The momentum gained by labor unions over the past 18 months seems to be waning as witnessed by the results of some recent organizing attempts. On October 17, employees at an Amazon fulfillment center in Castleton-on-Hudson, NY (near Albany) voted decisively against unionization. The organizing effort was staged by the newly created Amazon Labor Union (ALU) which successfully won a union election at a larger amazon facility (JFK8) in Staten Island, NY earlier this year.
According to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), 949 workers were eligible to vote and only 206 votes were cast in favor of unionization. There were 406 votes that rejected the union efforts and 31 ballots were challenged by either Amazon or the ALU at the fulfillment center known as ALB1, which handles oversize items such as large screen televisions and outdoor equipment.
This marked the fourth attempt in 2022 by labor unions to organize Amazon distribution centers. Three of those have now failed – in Bessemer, AL; at a smaller facility in Staten Island; and now in Upstate New York.
The union was asking for higher wages and safer working conditions at the warehouse in Castleton-on-Hudson. Amazon recently raised its starting wage at the facility from $15.70 to $17 an hour.
“We’re glad that our team in Albany was able to have their voices heard, and that they chose to keep the direct relationship with Amazon,” Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokeswoman, said in a statement.
After the election, ALU President Chris Smalls said in a statement that the defeat would not be the end of the union’s presence at the Albany warehouse and that the voting process “wasn’t free and fair.”
“We’re proud of the brave workers in Upstate New York who stood up in the face of a vicious anti-union campaign to challenge a trillion-dollar corporation,” Smalls said. “When workers are empowered to take on a greedy uncaring company with a poor safety track record and a high churn rate of workers, it isn’t a loss, it’s an ongoing battle,” he noted.
Earlier last month, the NLRB received an organizing petition from the ALU seeking to unionize an Amazon fulfillment center in Moreno Valley, CA (ONT8) that employs about 800. Kayla Blado, a spokesperson for NLRB, said her agency was waiting for additional paperwork from the union before it can begin to verify that the group collected enough signed cards (30 percent minimum) before NLRB can move forward with the election process. That paperwork never came because the ALU withdrew its petition, an indication that it was struggling to gain enough signatures.
And more recently, employees at the Trader Joe’s store in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn voted against unionizing, handing a union its first loss at the company after victories this year in Hadley, MA and Minneapolis.
The workers voted 94 to 66 against joining Trader Joe’s United, an independent union that represents employees at stores in Massachusetts and Minnesota.
“We are grateful that our crew members trust us to continue to do the work of listening and responding to their needs, as we always have,” Nakia Rohde, a Trader Joe’s spokeswoman, said in a statement after the National Labor Relations Board announced the election result on October 27.
It’s clear that the union revival isn’t going away anytime soon; it’s also clear that those companies that are perceived to treat their associates fairly will find that only a small percentage of their associates are likely to become union members.
‘Round The Trade
It was another slower period of earnings for Amazon in its recently completed Q3 (ended September 30). Like many of its retail peers, sales continued to be solid, up 15 percent to $127.1 billion, but profit dipped from $3.2 billion in last year’s third quarter to $2.9 billion this year. One aspect of Amazon’s business that seems to be slightly improving is overall sales at its physical stores. Spurred mainly by its 520 Whole Food Markets, sales reached $4.7 billion, up 10 percent from last year’s third quarter. However, it’s difficult to analyze real growth because the company does not offer comp store sales data. In the past 12 months alone, Amazon has opened more than a dozen WFM stores and Amazon Fresh units combined. Additionally, with most retail food operators still posting consistently positive same store sales, a 10 percent gain in sales when you include new entries from WFM, AF and even an Amazon Go doesn’t strike me as very impressive. In summarizing the recent operating period, CEO Andy Jassy stated: “In the past four months, employees across our consumer businesses have worked relentlessly to put together compelling Prime Member Deal Events with our eighth annual Prime Day and the brand new Prime Early Access Sale in early October (which happened after Q3 closed). The customer response to both events was quite positive, and it’s clear that particularly during these uncertain economic times, customers appreciate Amazon’s continued focus on value and convenience. We’re also encouraged by the steady progress we’re making on lowering costs in our stores’ fulfillment network and have a set of initiatives that we’re methodically working through that we believe will yield a stronger cost structure for the business moving forward. There is obviously a lot happening in the macroeconomic environment, and we’ll balance our investments to be more streamlined without compromising our key long-term, strategic bets. What won’t change is our maniacal focus on the customer experience, and we feel confident that we’re ready to deliver a great experience for customers this holiday shopping season.” Yadda, yadda, yadda.
In other Amazon news, Jassy is getting some heat in the form of a formal complaint from the NLRB over his comments made in two media interviews earlier this year. In April, talking to CNBC reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin, Jassy said that employees who were represented by a union would be less empowered in the workplace, making it more difficult for them to have a direct relationship with management and making things much slower and much more bureaucratic. In June, during Bloomberg’s Tech Summit, he repeated many of those comments adding that employees were better off without a union.
C&S Wholesale Grocers, which recently announced that it is upgrading its operations platform to a cloud-based system, has selected Relex Solutions, to help create a unified supply chain and planning process. The Atlanta-based tech firm will utilize its demand forecasting and automatic replenishment software to help the Keene, NH wholesaler with its customer experience…last month the SEC approved a rule that requires publicly-traded companies whose financial statements contain errors to recoup any executive bonuses and other incentive-driven compensation. Also part of the new rule, which will become part of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, companies will have to now include “check boxes” on the front pages of their annual shareholder reports to highlight whether an error correction analysis has been made.
Local Notes
Wegmans cut the ribbon on its first store in Delaware late last month and like most openings for the uber-retailer, business was very robust. The 84,000 square foot unit located in the toney Greenville section of Wilmington was the third Wegmans unit to open in 2022 (Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC were the others). Next up for the Rochester, NY based family-owned merchant will be its 85,000 square foot store in Reston, VA which is slated for a February 1 debut. That store will be the regional chain’s 15th store in Virginia and 110th overall…another Delaware store opening will be happening on November 17 in the beautiful hamlet of Lewes. That’s when Redner’s Fresh Market will open the long-awaited 49,000 square foot supermarket that was delayed by about a year because of COVID.
Grocery Outlet will be opening its second Maryland store in early 2024 at the site of the former Milford Mill Giant Food on Liberty Road in Baltimore. That store, one of Giant’s first supermarkets in the Baltimore area, closed in 2018. Earlier this year, a group called the Liberty Road Task Force was formed to attempt revitalize the underserved corridor which has been without a supermarket since Giant closed (although there is a Walmart Supercenter 1.7 miles away). Baltimore County will be contributing $2 million in redevelopment funding.
And shortly before presstime, we learned that “The Killer” had died. I am speaking of Jerry Lee Lewis, the baddest and the last of the “Million Dollar Quartet,” (other members of the quartet were Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins) the group of artists signed by Sam Phillips to his Sun Records label in the mid-1950s. With his debut single, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” released in April 1957, Lewis literally shook the country almost as much as Elvis had the year before. Lewis followed up that hit later in ’57 with his hair-raising “Great Balls Of Fire.” However, it all came crashing down for “The Killer” in December 1957 when reporters discovered that he had recently married his third wife, Myra Gale Brown. There were only three problems with that betrothment – Brown was only 13 years old at the time, Lewis had not yet divorced his second wife, and Myra Gale Brown was his second cousin. While this event sparked Lewis’ downfall, Myra Gale couldn’t quite grasp what the controversy was all about. When asked by reporters if 13 wasn’t a little young to be married, she replied: “Oh, no, not at all. Age doesn’t matter back home (Vicksburg, MS). You can marry at 10 if you can find a husband.” The scandal significantly impacted Lewis’ career for the next decade. But, by 1968, he had reinvented himself as a country music artist, releasing such classics as “What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)” and “Another Place, Another Time.” Even though he had mellowed a bit, the bizarre incidents which impacted his earlier career continued. In 1976, while watching television with Myra Gale at their home, he accidently shot his bass player in the chest with a .357 Magnum handgun after saying “I’m going to shoot that Coca-Cola bottle over there, or my name ain’t Jerry Lee Lewis.” All told, “The Killer” was married seven times. His fourth wife, Jaren Pate, drowned in a friend’s swimming pool in 1982; a year later his next wife, Shawn Michelle Stephens, died after overdosing on methadone. A paragraph in Lewis’ New York Times obit captured the persona of the man as a performer: “His scorching performance style suited his material. Mr. Lewis sometimes called by his childhood name ‘The Killer,’ discovered that audiences loved it when he kicked his piano bench aside and attacked the keyboard standing up. Possessed by the ‘Devil’s music,’ as he called it, he writhed and howled, raked the keyboard with his right foot and tossed his wavy blond hair until it looked like a fright wig.” I was fortunate enough to see Jerry Lee at Jazzfest in New Orleans in 2015. And although he spoke in a soft and mumbled tone, once he assumed command of the keyboard, it was 1957 all over again. Despite all the dirty linen which adversely affected his life, Jerry Lee Lewis was one of the most unique and talented musicians in the history of rock and roll. It’s amazing that he lasted until he was 87.
