HADLEY — Employees will not have an opportunity to vote on ending the two-year old union at the Trader Joe’s store at 375 Russell St. following the dismissal of a decertification petition by the National Labor Relations Board’s regional director earlier this month.

Laura A. Sacks, who oversees the Region 1 Office in Boston, ruled in favor of dismissal in an Oct. 8 decision, citing a pending unfair labor practice complaint against Trader Joe’s, in which an administrative law judge decision has not yet been made.

“After carefully reviewing the parties’ positions, the relevant case law, and the circumstances of this case, I have concluded that the unfair labor practices alleged in the complaint are of the type to warrant dismissal, subject to reinstatement after final disposition of the unfair labor practice charges,” Sacks wrote.

The petition came from employee Leslie Stratford and had support from both the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and the company.

“The decision to dismiss this decertification petition was possible because we knew our rights, stood our ground and fought to hold Trader Joe’s accountable,” Jamie Edwards, president of Trader Joe’s United, said in a statement.

The Hadley store became the first Trader Joe’s in the country to unionize, winning an election on July 28, 2022. That vote was 45-31 in favor, with 59% support. In August, the National Right to Work announced the decertification petition, after enough of the store’s 77 employees, though not an exact number, had signed Stratford’s petition.

Jacob Comello, a representative of National Right to Work, said that attorneys with the foundation on Wednesday filed a request for review appealing Sacks’ decision. The next step is for the board to rule on the appeal, Comello said.

Edwards contends that since well before the union vote at the Hadley store, Trader Joe’s engaged in union-busting. “The company’s unlawful conduct and blatant disregard for workers’ rights would make it impossible to hold a fair vote,” Edwards said.

Last December, the union received affirmative rulings from the NLRB, including that Trader Joe’s illegally terminated a long-term employee, allegedly for failing to remove a small power tool from the store’s premises when asked to do so by management.

But the union has also come under criticism.

Michael Alcorn, a crew member for almost 10 years, offered testimony in May to the Republican-led U.S. House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions, calling the union’s formation in Hadley neither positive nor a unifying experience.  He called it a bad-faith union and alleged that union representation was imposed.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.