The union representing 1,400 workers at the Hunts Point Produce Market opened bottles of champagne as it celebrated the end of a nearly week-long strike for pay raises on its next three-year contract.
The warehouse workers and drivers who collectively make up Teamsters Local 202 welcomed the ratification of the contract on Saturday. This happened after the poll was held at 10 am in a so-called neutral zone within the distribution center property. The contract was approved by 97% of union members.
Shortly after ratification, members took a victory lap outside the strike area, which picketed for nearly a week while passing cars honked in solidarity and the crowds shouted “si se puede” (“yes, we can”). While members raised a glass in celebration, another member was seen holding a toy replica of Mjolnir, the mythical hammer used by Marvel Comics Thor.
The ratification of the contract ends the strike that began on January 17 after the union’s negotiating team failed to reach consensus with the Hunts Point Cooperative Council. Union members called for an increase of $ 1 in hourly wages and $ 0.60 more to cover health insurance, emphasizing that workers continued to work during the pandemic. The company initially offered a counter offer with a pay increase of 32 cents per hour and a 60 cents per hour increase in its health insurance coverage. The strike – the first since 1986 – raised concerns about how damaging it will be to the city’s food supply, where 60% of its fruits and vegetables come from the massive market.
“Thirty-two cents when people are risking their lives in a pandemic is not good enough,” Charles Machadio, a union administrator. And they just didn’t understand. You were giving us less on this contract than we were getting on the last contract. “
Both sides returned to the table at the request of Governor Andrew Cuomo, according to Daniel Kane Jr., president of Teamsters Local 202.
According to the terms, 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 $ 1300 bonus in 2023. Workers will also receive the same health insurance coverage without having to pay a raise. The workers will return to work from Sunday, when the contract comes into force. The deal should not be retroactive.
“It is not always that workers put their destiny in their hands and decide to join hands to fight for a better tomorrow,” said Kane Jr. at a news conference on Saturday. “And these people did it. And I hope it will resonate with workers across the country because our members are essential, decent and hard-working families.”
The extra payment was good news for Jeff Ratliff, a resident of the Bronx and an employee who works at “Casa da Batata” inside the center, who said the new contract was fair, given the physical demands placed on workers.
“You have to have dignity with yourself, you have to have respect where you work,” said Ratliff. “Sometimes you work for companies and […] you are like a machine to them. Nothing else.”
He added, “You [are] in this market more than you are at home […] Who wants to come to a home where you don’t get your children’s respect? “
Councilman Rafael Salamanca Jr., who represents the Hunts Point area, said the job and the union meant a lot to his father.
“I remember my father arriving at three in the morning. I remember my father coming home and talking about the fights and how he was tired. But he was proud,” said Salamanca Jr. at the rally. “You gave an uneducated Puerto Rican an opportunity, who is my father. And my father was able to support my family. We got medical assistance, he brought food to the table. And here I am; this young man from the South Bronx, as a member of the New York City council because of Local 202. “
Salamanca Jr. was among a series of lawmakers who supported striking workers, along with Congresswoman Amanda Septimo and representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ritchie Torres.
Over the six days that workers stood out in the cold, missing a pay day a day to protest the company’s wages, support for them intensified, with elected local officials like Ocasio-Cortez and Torres raising concerns among workers in a letter to the US Department of Labor and National Council for Labor Relations. Most members of the industrial center 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, earned between $ 18 to $ 21 an hour.
For many, the strike represented a turning point for essential workers who did not stop doing their jobs during the pandemic, where they were praised for helping to keep the lights on during the crisis. The pandemic affected workers at the center, which remained open even when workers fell ill or died.
“We lost six people killed during COVID. They never came home, some of them died in the arms of their wives, ”said Leonardo Servedio, the union’s vice president. “We were unable to attend a funeral because there were no funeral services.”
For Severdio, an employee of the distribution pole for over 30 years, the pandemic has lit a fire for a union movement that he believes will take off nationally and have repercussions among young people.
“They must know the struggle of their ancestors and ancestors from any country they came from, who came to America and suffered. And they worked hard and built the American dream. Without a struggle, there is no harvest. And that is what they have to understand. These young people today came here, (e) absorb this knowledge. And now we are going to start creating a movement. It is called a new union movement. “
Regarding the company, Severdio said: “We fight a lot against them”.
In a statement, Stephen Katzman, co-chairman of the Hunts Point Cooperative Board, which also owns S. Katzman Produce, said the resolution allows the center to help continue to feed the city.
“We are delighted to have been able to negotiate a new contract that offers our workers an increase of more than 10% in hourly wages and additional benefits over the next three years,” said Katzman in the statement. “With an average annual increase just below three times the current increase in the cost of living, we believe this is a very fair and equitable business.”