‘I had a target on my back’: Judge orders fired Trader Joe’s worker reinstatement

A judge ordered the reinstatement of a Trader Joe’s employee in Houston, Texas, Jill Groeschel, who was terminated in April 2022.

Groeschel had filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over retaliation she experienced leading up to and including her termination for speaking out about the removal of Covid-19 protections in the store and health and safety concerns she and other workers had over the removed protections.

“Prior to her safety complaints in 2021 there is no record of management questioning her fit for the position even when they corrected other behavior,” the ruling states. “I conclude that Respondent’s suspension and termination of Groeschel was motivated by Groeschel’s protected activity of filing and participating in the investigation of the charge in this matter. I further conclude that Respondent has failed to establish that it would have discharged her absent that conduct.”

The judge described how Trader Joe’s management collected worker testimonies in opposition to Groeschel leading up to her termination and how a Regional Vice President presided over her termination that was determined by the judge to be in response to protected concerted activity.

Jill Groeschel had worked at Trader Joe’s in Houston, Texas for 8 years and said she never received any negative performance reviews, write-ups, or incident reports against her until she began pushing back on Trader Joe’s rolling back COVID-19 protections in her store in Summer 2022. Groeschel worked morning shifts, distributing pallets throughout the store, stocking, merchandising, cleaning, and helping out in the front end of the store.

At the time, the store began removing signage referring to COVID-19 and removing plexiglass barriers. In July 2021, Harris County, Texas raised COVID-19 threat levels due to a surge of hospitalizations in the area.

“At this time, crew morale is plummeting,” Groeschel told The Guardian. “Our store manager announced that Trader Joe’s wanted to return to their pre-pandemic business model, while displaying no empathy for the crew who were concerned.”

She explained that her manager began demonstrating animosity toward her for criticizing the removal of COVID-19 protections and pushing for management to respond to concerns her and some other employees had as well, by talking to her about vague complaints and reports about her in meetings with her and telling her that Trader Joe’s may not be the appropriate workplace for her if she didn’t like how the company was handling COVID-19.

“What ...