A strike that began on Sunday, 17 January ended around noon today, when 1,400 Hunts Point product workers, members of Teamsters Local 202, ratified a three-year contract overwhelmingly. Most of New York’s production goes through Hunts Point, becoming a critical bottleneck, a fact that has increased pressure on workers for a quick deal.
Having persisted in the face of aggressive police and freezing temperatures, the union declared victory. While the City reports, Local 202 President Dan Kane called the contract “the biggest deal we’ve ever signed”. This morning, about 97 percent of striking workers voted in favor of ratifying the contract.
The contract includes an immediate increase of 70 cents an hour, followed by an increase of 50 cents in 2022. For workers who currently earn $ 18.57 an hour, as well as drivers, 2023 will see an increase of 65 cents an hour. Warehouse workers who currently earn $ 20.70 will receive a $ 1,300 bonus in 2023 instead of 65 cents. Workers also struggled with the administration’s drive to make workers pay additional contributions for family health benefits.
The mantra for the whole week was: we want an increase of $ 1 an hour. The final contract totals an increase of $ 1.85 an hour over the three years of the contract, falling short of the demand for an immediate increase of $ 1 an hour, but going well beyond the 32 cents an hour and greater contributions from employees for the health care system costs offered by management last weekend, a counter offer to workers called “disrespectful”, which led them to strike.
Thus ends a long week at the Bronx’s line of attack which included prisons Monday evening, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appear on several nights to support the workers and serve pizza (she wasn’t the only politician to join the picket line: more than a dozen local elected officials and political candidates made appearances) and lots of music and dancing, all under the watchful eyes of Scabby the mouse.
But as one action in the workplace ends, others continue. sabout 400 metallurgists from NLMK Pennsylvania are locked out of work after starting a strike in August 2020. The Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) is currently regent a vote by members on whether to take action in the workplace on Monday, in response to the city’s insistence on the need for teachers to return to personal instruction. Teachers in Bellevue, Washington are rebel against similar demands, while teachers outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Getting ready strike on February 1 if no district agreement is reached by the end of the month. About 200 Teamsters are impressive at the The Marathon oil refinery in St. Paul Park and the workers at Borgers USA, which supplies parts to General Motors’ factories, were impressive for several days in Norwalk, Ohio. Ski Patrolmen it is “Not on strike, just practicing” at Vail Resorts.
Some of these actions in the workplace involve fewer workers than the Teamsters Local 202 strike, which with 1,400 workers constituted the first major work stoppage in 2021, but each time people take collective action at work and gain confidence the working class grows, and not just among those who carried out the action. In fact, the Hunts Point strike saw hundreds of people reinforcing the support picket – other union workers, residents of the Bronx and New Yorkers who simply heard about the strike and wanted to support it. Each time this happens, no matter how big the blow, it has a ripple effect.
A similar dynamic is developing in other workplaces across the country. In the context of a devastating and isolated pandemic, these demonstrations of courage to fight collectively for a better life become even more important.