M a r k D i l l e y

Whole Foods Workers Unite

In a victory hailed as a milestone for retail workers across the cWhole Foods protestountry, workers at the Madison,Wisconsin Whole Foods voted to unionize in July 2002. Organizing around issues of respect, fair compensatio n, and a call for Whole Foods to live up to its own values, a small group of workers, committed to worker control and rank and file democracy, led and carried out the campaign. Although workers fought for card-check recognition, the company refused to recognize their union and forced them to go through an NLRB election. Despitea hostile anti-union campaign carried out by the company, workers voted 65-54 in favor of union representation, affiliating with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1444.

The workers’ victory was both a surprise and a major blow to a company that has made no secret of its hatred of unions. “Here's the way I like to think of it,” founder and CEO John Mackey once said. “The union is like having herpes. It doesn't kill you, but it’s unpleasant and inconvenient and it stops a lot of people from becoming your lover" (Business and Society Review, 6/22/92).