Workers at the Mississippi Market Co-op in St. Paul voted to unionize earlier this week.

There were 158 workers eligible to vote and 101 voted in the election, according to Rowan Garrigan who works at the West Seventh location and was one of the labor organizers. Eighty-two of the employees voted in support of joining the union.

The unionization would impact all three locations, something Mississippi market employee Rowan Garrigan said would help give workers more of a say in the co-op.

“It’s all about getting a voice,” said Garrigan.

A similar effort to unionize Mississippi Market Co-op workers failed to move forward in 2018, she said. There’s been a wave of labor organizing across the Twin Cities in the years that followed.

“I absolutely think that helped a lot this year,” said Garrigan. “We are in a culture that is very pro-labor, very worker union oriented.”

Garrigan added that she was very surprised by the co-op managers’ reaction to the unionization vote, stating that they reacted very well to the news.

“They [managers] actually reacted as well as they possibly could have,” Garrigan said. “I think the conversations that have started have been really positive.”

Garrigan said the customers “played a huge role” in helping the organizing efforts.

The fact that the store is owned collaboratively by customers doesn’t necessarily mean the union will operate any differently, according to labor historian Peter Rachleff.

“It is interesting a number of co-ops’ workers have organized in the last few years since the pandemic,” said Rachleff. “Whether it’s Fair State Brewing workers who have organized, or the Seward and Wedge Co-ops in Minneapolis. It’s unusual but not unique.”

The National Labor Relations Board must now certify the election results. Workers will then elect a bargaining committee before negotiations on a contract begin.