Dear Pamela,
On May Day, of all days, the company fired Jamie Edwards, a national leader of our effort to unionize Trader Joe's who worked at the Hadley, MA location for over ten years.
Jamie co-founded our union and served as Trader Joe's United's national president up until recently, all while continuing to stock shelves and bag groceries. Trader Joe's has refused to reinstate Jamie. They are still fired, but still fighting.
We'll share more of Jamie's story in a second, but first, can you make a contribution to Jamie's GoFundMe to help them cover basic living expenses while continuing to build our union?
Jamie is a dedicated advocate for their coworkers, both as a union officer and bargaining spokesperson, and as a coworker on the sales floor. They are never afraid to speak up on someone else's behalf in order to right a wrong, or urge management to follow the law. They work hard and are well-loved by their coworkers.
However, Jamie's outspokenness and openness as a union organizer brought on scrutiny and retaliation from management. Since the announcement of Hadley's union drive, Trader Joe's targeted Jamie in a number of ways: sending them home from a shift because they were wearing a union pin, giving them failing marks on their performance reviews for two years straight, and even writing them up for fabricated acts of aggression. The union filed unfair labor practice charges for all of those incidents, but the charges have yet to be resolved.
On May 1 (May Day!) Trader Joe's fired Jamie. Jamie had recently stepped down from their position as national president, and it seems Trader Joe's thought this was the moment they could terminate a highly visible union organizer without repercussions.
Of course, they were wrong. The union is filing unfair labor practice charges against Trader Joe's in response to Jamie's termination. But that process takes time, and Jamie needs funds to cover basic living expenses right now while they seek new employment and fight for reinstatement.
Stand with Jamie by making a contribution to their GoFundMe. Every donation helps!
In Solidarity,
Trader Joe's United
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