Sarasota grocery drivers join Teamsters labor union

Drivers at a Sarasota grocery distribution facility have joined the local Teamsters chapter. Unanimously, workers employed by United Natural Foods voted to be represented through the Teamsters Local 79 in Tampa.

“With one voice, we now go to the bargaining table to begin improving our standard of living,” Rob Kroupa, a seven-year driver at UNFI, says in a statement.

Drivers who joined the Teamsters Local 79 work at 6272 McIntosh Road, the Sarasota wholesale warehousing and grocery distribution facility for Delaware-based UNFI, whose largest customer nationally is Whole Foods.

Key issues the workers in Sarasota want advocacy for include wages, job security, working conditions and retirement and health care benefits, according to the statement from the Teamsters.

A UNFI spokesperson says the company plans to work with the union.

"UNFI offers competitive pay and benefits and safe working conditions to all associates," says the spokesperson, Charles Davis, in a separate statement. "Where our associates are represented, UNFI maintains constructive relationships with those unions, and we bargain with our union partners 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."

Earlier this spring, UNFI sought to quash the efforts of its workers to join the Teamsters Local 79 in Tampa because, it contended, the company planned to outsource its transportation services in June to transportation and logistics company J.B. Hunt. However, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in April that the company had not shown that “termination of its drivers’ employment is sufficiently imminent” and ordered an election to be held May 4 and 5.

"Despite facing significant obstacles, these workers were unwavering in their commitment to secure their rights and win representation,” President of Local 79 Brian Rothman says in a statement.

As America’s largest union, the Teamsters represent 1.3 million workers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

"By becoming Teamsters, drivers in Sarasota have taken a bold step towards achieving better wages, stronger benefits, real job protections, and true respect in the workplace," Director of the Teamsters Warehouse Division Tom Erickson says in a statement. "This group showed courage and put it all on the line to secure this crucial victory."

Sarasota was the third union organizing victory for UNFI workers this year, according to a statement from the Teamsters, which also represents UNFI employees in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Says Erickson: “We have active campaigns underway across the country – including in nearby Pompano Beach – where we will fight with the same tenacity to win them the representation every UNFI worker deserves.”