Linden Hills Co-op workers vote to unionize

Linden Hills Co-op workers voted this week to form a union, the second Twin Cities grocery co-op to affiliate with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

Of 74 eligible voters, 51 cast their ballots for Brooklyn Center-based UFCW Local 653. Nine voted against the union, five ballots were challenged by the employer and 11 workers didn't vote.

"Forming a union reinforces co-op values of community throughout our store," Linden Hills Co-op employee Evan Adams-Hanson said in a press statement. The co-op is in the southwest Minneapolis neighborhood of Linden Hills.

In 2015, workers at the Wedge Co-op in Minneapolis' Whittier neighborhood, voted to join South St. Paul-based UFCW Local 1189. About 160 retail and warehouse workers at the Wedge are represented by 1189, according to a spokesman for the local.

The co-op organizing drives have come as the Twin Cities grocery market faces increasing pressure from non-union grocers, most recently from Hy-Vee, Fresh Thyme and Trader Joe's. Cub Foods, Lunds & Byerlys, Kowalski's and Jerry's are the primary unionized grocery chains in the Twin Cities.