'We will figure out how to fire you': Report shows how major corporations are fighting unionization

31 January 2023

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), union membership fell to 10.1 percent in the United States in 2022 — a decrease from 10.3 percent in 2021. This is quite a contrast to 1950, when 34.6 percent of U.S. workers, according to the Economic Policy Institute, belonged to a union.

In 1950, one in three Americans was unionized; in 2022, it was roughly one in ten. And that 2022 number falls even lower when public-sector workers are excluded; among private-sector workers, according to the BLS, the U.S. had only a 6 percent unionization rate in 2022.

Yet employees of some major corporations, including Starbucks, Apple Stores, Chipotle and Trader Joe’s, have been trying to unionize. And according to The Guardian’s Michael Sainato, some of them fear retaliation from management.

Connor Hovey, who has been involved in union organizing efforts at a Trader Joe’s in Louisville, Kentucky, told The Guardian, “The company has made it very clear that they will do whatever they can to stop this effort in its tracks.”

Similarly, Sainato reports that Sarah Pappin, a shift supervisor at a Starbucks in Seattle, “claimed she had experienced retaliation for being heavily involved in union organizing efforts and pushing for bargaining a first union contract.

Pappin told The Guardian, “I definitely felt like they were trying to send a message of, ‘If you act like a problem, we will figure out how to fire you.’ To clock into your work every single day and not know if that’s gonna be the last day you work there, that’s just really stressful. And it’s difficult as somebody who’s really, really worked really hard for this company for years.”

Read The Guardian’s full report at this link.

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