‘I had a target on my back’: Judge orders fired Trader Joe’s worker reinstatement
Trader Joe's is appealing the ruling.
A judge ordered the reinstatement of a Trader Joe’s employee in Houston, Texas, Jill Groeschel, who was terminated in April 2022.
Groeschel had filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over retaliation she experienced leading up to and including her termination for speaking out about the removal of Covid-19 protections in the store and health and safety concerns she and other workers had over the removed protections.
“Prior to her safety complaints in 2021 there is no record of management questioning her fit for the position even when they corrected other behavior,” the ruling states. “I conclude that Respondent’s suspension and termination of Groeschel was motivated by Groeschel’s protected activity of filing and participating in the investigation of the charge in this matter. I further conclude that Respondent has failed to establish that it would have discharged her absent that conduct.”
The judge described how Trader Joe’s management collected worker testimonies in opposition to Groeschel leading up to her termination and how a Regional Vice President presided over her termination that was determined by the judge to be in response to protected concerted activity.
Jill Groeschel had worked at Trader Joe’s in Houston, Texas for 8 years and said she never received any negative performance reviews, write-ups, or incident reports against her until she began pushing back on Trader Joe’s rolling back COVID-19 protections in her store in Summer 2022. Groeschel worked morning shifts, distributing pallets throughout the store, stocking, merchandising, cleaning, and helping out in the front end of the store.
At the time, the store began removing signage referring to COVID-19 and removing plexiglass barriers. In July 2021, Harris County, Texas raised COVID-19 threat levels due to a surge of hospitalizations in the area.
“At this time, crew morale is plummeting,” Groeschel told The Guardian. “Our store manager announced that Trader Joe’s wanted to return to their pre-pandemic business model, while displaying no empathy for the crew who were concerned.”
She explained that her manager began demonstrating animosity toward her for criticizing the removal of COVID-19 protections and pushing for management to respond to concerns her and some other employees had as well, by talking to her about vague complaints and reports about her in meetings with her and telling her that Trader Joe’s may not be the appropriate workplace for her if she didn’t like how the company was handling COVID-19.
“What was really egregious in my case was how lacking Trader Joe’s was in respecting legitimate employee health concerns, and their aggressive way in shutting me down. It was really at this point in time when Trader Joe’s manager began more concerted efforts to make me resign,” said Groeschel. “I really felt intimidated, and I felt like he didn’t want me in this store. I really felt like I had a target on my back.”
In February 2022, Groeschel said she received a negative performance review and was denied an annual raise because of it for the first time during her employment at Trader Joe’s, but that no details were provided on her negative reviews. She filed a charge with the NLRB alleging the performance review and denial of a wage raise were retaliatory.
Shortly after doing so, Groeschel was informed she was being suspended pending an investigation over a claim she was aggressively using a pallet jack, a tool she used every morning for years to transport and stock merchandise before the store opened. In the NLRB judge ruling, the judge argued this complaint was unfounded as the worker it alleged to have occurred did not corroborate the allegation. Groeschel was later informed by a regional manager that the investigation was completed, and she was going to be fired as a result.
“When I entered that meeting, I naively felt confident that I would return to work, because I knew the allegations against me were unfounded,” argued Groeschel. “Trader Joe’s made me feel like I was in the wrong for speaking up about health and safety protocols and defending employees’ rights. It was intense and the intimidation factor is real. I think Trader Joe’s overlooks the fact that their success is owed to the dedicated crew who come in every day and give exemplary customer service.”
Trader Joe’s has until 29 March to file exceptions to the ruling and are represented by the anti-union law firm Littler Mendelson.
“From personal experience, I believe that the best way for employees to fight for their rights is to unionize,” added Groeschel, who expressed support for Trader Joe’s United, a union campaign that has won union elections at three Trader Joe’s stores in Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Minnesota over the past year and recently filed to hold union elections at two more stores, in Oakland, California and New York City.
A Trader Joe’s spokesperson said the company is appealing the ruling.
“We are appealing the decision of the administrative law judge on a number of grounds. The termination of this Crew Member was unrelated to any protected conduct and had nothing to do with comments about removing COVID-19 protections,” they said in an email.