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The union representing 1,400 workers in the Hunts Point commodity market opened bottles of champagne as it celebrated the end of a nearly week-long strike for a pay rise in their upcoming three-year contract.
The warehouse workers and drivers who collectively make up Teamsters Local 202 welcomed the contract’s ratification on Saturday. This happened after the vote at 10 a.m. in a so-called neutral zone on the property of the distribution center. The contract was approved by 97% of union members.
Shortly after the ratification, the members made a victory lap outside the strike zone they picketed for nearly a week as passing cars honked in solidarity and the crowd shouted songs of “si se puede” (“yes, we can”). As the members raised a glass to celebrate, another member was seen holding a toy replica of Mjolnir, the mythical hammer used by Thor from Marvel Comics.
Ratification of the contract ends a strike that began Jan. 17 after the union’s bargaining team failed to reach consensus with the Hunts Point Co-op Council. Union members had asked for a $ 1 increase in their hourly wages and 0.60 cents more to cover their health insurance, noting that workers have continued to work throughout the pandemic. The company initially counter-proposed with an hourly wage increase of 32 cents and an hourly increase of 60 cents for its health insurance coverage. The strike – the first since 1986 – raised concerns about how it would disrupt the food supply in the city, where 60% of its fruit and vegetables come from the huge market.
“Thirty-two cents when people risk their lives in a pandemic was not enough”, Charles Machadio, union administrator. And they just didn’t get it. You gave us less in this contract than in the last contract. “
Both parties had returned to the table at the behest of Governor Andrew Cuomo, according to Daniel Kane Jr., president of Teamsters Local 202.
Depending on the conditions, workers will receive a minimum of 70 cents an hour more in the first year, 50 cents more in the second year and 65 cents more in the third year. They will also receive a one-time premium of $ 1,300 in 2023. Workers will also have the same health insurance coverage without having to pay a raise. Workers will return to work from Sunday, when the contract goes into effect. The agreement should not be retroactive.
“It is not often that workers take their plight in their own hands and decide to put their hands together to fight for a better future,” Kane Jr. said at a press conference on Saturday. “And these people did that. And I hope this resonates with workers across the country because our members are essential, decent, hardworking families.
The extra pay was good news for Jeff Ratliff, a resident of the Bronx and an employee who works at the “Potato House” inside the hub, who said the new contract was fair given the physical demands placed on the workers. .
“You have to have dignity with yourself, you have to get respect where you work,” Ratliff said. “Sometimes you work for companies and […] you are just like a machine for them. Nothing else.”
He added: “You [are] in this market more than at home […] Who wants to come to a house where you don’t get any respect from your children? “
Board member Rafael Salamanca Jr., who represents the Hunts Point area, said work and the union meant a lot to his father.
“I remember my dad arriving at three in the morning. I remember my dad coming home and talking about his struggles and tiredness. But he was proud,” Salamanca Jr. said at the talk. gathering. “You gave a chance to an uneducated Puerto Rican, who is my father. And my dad was able to support my family. We got health care, he brought food to the table. And here I am today; this young man from the South Bronx, as a member of New York City Council because of Local 202. “
Salamanca Jr. was among a large number of lawmakers who have supported the strikers, alongside Assembly Member Amanda Septimo and Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ritchie Torres.
Throughout the six days that workers stood out in the cold, missing a day’s pay every day to protest the company’s wages, their support has grown, with elected officials like Ocasio-Cortez and Torres amplifying workers’ concerns in a letter to the United States. Department of Labor and National Council for Labor Relations. Most members of the 24/7 industrial center earned between $ 18 and $ 21 an hour.
For many, the strike was a watershed moment for essential workers who kept doing their jobs during the pandemic, where they were praised for helping keep the lights on throughout the crisis. The pandemic has affected workers at the hub, which has remained open even when the workers fell ill or died.
“We lost six people during COVID who died. They never returned home, some of them died in their wives’ arms,” said Leonardo Servedio, the union vice president. “We were unable to attend a funeral because there was no funeral service.”
For Severdio, an employee of the distribution center for more than 30 years, the pandemic has ignited the fire of a trade union movement which, according to him, will take off at the national level and resonate with young people.
“They have to know the struggle of their ancestors and their ancestors from whatever country of origin, who came to America and suffered. And they worked hard, and they built the American dream. Without a struggle, it there is no harvest. And that’s what they have. These young people today have come here, (and) they are absorbing this knowledge. And now we’re going to start making a movement. calls for the new workers’ movement. “
About the company, Severdio said: “We fought with them.”
In a statement, Stephen Katzman, co-chair of the Hunts Point cooperative board which also owns S. Katzman Produce, said the resolution allows the hub to continue feeding the city.
“We are very pleased to have been able to negotiate a new contract that provides our workers with more than 10% increase in hourly wages and benefits over the next three years,” Katzman said in the statement. “With an average annual increase just under three times the current cost of living increase, we think this is a very fair and equitable deal.
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