Imagine working in a trendy grocery store with a great reputation. The workplace is lively without being stressful. Friendly managers roam the store in tropical shirts. The job comes with industry-leading wages , generous benefits, flexible schedules, loose uniform requirements, and a culture of respect. Employees sometimes joke about “corporate greed,” but you know you’re lucky to work here.

This was my experience as a Trader Joe’s crew member — that is, until my store in Hadley, Massachusetts, became the first to unionize last year.

I’d never given unions much thought, but I’m politically progressive and open-minded, so when a co-worker contacted me about unionizing in May 2022, I was interested in learning more and talking it over with our colleagues.

Days later, though, several crew members launched a press campaign accusing Trader Joe’s of prioritizing its bottom line over employees and not implementing sufficient safety protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ironically, each of the unhappy crew members had taken advantage of the company’s offer to stay home without losing their jobs or company healthcare.

We also learned that the activist employees had presented a petition to Trader Joe’s claiming majority support for a union.

In hindsight, I was contacted only because organizers thought I might be sympathetic, but many crew members were left out of the discussion entirely and felt blindsided by the unfair attacks on the company. We simply didn’t recognize the workplace being described to the press and found the sudden attention and negativity stressful and embarrassing.

It quickly became clear that, to succeed, organizers needed to tarnish Trader Joe’s reputation. Even though the company didn’t interfere with the union campaign, organizers were so desperate to accuse Trader Joe’s of “union busting” that even crew members questioning unionization were attacked as company shills.

When some of us posted heartfelt letters in the breakroom encouraging people to think through the pros and cons, union activists dismissed it as Trader Joe’s propaganda. Union organizers even opposed my attempt to arrange an off-site meeting for all of us to discuss unionization.

Unfortunately, the negativity and division have only worsened since our store voted 45-31 to unionize in July 2022. We were promised an independent, grassroots union where everyone would have a voice, but organizers have evaded questions about their ties to established unions such as Workers United and SEIU and marginalized all crew members except those backing the union.

To ensure the “right” people led the union, officers were elected at a poorly advertised meeting that only confirmed union supporters were encouraged by organizers to attend.

While the company proposed starting contract negotiations shortly after the vote, the union dragged its feet for months before going to the bargaining table, all while blaming the company for the delay. And once negotiations began, the union rejected the companywide 2022 retirement bonus the Hadley crew members had voted to accept.

After the union president posted a note in the breakroom claiming Trader Joe’s was lying about negotiations and inviting crew members to attend the next bargaining session for more “eyes in the room,” a colleague and I decided to go. We quickly learned the union had no interest in serious proposals. Instead, they wasted days negotiating over things such as pronoun pins, which Trader Joe’s not only already allows but provides.

When the union demanded Trader Joe’s agree to fund gender-affirming care and abortions, the company correctly noted that these are already covered by our health plan. Crew members privy to the union’s private group chat reported the hope was that Trader Joe’s would object so the union could attack the company’s progressive reputation.

After watching the negotiations, we wrote up our own bargaining update describing what we saw and posted it in the breakroom. The union was so upset they asked the store captain to take it down.

When we showed up at the next bargaining session, the union president told us we were no longer welcome, and a union lawyer had hotel security escort us out of the building.

And despite all the drama, division, negativity, and secrecy, we’re no closer to a union contract that improves on the competitive wages and benefits we already had.

My experience prompted me to do my own research into unions, and I’ve been shocked by what I’ve found.

First, as reported by the Freedom Foundation, SEIU and Workers United have also targeted my previous employer, Starbucks, with a multimillion-dollar unionization campaign featuring some of the very organizers involved in the Hadley Trader Joe’s campaign. Untold numbers of paid union “salts” — many fresh out of college with little to no work experience — have been deployed to get jobs at targeted employers and covertly organize them from the inside.

Second, few resources are available to workers skeptical of or opposed to unionization. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) staff I’ve contacted have shown they only care about workers that want to unionize.

And lastly, employees have few rights or protections in their dealings with unions, and union-backed laws such as the PRO Act would make it even worse by muzzling the speech of workers and companies opposed to unionization. Barring companies from providing their employees with the other side of the unionization debate does nothing to help workers make an informed choice.

Additionally, the PRO Act would make it easier for unions to strong-arm employees through the card check process, in which a union can be certified by the NLRB without an election if it can pressure enough employees to sign union petition cards. If card check had been used at my store, dozens of our crew members could have been forced into a union and had their work-life experience upended overnight without any prior notice or say. It’s hard to imagine a process that disenfranchises workers more.

Workers aren’t mindless, disempowered corporate slaves in need of rescue by union organizers with a savior complex. Rather than promote unionization at all costs, policymakers should work to ensure that all workers’ voices are respected, even those who question unions’ value.

Michael Alcorn has worked as a crew member at Trader Joe’s in Hadley, Massachusetts, for eight years and is a former Starbucks barista.