More Than 255 AGNE Drivers and Warehouse Workers Strike Over Pension

More than 255 members of Teamsters Local 633 have walked off the job at Associated Grocers Northeast (AGNE), the grocery wholesaler’s distribution center in Pembroke, N.H. The strikers include warehouse workers and drivers, and the union says the walkout has already disrupted deliveries across New England and New York.

The union announced the strike Nov. 5. It says the central issue is the company’s push for cuts to the New England Teamsters Pension Fund, along with wages, benefits and workplace safety.

How the Pembroke contract talks broke down

According to the Teamsters, members at the Pembroke distribution center voted on Sept. 26 to authorize a strike, with 98 percent in favor. That vote set a condition: workers would strike if AGNE kept asking for concessions at the bargaining table, and the union counted pension cuts among those demands.

The union says months of negotiations followed without a deal it considered fair. Jeff Padellaro, secretary-treasurer of Local 633, said management had not recognized what the workers contribute to keeping the operation running. He summed up the members’ position as “keep the pension or no contract.”

The strikers are asking for higher wages, better benefits and safer working conditions. AGNE’s side of the dispute, including what it proposed on pensions, was not disclosed in the union’s announcement.

Who AGNE supplies

AGNE is the largest retailer-owned wholesale grocery distributor in New England, according to the union. A retailer-owned wholesaler is owned by the stores it supplies. The company serves hundreds of independent grocery stores across the region, so a stoppage at its warehouse and on its delivery routes reaches store shelves well beyond Pembroke.

The union did not say how many trucks or routes are idle, or which stores have seen missed deliveries.

What workers say is at stake

Pensions are the main point of conflict. A multiemployer pension fund such as the New England Teamsters Pension Fund pools contributions from many employers to pay retirement benefits to union members. When an employer seeks to reduce or end its contributions, workers can lose part of the retirement income they expected.

Shawn Gilan, a maintenance worker with 14 years at the company and a Local 633 member, said AGNE was trying to take away retirement benefits workers had earned over years on the job. He said the strike is about holding on to that security.

Tom Erickson, director of the Teamsters Warehouse Division, called on AGNE to drop its pension demands and come back to talks with a serious offer. “Our pensions are not bargaining chips,” Erickson said. He added that the national union supports the Local 633 members and will not back down until they win an agreement that protects their retirement.

What it means for drivers and grocery freight

Drivers are among the workers on the picket line, so the dispute reaches the trucks that carry groceries from Pembroke to independent stores. Their retirement benefits through the New England Teamsters Pension Fund are part of what is being negotiated.

For the stores AGNE serves, the walkout means interrupted supply from their main wholesaler, according to the union. Independent grocers in New England and New York that depend on AGNE’s routes are the first to feel it.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, founded in 1903, represents more than 1.3 million workers in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. No date for new talks between AGNE and Local 633 has been announced.

Sources: Teamsters, Yahoo Finance