AOC Skipped Inauguration to Support a Teamsters Union Strike in the Bronx

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) skipped the January 20 inauguration festivities in Washington, D.C., for a strike. The congresswoman known as AOC showed up at Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx, just outside the borders of her Congressional district, to support a local Teamsters union whose workers are a big reason New York City has fresh fruit on a reliable basis.

Claudia Irizarry Aponte, a reporter for the New York-based publication The City who covers the Bronx, captured Ocasio-Cortez arriving at the picket line Wednesday evening with a pack of coffee and hand-warmers, wearing work boots.

Irizarry Aponte also captured part of a speech AOC gave on a bullhorn at the picket. Ocasio-Cortez invited everyone to “pull up” and show solidarity with the union. Another clip from Gothamist/WNYC news editor David Cruz captured more video of Ocasio-Cortez telling the strikers their efforts are a way of asking for “transformational change” for workers across the United States. Speeches from Assemblymember Amanda Septimo and and New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams were also caught on tape.

“What we’re doing here today is taking the upside down and making it right side up,” Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd.

What’s the strike about? According to Irizarry Aponte’s reporting for The City, the strike launched after negotiations broke down between the union and management over a $1/hour raise. Management offered only 32 cents/hour as a raise, prompting the Teamsters Local 202 union to launch a strike Sunday night. In a January 16 statement, the union said the strike came “after negotiations broke down when management refused to budge from a stingy offer for workers who kept New Yorkers fed through the pandemic.”

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The strike by a union representing about 1,400 workers is a big deal for anyone in New York who likes produce because, according to WNYC, about 60% of produce that comes to the Big Apple goes through the Hunts Point Produce Market. WNYC reported on January 17 that NYPD and a private security firm would work to keep food operations normal.

NYPD has been very involved in attempting to keep the strike in check. In addition to a heightened police presence reported Wednesday, cops arrested a half-dozen strikers for obstructing a road earlier this week, the New York Daily News reported. Video posted by the union shows a massive police force the night of the arrests, which the union has condemned.

“It is outrageous that after being called essential heroes for months, several of our members were arrested while peacefully protesting for a raise today,” Teamsters Local 2020 president Daniel Kane, Jr., said in a statement. “These are the essential workers who went to work every day through the worst of the pandemic to feed New York. All they are asking for is a dollar-an-hour raise so they can feed their families, too.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the workers hard, with union vice president Leonardo Servedio telling CBS New York hundreds are believed to have been infected and six union workers have died due to the disease. Meanwhile, the union says the market received Paycheck Protection Program loans as part of the federal government’s COVID-19 relief efforts.

According to Spectrum News NY1, the management said in a statement last Friday, “We are very proud to have kept our union workers — the vast majority of whom live right here in the Bronx — working and on payroll with full health benefits as the Bronx has seen an unemployment rate of 40%.” The statement continued, “Even with the continued uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, we are offering our dedicated workers wage and benefit increases over the next three years that are a multiple of the current annual cost of living. We are continuing to negotiate in good faith with the Union to keep our workers on the job and produce available in our region.”

“It’s embarrassing that a corporation enjoying pandemic profits, millions in PPP & more in tax giveaways is fighting a $1 raise for essential workers who‘ve risked their lives all year to feed us,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter Wednesday night. “It’s time we stand up for essential workers everywhere.”

The union has asked supporters to join them on the picket line.

Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: What a Labor Union Is and How It Works