two vacancies at the time she was dismissed. Wilcox sued Trump on Wednesday, alleging her firing was a “blatant violation” of law.
With only two sitting members on the board, the NLRB lacks the necessary quorum to issue decisions on labor disputes, stymying a key function of the labor board.
Whole Foods is disputing the results of a January election at its Spring Garden, Philadelphia, store, where employees voted 130-100 in favor of joining the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. The vote marked the first successful organizing effort at Whole Foods since Amazon acquired the upscale grocer for $13.7 billion in 2017.
In a filing submitted to the NLRB on Monday, Whole Foods argued that “in the absence of a Board quorum, the Regional Director lacks statutory authority to investigate objections or certify the results, or otherwise engage in representation case procedures, including investigating objections or conducting the objections process.”
The objection threatens to set up long legal negotiations and further delays to the start of negotiations on a collective bargaining agreement with workers and the UFCW.
Wendell Young, president of UFCW Local 1776, the chapter representing the workers, said in a statement that the union “fully expected Whole Foods to try to stall this process.”
“Amazon has a well-documented history of using baseless objections to undermine the rights of workers seeking representation, and this case is no different,” Young said. “Their goal is clear: they don’t want to bargain in good faith with their workers. But this fight is far from over.”
Whole Foods previously said it was “disappointed” by the outcome of the election. It also argued in the Monday filing that the NLRB “tainted” the results of the election by limiting the company from communicating its views on unionization. Last November, the agency ruled that captive audience meetings, or mandatory employee meetings typically called by employers during union campaigns, are unlawful.
Whole Foods also accused the UFCW in its objections of intimidating employees who supported the company.
The company told CNBC in a statement that the UFCW 1776 “illegally interfered” in its employees “right to a fair vote” at the Philadelphia store.
Amazon has also faced mounting labor pressure in it warehouse operations of late. Workers at Amazon’s sprawling Garner, North Carolina, warehouse will begin voting next week on whether to unionize. In December, Amazon delivery and warehouse workers, alongside the Teamsters union, held strikes at seven facilities during the peak holiday shopping season.
As part of her lawsuit, Wilcox is seeking an injunction for her immediate reinstatement to the board. She said her firing amounted to “an immediate and indefinite halt” to all of the NLRB’s regulatory activity.
— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.
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