Groovy grocer doesn't want his workers going into labor.

• Position: Whole Foods Market CEO and founder John Mackey's dislike of labor unions

Visit one of the three Wellspring Groceries in the Triangle, and you know immediately it's not a run-of-the-mill supermarket. Tattooed employees sport nose, lip and eyebrow rings and Birkenstock sandals. Signs boast of organic produce, free-range chicken and dolphin-safe tuna. Cashiers cut a nickel off your bill if you bring your own bag.

In the annual report of Whole Foods Market Inc., the Austin, Texas-based parent, Chairman, CEO and founder John Mackey rhapsodizes not about profits but about "our deepest purpose," namely "helping support the health, well-being, and healing of both people (customers and team members) and of the planet."

But Mackey's New Age noodling ends when the topic turns to unions. There, he's just as old school as any cotton-mill magnate. He has dismissed unions as "parasites," likening them to "having herpes" in that they're "unpleasant and inconvenient" and keep "people from becoming your lover."

What's more, the Independent Weekly, a left-leaning Durham newspaper, reported in July that the chain resorted to old-fashioned intimidation when talk among Triangle employees turned to unionizing. Not long after some workers penned a letter expressing dissatisfaction with wages, the weekly said, all were required to sign a form acknowledging they're employed at will, which...