Amazon (AMZN) couldn’t stop workers at its Whole Foods Philadelphia Center City store from banding together and joining a union. A majority of workers, 130, outvoted other employees, 100, to join the local United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union.
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That’s despite Amazon reportedly pressuring employees to vote against unionization. The UFCW filed charges against the Whole Foods owner leading up to the vote. It claimed the company tried to punish employees seeking to unionize, which is against U.S. labor laws. That caught the interest of three US representatives in Pennsylvania, who wrote letters to Amazon and Whole Foods voicing concerns about potential violations.
How Will This Change Whole Foods?
This unionization effort only includes a single Whole Foods store in Pennsylvania, meaning it won’t have widespread effects on the Amazon subsidiary. Even so, it could inspire workers at other Whole Foods locations, or Amazon’s other divisions, to follow suit and join unions.
Even if that happens, there’s no guarantee Amazon will alter employees’ pay or benefits. For example, one Amazon warehouse successfully joined a union in 2022, but Amazon has largely ignored the unionization at this location and hasn’t taken part in any negotiations. The same could happen with this Whole Foods store, but union members might increase their bargaining power if more locations join them.
Amazon investors are largely unphased by today’s Whole Foods union news. That’s shown by the 2.54% increase AMZN stock has experienced today, which builds on its 10.03% year-to-date rally.
Is AMZN Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, the analysts’ consensus rating for Amazon is Strong Buy based on 48 Buy and one Hold ratings over the last three months. With that comes an average price target of $255.47, a high of $306, and a low of $212. This represents a potential 6.15% upside for AMZN shares.
