Whole Foods' History With Unions

At a time when collective bargaining is under attack in Wisconsin and elsewhere, it seems appropriate to take a look at Whole Foods' history vis-a-vis unions.

For some who oppose Whole Foods coming to Jamaica Plain, the company’s attitude toward the unionization of their own workers is a major reason.

The company said in a statement to Patch that it feels “unions do not foster or contribute to the unique empowering, supportive, innovative culture we have created at Whole Foods Market.”

According to an April 2009 Mother Jones article, a Whole Foods manager of a San Francisco store was taped making remarks implying that joining a union would lead to reprisals, during one of several training sessions held by the company.

The article goes on to say that “CEO, John Mackey, has compared the prospect of having unions at his stores to 'having herpes.' An internal Whole Foods document, obtained by Mother Jones, listed 'six strategic goals for Whole Foods Market to achieve by 2013,'includes a goal to remain '100 percent union-free.'”

• Decentralized decision-making and minimizing bureaucracy
• Policies that recognize individual performance and team performance
• Collaborative, not confrontational
• Celebrate individuality
• Open-book salary policy and executive salaries capped at 19 times the average team member salary
• 90 percent of team members in store leadership were promoted from other positions within the store; the majority of regional leadership and most of global leadership rose to their positions from working at the store level.
• Shared fate: Team members vote new team members onboard
• Happy team members = happy customers: it’s a win-win philosophy
• Fortune “100 Best Companies to Work For” every year since list’s inception

“At the end of the day, it’s our team members’ decision whether they want third party representation or not,” Whole Foods said in a statement. “Employees in any workplace in America have the right to choose to organize, as well as the right not to choose third-party representation.

Whole Foods has consistently made Fortune’s list of “Best Companies to Work For.”

According to Mother Jones the only union ever established at a Whole Foods store was in Madison, Wisc., a local of the United Food and Commercial Workers.

Hi-Lo Foods, which was previously in the space at 415 Centre St., was not unionized. Neither are the remaining mom-and-pop food stores in JP. But workers of supermarkets of comparable size to the Texas-based chain Whole Foods are represented by several trade unions, as is the case of . is member owned but its employees are not unionized.

Harvest Co-op General Manager Mike St. Clair said, “Our mission remains one of inclusion and any union, institution and organization that reflects the values and ideals of Harvest is welcome to participate.”

David Warner, co-owner of said “We do support workers' rights to organize.”

[Editor's note: This story was updated after initial posting with a list of bullet points provided by Whole Foods]