The U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) confirmed on Saturday that retail workers of Home Depot Inc have voted against forming a union at a location in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
165 employees at the store voted against joining the independent union Home Depot Workers United, thereby outnumbering the 51 employees who voted in favor of unionization.
Discussions of unionization began to boil over as a result of growing concerns over wages, staffing, and training, as was revealed by Vincent Quiles, interim president of Home Depot Workers United. In mid-October, the union filed an unfair labor practices charge against Home Depot accusing the company of unlawful surveillance and interrogation of workers at the Philadelphia branch.
Following news of the legal charges being brought against the company, Home Depot confirmed that it would cooperate with the NLRB in the investigation while adding that it is confident that it is not guilty of the allegations that had been brought forward.
“The win occurs either way,” Quiles said of the legal charges, adding that, “For a long time Home Depot got to skate by unnoticed and so to now have them under a microscope as well as to have some public accountability on them that’s another major victory.”