Energy was high, and the night air was cold, so people were dancing. The music switched between Anuel AA and Pop Smoke, while Teamsters wearing thick layers hats, gloves, masks chanted in call and response. “Just got one question for you: What do you want?” one of the workers at the mic asked. “Yo,
what do you want?”
I thought someone said, “Bad Bunny,” but it was:
More money.
In the first major work stoppage of 2021, more than 1,400 warehouse workers and drivers represented by Teamsters Local 202 are on strike at the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx. The strike, now entering its fifth day, is a response to a stalemate in negotiations with the owners of the Hunts Point Produce Market which takes in more than $2 billion in annual revenue, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation over a $1 wage increase and an additional 60 cents in health benefits.
Workers at the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx, part of one of the world’s largest wholesale distribution centers, have been striking since Jan. 17. Contract negotiations between workers and management broke down two weeks ago, Gothamist reports. Union members asked for a $1 per hour raise plus greater health coverage; owners countered with a 32-cents-per-hour wage increase, plus an additional 60 cents per hour going to health coverage. At that point, nearly 1,400 workers walked off the job.
Charles Machadio, a trustee with the union, told Gothamist that the workers, who distribute 60% of NYC’s fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and restaurants, deserve more than $1, because the pandemic has proven how essential their work is.
HeadlineJan 22, 2021
In New York, Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez skipped President Biden’s inauguration celebrations Wednesday evening to join striking workers at the Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx. Workers have been on strike since Sunday, demanding better wages. This is Ocasio-Cortez speaking at the picket line outside Hunts Point Market.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “When you’re standing on this line, you’re not just asking for a dollar. You are asking for transformational change, for your lives and for the lives of every food worker across this country, for kids of food workers across this country, because there’s a lot of things upside down right now in our economy.”
Efforts are underway to chloroform the public about the realities of the procapitalist, imperialist politics of the Biden administration and the catastrophic economic and social conditions under which it begins.
arrow 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. David Cruz
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.