Support Giovanni, an unjustly fired Trader Joe's Worker

As our store is in the midst of brutal union busting, another coworker was fired unfairly last week. Gio was checking out customers as usual when he received a rude and aggressive customer at his register. Due to no fault of his own, the interaction escalated to the customer yelling at Gio. Despite multiple eye witnesses who insisted Gio did everything he was suppose to in that situation and in no way instigated it, our management flipped the blame onto Gio and fired him.

Our NYC Trader Joe’s store recently experienced intense union-busting which resulted in a tied election; retaliation has amplified these past few months, especially recently as we are in the process of receiving a bargaining order under the Cemex ruling. This Cemex order will reverse the results of our union election into a win for the union. While this is good news, corporate has been making an effort to wipe the store clean of those who support the union in hopes of disrupting our organizing.

They are taking out much of the retaliation on queer crew members of color, firing them unfairly and villainizing them. Gio is the third queer worker of color to be unjustly fired since this December.

“An injury to one is an injury to all". We stand with Gio and all workers under attack right now. While most of us do not have the means to support Gio right now, we are reaching out to our communities and networks for support in an unjust system keeping workers in poverty and corporations in power.