Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wears a mask as she speaks into a megaphone at a strike outside the Hunts Point Produce Market on January 17th.
Elected officials, including Bronx/Queens Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are now backing the workers' strike at the Hunts Point Produce Market, where employees have entered day four of a strike over wages.
Some 1,400 employees represented by the Teamsters Local 202 union, comprised of warehouse workers and drivers at the gargantuan industrial site in the Bronx, help move around 300,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables daily. The Hunts Point Produce Market is a cooperative of 30 merchants who purchase produce from farms and importers and distributes the goods to grocers, restaurants, and more. All told, they handle 60% of the city's produce.
On January 17th, members negotiating for a $1 hourly increase went on strike following a stalemate during negotiations with market owners. And with every day that passes, the effects of reduced output from the market will be felt by supermarkets and restaurants that depend on them.
"If you notice that aisles of produce are little low and you see the stuff starting to turn a little bit, you know that's when you're gonna notice," Raymond Rivera, a driver and union member, said.
"When you're standing on this line, you're not just asking for $1, you are asking for transformational change for your lives, over the lives of every food worker across this country, for kids or food workers across the country," Ocasio-Cortez said, flanked by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and state Assemblymember Amanda Septimo on a frigid Wednesday night outside the enormous, city-owned property. "Because there's a lot of things upside down right now in our economy. And one of those things that are upside down [...] is the fact that a person who is helping get the food to your table cannot feed their own kid. That's upside down."
Negotiations stopped nearly two weeks ago after members had pushed for a $1 increase plus greater health coverage. Owners returned to the table with a 32 cents per hour wage increase, and 60 cents going towards health coverage.
On Wednesday night, dozens of workers stood outside their workplace in solidarity, huddled around bonfires as music played and wearing protest signs, with a giant inflatable rat looming nearby. Employees spent the night chatting among themselves, outraged over the company's lack of progress over the union.
For Francisco Flores, a 26-year employee at the site, the counter-offer is a slap in the face for many workers who stepped up during the COVID-19 pandemic, which did not halt operations at the site.
"We've had our contract disputes with them [...] it's been different this year with the pandemic and actually seeing and knowing some of your friends that you've worked with in here for 28 years die, and then have friends of yours, not coming to work because they're home quarantined, sick, makes a big difference," Flores told Gothamist/WNYC. "And then we're here every day during the pandemic, we try not to miss as much as we can, because we need the money. And we get no kind of thank you."
Flores, a married father of three kids living in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx, said throughout his time working at the company he's been living paycheck to paycheck. He can't even save money. With every day that workers are on strike their pay is docked.
"I've even argued with my father from time to time. He tells me, 'You got to try to save money.' I'm like, 'Dad, I can't. I don't know how you did it,'" Flores recalled. "But in this economy and the way things are going, they don't give you room. And I'm like, even though we might get a little bit of a raise, everything else goes back up. I've been to the supermarket with $100, and I used to come out with four or five, six bags. Now I come out with two or three."
Charles Machadio, a trustee with the union, said the offer is only fair since the workers were deemed essential during the pandemic.
"We're not being, like, greedy," Machadio said. "The men really deserve a $3 or $4 raise for coming here risking their lives. But we're saying give them $1 raise and pay the health insurance and we do the contract and go home."
In a previous statement, the company said that the current economic climate cannot allow for any increase beyond what was offered.
"Even with the continued uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, we are offering our dedicated workers wage and benefit increases over the next three years that are a multiple of the current annual cost of living," a statement from Hunts Point Produce Market reads. "Under our offer we will continue to pay approximately $10K per employee/year for pension benefits, and $15K per employee per year for healthcare benefits in addition to base wage increases. Unfortunately, the union walked away from the bargaining table 12 days ago and since then has focused only on bringing its members out on strike, which is harmful to the members and the community."
This article has been updated to reflect the correct counter-offer from the company.
