H&M retail workers in Lakeland seek to unionize

Retail workers at an H&M clothing store in Lakeland Square Mall are seeking to unionize with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), less than two months after workers at a store in Melbourne made history by voting to become Florida’s first unionized H&M.

According to Ed Chambers, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1625, workers at the Swedish retailer’s Lakeland location are primarily interested in advocating for better pay, fairer scheduling practices, and for more full-time opportunities—offering more job benefits—for those who want them.

H&M did not respond to an emailed request for comment from Creative Loafing Tampa Bay on the Lakeland unionization effort ahead of publication. The date for the union election is TBD.

While the fast fashion retailer has reported increased profits in recent quarters, amid steep competition from retailers like Zara, H&M sales and visual associates in Florida make about the state minimum wage of $12 an hour, according to job listings.

Granted, while some people might have the opportunity to leave for a better-paying job, not everyone might have that option. Furthermore, a growing number of H&M workers in Florida are also realizing they might not need to leave a job if they can organize to make that job a better one.

“A lot of us feel like we are owed for all the work that we put into this store,” one H&M worker in Melbourne, Florida—involved in unionizing their own store—told this reporter in May, on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation. The worker said that, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, H&M began to roll out new policy changes that created uncertainty for sales workers. It also clarified for them how little power they had over their workplace conditions, and the expectations of them as a sales workforce. Workers at the H&M location in Lakeland were not immediately available for comment.

“It was definitely scary at first,” the worker at the Melbourne store admitted, speaking on the process of organizing. For them, that involved talking to their coworkers, research, talking to union members in other industries, like public education, and all in all turning a running ‘joke’ they had about unionizing into a reality.

“After having the election, having the win and knowing … the support that we had, it just made it easier for us,” they continued. After that, they said, the workers felt “more empowered.” Chambers said they meet weekly over Zoom to discuss union updates and other workplace issues.

Workers at the Melbourne location, on Florida’s Space Coast, made history in May by voting almost unanimously to unionize with the UFCW. This vote marked the first time that H&M workers have ever unionized in Florida, and makes it one of just a handful of locations in the U.S. where H&M workers have union representation at all.

Florida, a state that’s generally viewed as hostile to labor unions, is now one of just four states in the U.S. where some H&M retail employees currently have a recognized union, along with sales associates at 15 stores up north in New York, along with H&M locations in New Jersey and Connecticut.

Down here, only 6% of Florida’s workforce—across all industries—has union representation, compared to 20% of the workforce in New York. But Chambers—whose union also represents nursing home workers, delivery drivers, and Disney World employees in Florida—told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay he has faith in the state’s labor movement yet.

“We organize. That’s what we do,” he contends, in spite of Florida’s reputation as a business-friendly state and something of a home base for many in the “union avoidance” industry. Since 2000, when Chambers came to Florida, his local union’s grown from about 2,300 members, he said, to more than 8,000. At Disney World in Orlando, more than 40,000 employees have union representation through various labor unions, including the UFCW.

Across the country, and in Florida, however, the rate of union membership has generally declined over the years, in part attributed to job growth and the spread of anti-union policies (particularly in the U.S. South) that make it difficult for workers to organize.

Unionization in the private sector today can happen in one of two ways: You either get a majority of your coworkers on board in support of forming a union, and ask your employer for what’s known as voluntary recognition. Or, if that doesn’t work out, you gather signed cards in support of unionization from at least 30 percent of workers, and submit them to the National Labor Relations Board to petition for a union election. As of last year, if your employer refuses to voluntarily recognize your union, they are now required under federal rules to file a petition for a union election themselves. This is what happened at the Melbourne H&M store, and the one at Lakeland Square Mall, too.

While the percentage of workers with union representation in the fast-growing Sunshine State has declined over the years, the actual number of workers who have union representation—in the private sector at least—has increased. Public support for unions in the U.S. is also at a near-record high.

Chambers, for his part, optimistically predicts a wave of unionization across Florida’s H&M locations—and potentially stores outside of Florida, too—once workers see that organizing a union is possible. The Swedish retailer has about 30 locations in Florida, and hundreds across the country.

Chambers said their biggest challenge in organizing at the Lakeland location is high turnover—a common issue in the retail and service industries that makes organizing in those workplaces more difficult. “You don't get a whole lot of loyalty when you're making 12 bucks an hour,” he said.

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