Media that empowers working people – that's how we build a More Perfect Union.

Don't Miss a Video!

Access our exclusive reporting and rapid response actions directly in your inbox, so you don’t miss a beat in the fight for working people nationwide.

Be a part of a community backing up independent journalism with action.

Ideas

Have a story to tell or idea to share?
Email [email protected]
© 2021 More Perfect Union Action

Together we can build power for working people.

We’re asking questions that really matter, and telling the stories of people who really need to be seen and heard.

You can support our work by donating today.

Amount

Make It Monthly

Don't Miss a Video!

Access our exclusive reporting and rapid response actions directly in your inbox, so you don’t miss a beat in the fight for working people nationwide.

Be a part of a community backing up independent journalism with action.

Trader Joe’s Workers Confront Management After Active Shooter Threat in NYC Was Not Disclosed

Over 60 workers presented their boss with a petition giving management 24 hours to agree to create a “safety playbook” including protocol for emergency situations.

Trader Joe's Murray Hill

By Libby Rainey

Trader Joe’s workers at a New York City store confronted store management Tuesday afternoon to demand immediate changes to safety protocols after they say management failed to warn workers about an active shooter threat in their store last week, putting them at risk.

Workers say that a Trader Joe’s crew member threatened to open fire inside the Trader Joe’s Murray Hill location on Thursday after an altercation with a manager, but management delayed telling the store staff and failed to communicate the safety threat. A source told More Perfect Union that the store closed two hours early and that security guards were present in the store, but workers were not told why. Trader Joe’s waited until the next day to tell workers what had happened at the store by calling them individually. Some workers weren’t even alerted the next day.

In response, a group of workers presented their boss with a petition Tuesday signed by at least 60 crew members, giving management 24 hours to agree to create a “safety playbook” including protocol for emergency situations. Workers are also demanding Trader Joe’s modify its existing safety team so the majority of members are democratically elected workers.

On Tuesday, workers read a letter to store captain Hannah Tasker, saying, “During the events of last week, we witnessed the failure of management to communicate necessary and crucial information to the crew, and many of us feared for our safety. Many crew members were forced to come to work without any knowledge of a potentially dangerous situation. The failure to communicate demonstrated management’s clear predisposition to prioritize profits over the safety, mental health, and wellbeing of our crew members.”

On Saturday, workers began distributing their petition, including posting it in the breakroom. Management responded by taping a statement over the petition, listing the members of its current safety team.

This is the second collective action workers at the Murray Hill store have taken since learning of the active shooter threat on Thursday, according to a source close to the workers. On Friday morning, more than a dozen workers walked out after a meeting at the store demanding Trader Joe’s send a mass communication to its workers about the incident and their safety. 

The shooting threat at Trader Joe’s comes less than a month after a white man opened fire in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, killing ten Black people. In the aftermath of the grocery store shooting, workers at Trader Joe’s Murray Hill location distributed a petition demanding increased safety measures at their store, including an in-store security guard, more detailed safety training and paid time to learn evacuation protocols.

Our source tells us management responded to this first petition by saying it already has a safety team.

But workers say the shooting threat in Murray Hill only a few weeks later exposed the company’s safety protocols as dangerously inadequate.

Related Stories

YouTube Thumbnail
Trader Joe’s Workers In Massachusetts Launch Historic Union Drive
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Apple Retail Workers Attempt To Organize Company’s First U.S. Union
Read More

The Latest

YouTube Thumbnail
What Scorpion Venom Has To Do With Amazon’s Monopoly
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Our Camera Footage Got Raided. You Won’t Believe Why.
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Michigan’s Bold New Solution to High Drug Prices
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Why U.S. Hospitals Are Closing At An Alarming Rate
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
We Went to the Most Unequal Place in America
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Big Pharma’s 20-Year War On America
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Whistleblower Exposes Health Insurance Companies’ Most Evil Scheme
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
What Disney Doesn’t Want You to Know About Visual Effects
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Inside the Exploitation at Vegas’s MGM and Caesar’s Palace
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
How Four Companies Took Over Our Food Supply
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
How Internet Companies like Verizon And Comcast Abandoned Rural America
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
What Nestle and Abbott Don’t Want You to Know
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Trump Could Lose These Voters. Here’s Why.
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Chicago’s Radical Solution For Broken Tipping Culture
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
The Hidden Reason Manufacturing Jobs Have Disappeared
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
The Truth About Medicare Advantage
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
Marvel workers won the first union in visual effects history
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
We Uncovered a Shocking Right-Wing Plot to Eradicate Public Schools
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
The Government’s Radical Solution to Lower Drug Prices
Read More
YouTube Thumbnail
This New Deal Jobs Program Is Coming Back
Read More