Photo by Jordan Coll / SOC Images.
Just a day after this year’s Labor Day holiday, workers and several members of various labor union activist groups rallied outside the Bergen Logistics building in North Bergen, demanding for improved health insurance rates, worker’s compensation and safer work conditions, as told to Slice of Culture.
The efforts are to publicly sound the alarm on Bergen Logistics’ parent company, the Sweden-based global Elanders group, to finalize a collective bargaining agreement that workers said have been a challenge in keeping up with healthcare costs.
“We want them to pay us fairly, we are tired of this process they [Bergen Logistics] have delayed. We want our rights, this is abusive,” said Aracelis Medina, who works warehousing for the company and has been there since 2022 unloading and packing up units.
“The boxes are very heavy, and they know this,” she told Slice of Culture at the Sept. 8 rally.
The company’s employees, backed by their union, are pushing for a first contract that guarantees their workers’ needs such as affordable health coverage, meaningful paid time off and a safer workplace.
What Happened?
According to a presser provided to Slice of Culture, less than 5% of employees at Bergen Logistics are enrolled in a healthcare plan due to surmounting costs of insurance rates. Workers voted to join the union a year ago, which they continue on their fight for a fairer contract and claimed to file legal charges in unfair labor practices.
She added that the majority of her colleagues are single mothers maintaining their own households to get by. On a state front, New Jersey falls along 17 other states which require five days of paid sick leave, considered under a 40-hour work week.
The shipping company has been the subject of a legal settlement of a former employee who alleged the company denied her rights in addressing her medical needs as a pregnant woman, along with unfulfilled bathroom breaks.
The company forked off $25,000 in legal settlements to the former employee, as reported by Hudson County View.
Workers aroused a collective sentiment, one that expressed frustration over the prolonged demands of fairer labor protections in the workplace.
For the rally and union workers who attended on Tuesday, paying tribute to their labor and pushing back on the adverse workplace conditions was top of mind for members mirroring the same ideals pushed for on the inception of Labor Day back in 1882.
The first Labor Day, a federally recognized holiday, was first celebrated on Sept. 5, 1882 to acknowledge the contributions workers had made to “America’s strength, prosperity, and well-being.” New York became the first state to recognize the holiday followed by Colorado, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
The Laundry, Distribution and Food Service Joint Board, Workers United and SEIU make up over 8,000 individuals, who were in attendance of the rally along with Congressman Rob Menendez who was in the mix of workers, echoing the need for fair-contract at the shipping company. Bergen Logistics union laborers made up the brunt of organizations who stood out in protest on September 7.
“Organized labor is the backbone of our economy,” said Menendez to Slice of Culture. “I will always fight for fair pay and better workplace conditions, for workers at Bergen Logistics and across our state.”
When it comes to labor unions, New Jersey has over 675,000 union members, making it the sixth most packed state in terms of membership rate for unions in both the private and public sector.
The breakdown when it comes to the job sector yields high for union members in public administration (53.5%), education and health services (27%) and transportation and utilities (21.3%), according to a recent report on NJ labor force by Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations. An additional 22,000 union members were added in a span of three years.
Workers in New Jersey—like workers everywhere in the country—have a federally protected right to organize. That protection comes from the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the 1935 law that governs labor relations across the private sector.
“Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining…” as cited under their labor provisions.
Three workers who spoke to Slice of Culture indicated that they receive seven vacation days for the year and said it hindered on the quality of life workers’ would want for their own families. They added that extreme heating at the place of work has threatened the safety of their lives.
Others noted that workers’ were at an impasse when it came to either paying rent or meeting with medical bills.
“We have had many meetings but it really hasn’t changed anything,” said Jennifer Pimienta, a worker who has been with the company for five years and decried the unmet fair contract; Pimienta is one of 160 employees at the warehouse shipping company.
“We have not been able to reach a deal and this is an injustice to us workers, we want our rights to be met.”
Resources For Labor Workers
Slice of Culture has reported on worker’s rights and immigration law in Hudson County, and what resources are available for members who find themselves in the work force.
If readers want to stay engaged with the union members on the ground fighting for fair wages and better health benefit plans you can visit the following sites for more information on the labor fight in New Jersey.
- NJ Laborers Union https://www.njlaborers.org/
- Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations Labor Action Research Network https://smlr.rutgers.edu/LEARN
- The New Jersey State American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations https://njaflcio.org/
