One-day strike of NorCal fast food supplier ends, tensions remain
Two hundred union workers of food distributor Martin-Browers in Stockton walked off the job early Monday morning in a one-day strike calling for improvements in health care benefits and safety.
Workers at the distribution center, which supplies frozen hamburgers, French fries and other products to all 550 McDonald’s and 37 Chipotle restaurants in Northern California, have been working without a Teamsters contract since their previous three-year contract expired on Sept. 1. With workers back at work on Tuesday, Martin-Bowers said that normal deliveries to the fast-food chains had resumed.
Contract talks are set to resume today.
In walking out, workers — which including truck drivers, office clerks, maintenance personnel and warehouse workers — claimed that Martin-Browers representatives refused to negotiate in good faith and were making unreasonable production demands on facility workers. Teamsters' union members at the facility, who average $21.30 an hour, are also demanding that wages keep pace with inflation.
A key issue, according to the union, is health care contributions. The workers are balking at Martin-Browers proposals to increase employee health care contributions by several hundred dollars a month and threats to cut 24-hour access to urgent care for on-the-job injuries. According to the union, while the facility operates 24 hours a day, workers injured at night must wait until the morning to see Martin-Bowers' newly designated health care provider.
Martin-Bowers, according to the union, has threatened to shutter the facility during the closed-door negotiations, but representatives of the Rosemont, Ill.-based firm deny making such threats.
In a prepared statement to the Record on Tuesday, the general manager of the Stockton facility said: “We value our employees and the contributions they make to our business, and we are working with them to resolve any outstanding issues. This has nothing to do with our customers or the companies we serve, and we are confident in our ability to resolve any outstanding issues and come to an agreement in the very near future.”