Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez celebrated a salary increase for Teamsters workers in a Bronx market after a weeklong strike that was due to end on Sunday.
“Our food production workers wanted a $ 1 increase after risking their lives at COVID. They were denied, asked to pay more for health care and said ‘are you lucky to have a job’ ”, she tweeted Saturday afternoon of the Hunts Point Product Market workers. “So they went on strike. The community supported them. Now they are getting a raise of $ 1.85 and $ 0 out of pocket. “
Ocasio-Cortez spent the opening day picketing 1,400 local members 202 who work in the market – which provides 60 percent of the region’s production.
Ninety-seven percent of union members officially voted on Saturday morning for a new contract that will increase their hourly wages by $ 1.85 over three years, said local president 202, Danny Kane Jr.
The first team was due to return to work at 2 am Sunday morning.
“It is not always that workers put their destiny in their hands and decide to join hands to fight for a better tomorrow. These workers did that, ”said Kane Jr., while celebrating the salary increase with a champagne toast outside the union headquarters in the Bronx, flanked by state deputy Anada Septimno and city councilman Rafael Salamanca.