Lowe’s faces organization effort as US unionization movement spreads

Workers at Lowe's and the chain's top rival, Home Depot, push to unionize their companies' first US stores despite challenges

Lowe's, the American big box home improvement chain, is facing an effort to form the company's first US union in New Orleans, Louisiana, where 172 workers, under the banner of Lowe's Workers United, recently filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Lowe's operates or services about 2,000 stores in the US and Canada with more than 300,000 full and part-time employees, and has aggressively opposed unionization efforts. The company has staffed union avoidance investigators, developed anti-union training videos for employees, and lost a case in 2021 at the NLRB over a company policy that prohibited employees from discussing wages.