Whole Foods has received an early rebuke from the national labor board, with a hearing officer siding with workers at the retailer’s first-ever unionized store.   

In a hearing officer’s report released Thursday, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing officer overruled every objection filed by Whole Foods regarding workers at a Philadelphia store joining United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) Local 1776 on Jan. 27.

The two-day hearing included testimony from 10 witnesses, and in the end the NLRB hearing officer found all of the retailer’s claims to be without merit, including allegations of procedural flaws, interference by the NLRB, and fabricated accusations against the union.

“This ruling is definitive—Whole Foods lost, the workers won, and it’s time for the company to respect the results,” said UFCW Local 1776 President Wendell Young IV in a press release. “Amazon’s tired playbook of delay and obstruction has failed. We call on Whole Foods to stop wasting time and taxpayer resources with baseless legal challenges and sit down at the bargaining table to negotiate a fair contract.”

The hearing officer’s recommendation will now be turned over to an NLRB regional director, who will review the case. After the regional director makes a decision the parties can then appeal to the NLRB board.

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Whole Foods said the decision was part of a preliminary report and not an official ruling.

“We remain confident that our objections will ultimately be upheld as the full process plays out,” Whole Foods said in an emailed statement to Supermarket News. 

Employees at the Philadelphia location are seeking a union contract that includes $17-per-hour pay, more affordable health care benefits with lower minimums, and improvement retirement benefits.

UFCW Local 1776 has also filed charges with the NLRB on behalf of the Whole Foods workers regarding wrongful terminations. Since the union formed, 11 employees have been dismissed, including eight for violating the grocer’s sampling policies.

“After we won the election, they decided to enforce their employee policy differently, and they fired a handful of people,” said Young. “The only people they fired were union supporters.”

The charges include allegations of unfair labor practices, specifically firing an employee in retaliation for union activity and claiming that supervisors offered employees pay raises if they rejected the union bid.

Whole Foods denies that anyone was treated differently following the union vote.

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“We do not tolerate retaliation, and we respect our team members’ legal rights,” Whole Foods said in an emailed statement to Supermarket News. “All team members must comply with company policies, which are in place to prioritize store operations, safety, and customer service.”

Whole Foods added that it “consistently and fairly” enforces these policies and that violations could result in termination.