Hunts Point agreement pending contract vote
Hunts Point agreement pending contract vote
A press release issued by the Teamsters Union on Jan. 17 announced that Teamsters Local 202 had reached a tentative contract agreement with Hunts Point Terminal Market. The union’s 1,300 market members, who have the final say, will vote Jan. 21 on the agreement.
“Our members stood strong and the market knew we were serious,” Daniel Kane Jr., president of Teamsters Local 202 said in the press release. “We said we deserved a fair wage, we fought for it and we got it.”
Merchants on the market, some of which are third- and fourth-generation family members, supply the gross amount of fresh fruits and vegetables to New York City and beyond.
The contract deal comes on the heels of a strike vote taken by members late last week wherein 95 percent of members approved the strike after merchants gave a “final offer” with raises “far short of those proposed by the union,” according to the press release. It also stated that after the strike vote, merchants raised their wage offer.
“We were boosted by the support of our elected officials and everyday New Yorkers," Kane added in the release. "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.”
Another issue, yet to be resolved, is that the Hunts Point merchants were demanding that more workers begin contributing $20 a week to their health plan. Employees hired during the past three years already make that contribution. Under the tentative agreement, the health care contributions would be extended to some higher paid workers such as supervisors and salespeople.