Dive Brief:
- Whole Foods Market’s objections to the unionization of its Philadelphia employees were denied review by the National Labor Relations Board in a vote on Monday.
- The NLRB said that the Amazon-owned specialty grocer “raise[d] no substantial issues warranting a review.”
- This decision comes more than a year after a Philadelphia Whole Foods became the first of the chain’s stores to vote in favor of joining UFCW Local 1776.
Dive Insight:
The saga between Whole Foods and its Philadelphia employees dates back to November 2024, when workers at the grocer’s Philly Center City store announced on social media their goal to unionize.
Those employees voted in late January 2025 in favor of unionizing by 130-100. However, those results were met with near-immediate pushback from Whole Foods, which asked the NLRB to set aside the results due to its claims that UFCW Local 1776 “interfered with our Team Members’ right to a fair vote.” An NLRB hearing officer rejected these allegations of interference in May 2025, yet Whole Foods persisted in its efforts to overturn the election results.
Now, more than a year after Whole Foods tried to overturn the Philadelphia union election results, the NLRB found the company’s request for review “does not raise cognizable challenges.”
The Whole Foods’ Philadelphia union took to Instagram on Tuesday to celebrate being “victorious yet again over Amazon’s Whole Foods.”
“After months of stalling, the NLRB officially ruled in favor of the union… Now, it’s time to get Amazon and Whole Foods to the bargaining table with a strong first contract!” the union wrote on Instagram.
Whole Foods still believes team members were not given the right to a fair vote.
“We strongly disagree with the Board’s conclusion. As previously stated, and as demonstrated throughout last year’s hearing—including with first-hand testimony from various witnesses—restrictions on free speech and the union’s illegal conduct interfered with our Team Members’ right to a fair vote at our Philly Center City Store,” Whole Foods wrote in emailed comments on Tuesday.
The grocer said that it regularly evaluates pay rates to ensure workers are offered competitive compensation in local markets, as well as offers part- and full-time workers employee benefits.
