Philadelphia Home Depot Workers Vote 165-51 Against Forming Union

Workers at the Home Depot store on 4640 Roosevelt Blvd. in Philadelphia voted 165 to 51 against forming a union called Home Depot Workers United in a National Labor Relations Board-supervised election, the NLRB reported. The vote would have covered 274 employees at the store.

The result, certified by the NLRB, leaves the company and the union with five days to file any objections to the tally; at the time of reporting no objections had been publicly reported. The vote ends a high-profile drive that organizers launched amid complaints about pay, working conditions, understaffing and insufficient training.

Vincent Quiles, the employee who led the organizing effort, described the campaign as a difficult undertaking. Quiles told WHYY-FM the attempt had been a "tall order." He added, "It wouldn't be an easy fight to have. But you do these things because you believe them to be right."

Home Depot responded through spokesperson Margaret Smith, who told WHYY, "We're happy that the associates at this store voted to continue working directly with the company. That connection is important to our culture, and we will continue listening to our associates and making The Home Depot a great place to work and grow."

The vote matters beyond a single store because organizers had hoped to win the first storewide union at the nation's largest home improvement retailer. The Philadelphia effort drew inspiration from earlier wins at chains such as Amazon and Starbucks, but those high-profile successes have been followed by setbacks in other locations. Organizers said they were motivated by the Amazon Staten Island victory, even as that campaign and others have since seen losses at additional sites.

National tallies show why activists see both cause for optimism and caution. NLRB-related figures cited in coverage of the drive show a marked increase in organizing activity this year, with a 58 percent surge in elections; still, unions lost about 31 percent of votes concluded through September, a pace that translated to workers at 344 businesses voting against unionization in that period.

Company-size figures vary across reports. Fortune, PBS and others describe Home Depot as an Atlanta-based company employing about 500,000 people across 2,316 stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Other coverage lists roughly 437,000 employees and about 2,000 U.S. stores, reflecting different snapshots and reporting methods.

For employees at the Roosevelt Boulevard store, the vote means day-to-day representation will remain through company channels rather than collective bargaining. For organizers and labor advocates, the outcome is a reminder that winning an election is only one step in a broader, often uneven campaign to change workplace conditions. The NLRB’s post-election period and any filings in the coming days will determine if the result is finalized; beyond that, organizers will decide whether to regroup for another push or shift tactics at other locations.