Sarasota warehouse workers join the largest private-sector union drive for the Teamsters in the South in 20 years.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: October 25, 2024
Host: Two hundred and sixty five warehouse workers in Sarasota scored one of the biggest wins for private-sector unions in decades in this region.
Johannes Werner: In May, 75 truckers employed by a large organic food distributor in Sarasota voted near-unanimously to join the Teamsters union. On Thursday, 265 warehouse workers at the UNFI distribution center in Sarasota voted to follow the trail blazed by their trucker colleagues.
They did so by an overwhelming 5–1 margin, with a final tally of 187–38.
Here’s how Edison Abreu expressed his feelings afterwards. The warehouse worker was suspended without pay in what he says was intimidation by the employer in the run-up of the elections.
Edison Abreu: I’m glad to be in the Brotherhood, Teamsters Local 79. I can’t feel more amazing than I feel right now. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We won!
Edison Abreu.
This makes it one of the biggest union wins in decades in this region. The private-sector union expansion comes at a time when the state legislature has passed laws that throw obstacles at public-sector unions.
UNFI, which stands for United Natural Foods, Inc. is a Rhode Island–based wholesale distributor. It is Whole Foods Market’s main supplier, which makes up one-third of its business.
Matthew Killen, an International Brotherhood of Teamsters organizer who helped bring about the vote in Sarasota, sees the successful union drive as part of a bigger trend.
Matthew Killen: This is the largest unionization in the private sector for the Teamsters in the South in over 20 years. So unions are coming back, and they’re coming back strong. They’re coming back big, and they’re coming back fast.
JW: Killen says the clear pro-union vote came about despite intimidation in the run-up of the election, which included suspension without pay for two warehouse employees.
It also came about after abuse, particularly by one management employee.
MK: These men and women were mistreated. Sometimes it was pretty unspeakable. They had instances where workers had worked more than 24 hours straight. They had another instance where a worker was kicked in the chest by a manager who was a former police officer, who was fired for being violent as a police officer. Another time where a worker was reading his Bible at lunch and this manager came up and closed his Bible and told them God died because he was, we’ll say weak, but he used a much more vulgar term and he was referring to Jesus when he was talking about that.
There was just constant bullying. They would shoulder check employees, they would do things like that, and then there’s the other common things that you deal with, which is like, people getting mixed information and then getting suspended for following directions, but it wasn’t clear what the directions were and things like that, and they would get suspended or written up or disciplined for following one manager’s directions, and the other manager didn’t clear it up with the other manager and just miscommunication all over the place.
There was a general lack of respect for the work that they were doing. There’s pay inequity with people who had been there for 10, 15, some 20 years, and they hadn’t seen a raise in a very, very long time. Some people worked there a long time ago, and it was better. And then they saw a $30,000 reduction in their pay.
It was just a really tough place to work generally. And then, moving forward, we have this election going on, and they’re putting people on finals for being a part of the union, which is an unfair labor practice. They would tell people that they’re favorites and things like that. They would play favoritism. They would give people who were wearing a Team Tom button, which is their general manager. They would give them better treatment for wearing a Team Tom button versus wearing a Vote Yes button for the union. They would try to find ways to discipline people for supporting the union. These are all unfair labor practices.
JW: The union is now filing grievances with the National Labor Relations Board over spying, the federal agency that keeps track of workplace issues. That would include reinstating the two suspended workers.
MK: We’ve got a list of unfair labor practices that they’ll be filing against UNFI because they basically willingly broke the law. A lot of times. They spied on us on several occasions. We’ve got him on video doing that. We’ve got photographic and video evidence of them lying to — especially these two workers — about the cause and reasons for their suspension. The list really is very long.
JW: Next order: Negotiating a collective contract. That’s now in the hands of Local 79, the Teamsters chapter in Tampa.
A spokesman for UNFI said that, as a matter of company policy, they do not comment on any specific employee matters. On the union election, the company had to say this, “UNFI offers competitive pay and benefits and safe working conditions to all associates where our associates are represented. UNFI maintains constructive relationships with those unions and we bargain in good faith to reach agreements that are fair to both sides. In these agreements, we address wages and benefits, other terms and conditions of employment, and the need for operating flexibility to satisfy customer demands regarding the delivery of our products.”
JW: This has been Johannes Werner for WSLR News in Sarasota.
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