Yahoo Finance

(Bloomberg) -- A union has been certified at a Whole Foods Market store in Philadelphia, marking a US first for the Amazon.com Inc. grocery chain.

Most Read from Bloomberg

• NY Private School Pleads for Donors to Stay Open After Declaring Bankruptcy

• UAE’s AI University Aims to Become Stanford of the Gulf

• Can Frank Gehry’s ‘Grand LA’ Make Downtown Feel Like a Neighborhood?

• NYC’s War on Trash Gets a Glam Squad

• Chicago’s O’Hare Airport Seeks Up to $4.3 Billion of Muni Debt

The regional director of the National Labor Relations Board backed the union, overruling objections from Whole Foods, which, like other parts of Amazon, has campaigned against unionization among its staff. The decision tees up a legal battle.

“We strongly disagree with the conclusion and we will appeal,” Whole Foods said in a statement, saying the union “illegally interfered with our team members’ right to a fair vote” at the store.

Employees at the Philadelphia site voted 130 to 100 in January to unionize with the United Food & Commercial Workers union. Whole Foods argued the result should be overturned, alleging the union made promises and provided free car rides to workers that prevented a fair election, and that a ruling by the labor board’s Democratic members deprived the company of its rights. The union has denied wrongdoing.

After hearing testimony from witnesses, an NLRB hearing officer recommended earlier this month that the company’s objections be overruled. On Friday, the agency’s regional director agreed.

In a decision viewed by Bloomberg News, the NLRB regional director wrote that Whole Foods’ “objections are without merit,” and that UFCW now formally represents the store’s employees. US law requires that companies negotiate in good faith with certified unions over their employees’ pay and working conditions.

An NLRB spokesperson declined to elaborate on the regional director’s decision.

Whole Foods can appeal the case to the labor board’s members in Washington DC, where the issue may remain in limbo. That body currently lacks the three-member quorum required to issue rulings, because President Donald Trump fired Democratic member Gwynne Wilcox. A federal district court judge ruled that termination was illegal, but a Thursday ruling from the US Supreme Court allows the president to oust her for now, while litigation continues in her case.

The UFCW on Friday urged Whole Foods to begin collective bargaining. “Amazon’s effort to stall, discredit and overturn a democratic process has once again been rejected,” the union’s local president, Wendell Young IV, said in a statement. “We are calling on Whole Foods to end the legal games and sit down with their employees to negotiate a fair contract.”