Grocery Workers Fight for Workplace Safety
Frank Halstead—a TDU Co-Chair and steward in Local 572 at Ralphs distribution center in Compton, California—describes how Teamster warehouse workers are dealing with COVID-19 in the grocery warehouse industry.
Read moreKroger Finally Agrees to $2 per Hour Hazard Pay
Kroger finally joined the bulk of the food distribution and retail industry in raising pay by $2 per hour for at least the next three weeks. The move came on March 31, one week after TDU exposed Kroger’s failure to join most similar companies in a $2 raise for front-line essential workers.
Read moreFood Industry Teamsters get $2 raise – Why Not Kroger?
Some Teamsters and other essential workers in the food distribution industry have won a $2/hour temporary raise. But the largest Teamster grocery employer, Kroger, so far has paid just a bonus, not a raise.
Read moreFighting Givebacks in Grocery
The contracts that cover thousands of Teamster drivers, office clerks, warehouse, manufacturing and dairy workers in the Southern California grocery industry will expire on September 20, 2020.
Read moreSo Cal Grocery Teamsters Hit with Concessions
Members and stewards organized to reject contract givebacks in the So Cal grocery industry—but old guard officials forced through a concessionary deal. It’s a case study in why Teamsters need to organize for change if we’re going to defend our contracts.
Read moreDeal to Let Kroger Exit Pension Fund is Stalled
What do you do when you give a corporation the deal they want, but the pension fund vetoes it as illegal? That’s the IBT’s question regarding their deal with Kroger Co.
Read moreTamarkin union members accept severance package
The Tamarkin union members overwhelmingly voted in favor of Giant Eagle’s severance package Wednesday.
The vote was 129 to 4. Teamsters Local 377, which represents the workers, has been told by the company with passage of the package the plant employees will be able to stay through June.
Click here to read more at The Vindicator.
Tentative Deal to Avert Strike at Produce Market in Hunts Point
The Hunts Point Terminal Produce Market reached a tentative contract agreement on Saturday with more than 1,200 workers, averting a potential strike that could have disrupted the region’s supply of fresh fruits and vegetables.
The three-year agreement would give workers a raise of $20 a week the first year, $22 the second year and $24 the third year. The increases represented a compromise between the union’s earlier push for a raise of $25 a week each year, and the merchants’ counteroffer of $16 in the first year and $22 thereafter.
Another sticking point had been the merchants’ demand that more workers begin contributing $20 a week to their health plan; employees hired in the past three years already make such contributions. Under the tentative agreement, the health care contributions would be extended to some higher paid workers such as supervisors and salespeople.
The workers will vote on the agreement on Wednesday, according to their union, Teamsters Local 202, which announced the tentative deal. Daniel Kane Jr., president of Teamsters Local 202, said the union’s bargaining committee recommended that the agreement be approved.
“We’re not too far from our demands, so we feel confident that it will be ratified by the rank and file,” said Mr. Kane, who noted that “it’s the largest wages and benefits package we’ve received in the last 20 years.”
If union workers were to reject the agreement, there could still be a strike, Mr. Kane said.
Robert Leonard, a spokesman for the market, said that its merchants were happy that both sides were able to come together. “At the end of the day, discussions resulted in a fair package, which goes a long way towards addressing the issues raised by management and labor,” he said.
Union workers had been prepared to carry out the first strike at the Hunts Point market in nearly 30 years after contract negotiations stalled in recent days. They had initially planned to strike as early as Friday morning, but union leaders said that, at the request of a federal mediator, they had agreed to postpone any action until at least Sunday.
The market, made up of about 40 independent merchants but run as a cooperative, is the region’s largest supplier of fresh produce to wholesale and retail businesses, including grocers, bodegas and produce stands. While warehouse workers and drivers typically earn $38,000 to $53,000 a year, a smaller number of supervisors and others can earn more than $75,000, Mr. Kane said.
The two sides had already reached an agreement that calls for the market to increase its own contributions to workers’ health insurance and pension plans.
“We were boosted by the support of our elected officials and everyday New Yorkers,” Mr. Kane said. “It’s getting harder and harder to get by in this city. People really rallied around these workers demanding a wage that their families can live on.”
EEOC Sues FedEx Ground for Nationwide Disability Discrimination
Shipping giant repeatedly failed to provide needed accommodations to deaf and hard-of-hearing package handlers and applicants, federal agency charges.
Baltimore, MD - infoZine - Shipping giant FedEx Ground Package System, Inc., (FedEx Ground) violated federal law nationwide by discriminating against a large class of deaf and hard-of-hearing package handlers and job applicants for years, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it announced today.
Click here to read more at Kanas City infoZone.
Appeals Court Rules Some FedEx Ground Workers Are Employees
In the latest decision on worker status, a federal appeals court in California ruled that 2,300 workers at FedEx Corp.’s Ground unit were employees and not contractors to the package delivery company.
The 35-page decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled that the Ground workers were misclassified as independent contractors, in violation of California law.
Click here to read more at Transport Topics.