Philadelphia Whole Foods workers just unionized—just as Trump made it harder for them to get a contract

Whole Foods workers at a Philadelphia store just voted this week to unionize, becoming the first store at the Amazon-owned grocery chain to do so. But then the Trump Administration dealt a blow to the National Labor Relations Board, ousting two officials in a move that labor experts say violates the law—and will hamper worker rights, including around bargaining union contracts.

President Trump fired both the NLRB’s General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who was a Biden appointee, and Democratic board member Gwynne Wilcox. Wilcox’s firing is unprecedented and illegal, experts say; it marks the first time in 90 years that a president has fired a board member, and violates a statute that says board members can be removed “for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause.”

Because of existing vacancies, Wilcox’s termination leaves the board with just two members. (The board is meant to have five members when fully staffed.) That means it’s short of the quorum needed to decide any cases—and so the NLRB’s powers to protect workers are, essentially, halted.

“What this says is [the Trump administration] is OK with effectively denying workers in this country protection for their right to collectively bargain,” says Sharon Block, executive director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School. “With a board down to just two members, it can’t function. And if it can’t function, then the rights of American workers can’t function.”

Voting to unionize is just one step of the process. Bargaining a contract is another. Under the National Labor Relations Act, companies must bargain in good faith, but there’s little teeth to that law—and no monetary fines. Because of these weak labor laws, bargaining can take years. A 2018 study found that 63% of unions failed to reach a first contract within one year of winning their election; after two years, 43% of unions still had no contract.

This has played out in recent prominent union efforts. Starbucks workers, who first unionized in December 2021, still don’t have a contract. Amazon warehouse workers first unionized in April 2022 and also still do not have a contract. Throughout those processes, there have been multiple NLRB cases and complaints—whether concerning the fact that Amazon has been illegally refusing to bargain, or that Starbucks illegally denied pay and benefits to union workers, and so on. Now those complaints will have nowhere to be heard.

Labor advocates have been calling for stronger laws to help workers for years, pointing out that the current remedies are weak. “But now, companies know that there’s nobody to even find that they failed to bargain in good faith,” Block says of the fact that the board is down to two members.

Though the fact that Whole Foods workers elected to unionize is notable, Whole Foods is owned by Amazon, which already shown with its warehouse employees the ability to slow the process down so it takes years. This doesn’t bode well for Whole Foods workers in terms of them quickly securing a contract. Trump’s firing of Wilcox makes that even less likely. “It’s up to Whole Foods whether they will abide by the outcome of the election or not,” Block says. “The law is effectively sitting on the sidelines.”

There is some work that the board can still do, she notes; the acting general counsel could issue complaints, and there could be investigations. “But none of those activities can lead to the ultimate decision of, ‘has the law been violated or not’ or ‘who won the election,’” she says. “All of those ultimate decisions are entrusted to the board, so if you don’t have a majority, everything is just sort of preliminary. …Decisions can’t be made, so ultimately, rights can’t be vindicated.”

Block doesn’t want to underestimate Whole Foods workers—but admits they face a challenge. “These are workers who are obviously very determined and brave that they stood up to a company that’s been clear that it doesn’t want their workers to have a union. So that doesn’t mean that [the workers] can’t keep making noise,” she says. “But they’ve lost an important ally, and ally that Congress expected to be there to stand with workers.” (When asked for comment, the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents Whole Foods, pointed only to a release congratulating Whole Foods workers on their union victory.)

It’s a challenge all workers now face. Though companies have long drawn out the bargaining process, and even have long violated labor laws generally, this move shows that those bad actions will be exacerbated under the Trump administration. There’s nothing to stop unions from continuing to communicate with the public, Block notes—and public support for and interest in unions has been growing. But when it comes to any pressure on companies to abide by labor law, “there’s nothing pushing them on the other side right now.”