ILPS Northeast Statement of Solidarity with the Workers of Hunts Point Produce Market

Last Sunday, on January 17, 2021, 1,400 workers at the Hunts Point Produce Market in The Bronx, New York, the largest wholesale produce market in the US, went on strike after negotiations for a new three-year contract broke down between their union, Teamsters Local 202, and management. The strike came after union negotiators fought for a $1/hour raise every year for the next three years and management countered with a 32 cent increase for 2021. Every year the market earns over $2 billion in revenue. 

Since the start of the pandemic the workers at the market, who handle 210 million pounds of produce a year and supply 60% of the city’s produce, have risked their lives every single day to perform the essential function of keeping the city fed. During this time 300 workers have contracted COVID-19, six of whom have died. In the words of one Hunts Point Market worker and Teamsters Local 202 member on the second day of the strike, “With the pandemic, we fought our fears to feed our families and feed the city. Now we are fighting for what we are worth.” 

On Monday night, while the Teamsters on the picket line blocked non-union, strike-breaking truck drivers from entering the facility, dozens of NYPD, some of them in riot gear, attacked the workers and arrested six people. While management turned to strikebreakers and to the police state in the pursuit of profit, these attacks only served to strengthen the resolve of the workers, who remained steadfast in their resistance. 

The workers’ militancy and unity inspired solidarity from fellow workers—including truck drivers and train operators—who refused to cross the picket line while the Teamsters continued to wage their struggle. When stopped by the picket line as he reached the market, one freight operator driving 21 train cars of produce from Ohio responded to the workers that he was also a Teamster, and immediately turned the train around. Teachers, nurses, and other sectors joined the workers in the picket line bringing food, hand warmers, and other items to help sustain the fight. The workers’ struggle gained such support and popularity that even Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent inauguration day of the Biden-Harris administration alongside the workers instead of in Washington DC. 

Yesterday, January 23, 2021, on the seventh day of the strike, the 1,400 workers who are represented by Teamsters Local 202 voted to accept a new contract, bringing an end to the first strike at the Hunts Point Produce Market since 1986. The new contract includes a 70 cent raise for 2021, followed by 50 cents in 2022 and 65 cents in 2023, totaling $1.85 over three years, along with three extra paid days off. While the contract represents a compromise, the strike resulted in the largest raise won in the history of the union’s bargaining unit. 

At a time when workers across the country have suffered under increasingly dire economic, social and health crises under COVID, the example of the Hunts Point Produce Market workers and their indefatigable struggle is one that resounds deeply across all sectors of the working class. ILPS US Northeast applauds the militant struggle of the workers at Hunts Point Produce Market and all workers fighting for raises, hazard pay, health care, safe working conditions, and the right to organize. The only solution to both the fascism under the Trump regime and the neoliberal onslaught of the newly inaugurated Biden and the Democratic Party is militant worker power that disrupts the exploitative system which continues to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor. 

Power to the workers! Build anti-imperialist worker solidarity! Fight for Socialism!