Will California labor shortage lift warehouse union drive? Dollar General workers call for vote
More than 40 workers at a Dollar General warehouse in West Sacramento could be among the first in the company to join a union, representing a significant milestone in organizing one of the biggest employers and industries in the country.
The employees last week filed paperwork to set up a vote to join Teamsters Local 150, which represents nearly 10,000 workers in the Sacramento region. The election could take place sometime after the third week of December, said David Rosenfeld, a lawyer representing the union.
Dollar General built the 200,000 square-feet facility last year to store cold goods such as dairy, deli and frozen products., according to the company’s press release at the time.
“Workers recognize the need for a union, and there’s a labor shortage,” Rosenfeld said. “Workers feel like they have a lot more leverage and power.”
If employees vote in favor of unionizing, they would become among the first in the company to organize. The company, which employs some 150,000 workers across the country, has been known for promoting a “union-free” philosophy in its employee handbook.
A group of Dollar General workers in a Connecticut store a few weeks ago narrowly voted against unionizing. Workers in a Missouri store in 2017 voted to join a union, but the company closed the store in 2020, according to KXEO radio.
The rate of unionization has plunged in the country’s warehouse industry, going from 14.8% in 1991 to 6.6% in 2020.
The plummeting unionization rate has also come with deteriorating pay and working conditions, said Beth Gutelius, the research director at the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago who authored the University of California, Berkeley Labor Center’s study on the logistics industry.
“The warehousing industry... has largely been invisible to the public for its entire existence. No one thought of warehouse workers,” she said. “I think the pandemic brought those workers out into the limelight. That matters for the workers themselves but also for the support for the unionization effort.”
Adjusting for inflation, wages in the warehousing industry are lower than they were in 1990, Gutelius said.
“In many cases, it’s very physical work so people are questioning am I getting paid the amount (commensurate with) all the physical tolls?” she said.
Even as companies such as Amazon have built warehouses at a ferocious pace, very few workers in the fast-growing industry have joined a union, stymied by the employers’ anti-union tactics.
Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama in April voted against unionizing, although a National Labor Relations Board officer recommended a re-vote. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union contended that Amazon leaders pressured workers to vote in a mailbox installed by the company, according to Bloomberg.
Teamsters have vowed to organize hundreds of thousands of Amazon workers.
Dollar General did not respond to requests for comment.
