Trader Joe's United launches official site for crew organizers and supporters

Trader Joe’s United has unveiled an official website that consolidates organizing resources, FAQs, petitions, a crew sign-up form and press materials for crew members and supporters. The site foregrounds the group’s banner and mission, “Our Union: For the Crew, By the Crew”, and positions itself as a worker-run alternative for Trader Joe’s employees pursuing collective action.

Trader Joe’s United describes itself as “an independent labor union 100% founded and powered by us, Trader Joe’s workers” and stresses that “all of TJU’s leadership roles are filled by Trader Joe’s crew members.” The site emphasizes the dual role many members still hold: “We are bagging groceries and stocking shelves while building a movement, writing contract proposals, and helping other stores organize.” The copy asserts the group’s identity plainly: “It’s not just a catchphrase–we literally are the union.”

The website includes a form aimed at crew organizers: “This form is intended for Trader Joe’s crew members who are interested in organizing their stores and joining our union. If you don’t work at Trader Joe’s but would like to show your support, please sign our petition.” It also offers standard organizing tools: action links, petitions, press contact information and a Frequently Asked Questions section under the header “Learn more about Trader Joe's United and what it means for crew members to organize their stores.” The site invites readers to follow a social feed with a “Latest from Instagram, follow us!” prompt, and lists a press contact email: press@traderjoesunited.org.

The launch comes amid a wider wave of organizing that began in 2022. Workers from a store in Hadley, Massachusetts, were the first to organize and helped create Trader Joe’s United; the group’s presence has since expanded to represent workers in Minneapolis,Louisville and Oakland, according to public summaries. The organizing push is tied in part to pandemic-era workplace concerns, with organizers saying that in the last decade Trader Joe’s has moved “from a workplace with incredible pay, benefits, and a welcoming atmosphere–to a company with increasing turnover, declining benefits, and stagnating wages.”

Securing first contracts remains a central challenge for new unions, and the TJU site’s social copy points to those hurdles. One Instagram post on the site reads: “Fantastic article on the front page of the @bostonglobe today about the challenges unions face in negotiating first contracts. In our case, having your employer bail on negotiations when you attempt hybrid bargaining is one of those challenges.”

Trader Joe’s is a large chain with over 500 locations and over 50,000 employees, and corporate management has a history of resisting staff unionization efforts. For crew members, the new site is a one-stop resource for organizing tools and outreach, while for managers and corporate-watchers it signals a more organized, self-managed approach to bargaining and recruitment.

Together, TJU tells readers, “we have the power to improve our stores for workers and for customers.” For crew members interested in organizing, the site’s form and FAQs are the immediate next steps; press inquiries can be sent to press@traderjoesunited.org.