Amazon, Kroger, and UNFI workers join Teamsters

UNFI warehouse workers in Illinois and Kroger truck drivers in Georgia have voted to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, less than a week after the National Labor Relations Board ordered Amazon to recognize Teamster drivers in California. 

On Monday, the union announced that 244 UNFI warehouse workers in Urbana, Ill., voted by a three-to-one margin to join Teamsters Local 26, saying in a press release that workers aim to address “skyrocketing health care premiums, insulting wages, and cuts to our paid time off.”

“One-sixth of my paycheck is swallowed by health care premiums, and management dismisses us as ‘unskilled’ workers who don’t deserve more. We know our worth, and we will fight for the pay and benefits we are owed,” said Kurt Hollwedel, a 21-year forklift operator at UNFI, in a press release. 

The Teamsters said that more than 1,700 UNFI workers have joined the union since 2022, bringing their UNFI membership count to over 5,000 workers nationwide. 

“We will continue to organize UNFI workers across the country and fight for the compensation, benefits, and job protections they deserve,” said Tom Erickson, director of the Teamsters Warehouse Division.

Meanwhile, 30 Kroger CDL drivers in Forest Park, Ga., voted by a 96% margin to join the Teamsters Local 528. Marion Jackson, a CDL driver at Kroger, said workers joined because “wages, benefits, and working conditions have been eroding for too long …”

They join the 289 Kroger drivers in Romulus, Mich., who voted by a three-to-one margin to become Teamsters Local 337 in May. That group of drivers at the Romulus Kroger Fulfillment Center was the first group of Kroger fulfillment center workers to unionize, the Teamsters said in May. 

The votes come less than a week after the National Labor Relations Board gave the Teamsters some more good news, ordering Amazon to begin bargaining with delivery drivers in Palmdale, Calif. 

The NLRB Region 31 in Los Angeles determined, following a year-long investigation, that the online retail giant is a joint employer of its delivery service partner (DSP) drivers and must enter into collective bargaining with the Teamsters. 

Prior to the decision, Amazon considered the DSP drivers contract workers, declining to enter into collective bargaining, and threatening to terminate its contract with the drivers when faced with the prospect of workers unionizing. 

The NLRB decision makes the group of 84 workers the first Amazon delivery drivers in the country to join a union. The Teamsters said in a press release that it expects the decision will extend to the nearly 280,000 DSP drivers nationwide, opening them up for unionization. 

“Amazon drivers have taken their future into their own hands and won a monumental determination that makes clear Amazon has a legal obligation to bargain with its drivers over their working conditions,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien in a press release. “This strike has paved the way for every other Amazon worker in the country to demand what they deserve and to get Amazon to the bargaining table.”