Lancaster, TX – At midnight on Friday, December 19, roughly 300 warehouse workers at United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) officially joined Teamsters Local 745, marking a major step forward in their fight for better conditions and real voice on the job. The vote reflects months of organizing and frustration, and it adds momentum to a growing wave of unionization among distribution and logistics workers.

UNFI is one of the largest food distributors in the country and a key supplier for major retailers, including Amazon-owned Whole Foods. Behind that operation are warehouse workers dealing with long hours, constant overtime, unsafe conditions and wages that haven’t kept up with the pace or pressure of the work. Many workers say they’ve been stretched thin for years, expected to do more with less while management looked the other way.

Workers in Lancaster didn’t organize in a vacuum. Across UNFI’s national network, drivers and warehouse workers have been winning union representation and improvements on the job, showing what’s possible when workers stick together. Those victories helped spark conversations on the shop floor and pushed this group to take action themselves.

By joining Teamsters Local 745, these workers are sending a clear message that they’re done being treated as expendable. Injuries, chronic understaffing and a lack of respect have become routine, and workers decided they weren’t going to accept that as normal anymore. Union representation gives them the leverage to bargain collectively and fight for a decent first contract.

In the months leading up to the vote, workers organized meetings, talked with coworkers across shifts, and confronted management during rallies demanding recognition. Just as important as the public actions was the solidarity built inside the warehouse – workers learning to rely on one another and act as a unit.

This win is part of a larger trend. From warehouses to delivery hubs, logistics workers across the country are pushing back against multinational corporations and reclaiming power at work. The lesson keeps repeating itself: when workers organize together, they can force change.

With the union vote secured, the focus now shifts to negotiating a strong first contract. Workers know it won’t be easy, but they also know they’re in a stronger position than they’ve ever been before.

This victory at UNFI is another sign of a labor movement on the rise. For employers who’ve grown comfortable ignoring workers’ demands, it’s a warning. Workers aren’t waiting anymore – and when they move together, they can win.

#LancasterTX #TX #Labor #Teamsters #IBT745 #Warehouse #Organizing #Feature

. Elmer “Bong” Labog, Chair of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).

(Photo credit: Peter Murphy)”)

Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines – During the International Conference for People’s Rights in the Philippines, Joe Iosbaker, of Fight Back! had the opportunity to meet and interview Elmer “Bong” Labog, Chair of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), or May First Movement. The KMU is an independent and democratic labor center in the Philippines, promoting genuine, militant and anti-imperialist trade unionism.

Established in 1980, the KMU has a membership of 115,000 members, composed of industrial, service and agricultural workers.

Fight Back!: What sectors of workers does the KMU represent? Do you represent workers at plants of multinational corporations?

Elmer Labog: The KMU represents workers from the private sector, including those in the informal and transport sectors. We have member unions from multi-national companies; in fact one of our biggest and longest member union, NXP, is from one of the biggest multinational electronics company in the world.

Fight Back!: Unions in the U.S. have been under attack by both employers and politicians. What kind of attacks has KMU faced, and how are you faring?

Labog: The KMU has always been under attack by both capitalists and the state. The capitalists use their influence in the Philippine government in implementing anti-worker policies of pressing down wages, legalizing contractual labor* and repressing trade union rights. This is why our struggle is always directed both against capitalists and the anti-worker state.

Fight Back!: The U.S. labor movement is at the lowest number of strikes in history. Does KMU still see the strike as the central form of struggle of the workers movement?

Labog: In the past decades, the strike movement in the Philippines has also been weakened by neoliberal attacks against workers. The capitalists, the Philippine government and yellow trade unions connived in implementing neoliberal impositions such as flexible labor schemes, tripartism and repressive policies that weakens workers' rights to unionize, to collective bargaining and to strike.

However, Filipino workers' resistance against these neoliberal attacks are ever growing. In the past years, the Philippine strike movement has been regaining its strength. The number of workers strikes have increased. The KMU has always believed that the strike is the strongest weapon of workers against capitalist and state oppression.

Fight Back!: What is the meaning of ‘genuine trade unionism?’

Labog: the KMU espouses the principles of genuine, militant and nationalist brand of unionism. Genuine as it is formed by the workers themselves and are headed by their officers not by their lawyers or outsiders. It is militant as it adheres to mass actions and other forms of collective actions. It is nationalist as it defends the independence, sovereignty and patrimony of the Philippines.

*Contractualization is an arrangement where workers are hired for not more than five months, stripping them of benefits granted to regular employees by law.

#DavaoCityMindanaoPhilippines #DavaoCity #Labor #Philippines #PeoplesStruggles #Organizing