We the undersigned call on Amazon to make the proposed Whole Foods Market at The City Center on Geary Blvd in San Francisco 100% Union. San Francisco is a union town, and large companies, like Amazon, that want to do business in the city of San Francisco can afford to live up to that standard. All work on the project should be done by union members, from those putting the first shovel in the dirt to the first worker welcoming you in the new store should be union. This means that there should be a project labor agreement negotiated with the San Francisco Building and Construction trades and once completed there should be a card-check neutrality agreement with the United Food and Commercial Workers for the operation of the store. Amazon should agree to not interfere with UFCW’s or any other AFL-CIO local’s organizing efforts that will follow the National Labor Relations Board’s guidelines.    
 
The City Center falls within the city’s Formula Retail Ordinance, designed to limit the number of national chain stores in an effort to protect San Francisco’s many small, locally owned businesses. There are 496 Whole Food stores nationwide. Amazon is seeking a Conditional Use Authorization (CUA) permitting them to open the store at this location. If Amazon does not agree to making the proposed store 100% union-friendly, then we are calling on the Planning Commission to deny the CUA.
 
Requiring organizing rights as a Condition of Approval at the proposed Whole Foods will prioritize protecting the rights, health and safety of the estimated 200 employees. It will also protect existing union jobs in the city’s other retail stores. Amazon’s Whole Foods and warehouses have been deemed “essential workers” because of the coronavirus pandemic. Many workers in the grocery industry are risking infection every day to provide food to our communities, and workers at Whole Foods in San Francisco have already contracted this virus.  
 
Workers at non-union Amazon warehouses and Whole Foods stores have had to resort to sick outs and strikes to raise awareness of Amazon’s unwillingness to protect them during this crisis, we should not allow this to happen in a city like San Francisco. Following the protest, Amazon has taken steps to enforce rules about mass emails across the company. Additionally, Amazon has terminated at least six employees involved in worker protests. Amazon also ended its temporary policy of unlimited, unpaid time off on April 30th. Unionizing the Whole Foods in San Francisco will prevent this type of employer backlash.
 
San Francisco has an opportunity to lead the nation by taking a proactive stand on behalf of the hardworking employees of Whole Foods stores. Requiring Amazon to build its store with union workers and to allow the employees the right to choose a union without repercussion fits with The City’s Progressive values. This is particularly important given the pandemic and the fact that San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities in the U.S. Amazon is the most valuable public company in the world and is run by the richest man in the world, CEO Jeff Bezos. Not one of Amazon’s Whole Foods in the State of California are unionized. It is time to change that with the proposed store at The City Center in San Francisco.