Teamsters grows influence in Amazon’s food network via UNFI success

Where Amazon comes into play is that UNFI (NYSE: UNFI) is a major food distributor to Whole Foods, which in turn is owned by Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). And in a prepared statement announcing the victory at Richburg, the Amazon link was noted quickly.

“The victory is the latest in a wave of Teamsters organizing wins at the nation’s largest distributor for Amazon-owned Whole Foods,” the statement said.

The vote affects a workforce of approximately 50 employees at Richburg. They will fall under the jurisdiction of Teamsters Local 509.

Union claims big gains in recent years

According to the Teamsters, more than 3,000 UNFI workers across the country have joined the national union. That brings the total up to more than 5,000, the Teamsters said in its statement.

In the most recent UNFI annual 10-K report, the company said it had 10,704 unionized members at the company out of a total workforce of approximately 28,330. Those figures were as of August 3, 2024, the company said. 

The workers are covered by 48 separate collective bargaining agreements. UNFI did not break out how many were with the Teamsters. 

And while the food distributor did not mention the Teamsters per se, it did say UNFI “has been the focus of union-organizing efforts, and we believe it is likely that similar efforts will continue in the future.”

The Teamsters can cite several victories in 2025 in its various efforts to organize drivers at UNFI. 

A review of Teamsters press releases announcing organizing victories at UNFI this year includes two where there is an election record with the National Labor Relations Board on the outcome of a vote.

One is in Richburg, where a Teamsters prepared statement backs the report of the NLRB.

The second is in Pompano Beach, Florida, where NLRB records show the Teamsters prevailed in two separate elections to have its workers there vote to join Local 749 in Miami.

About a year ago, the union won a victory representing more than 200 workers at UNFI facilities in Atlanta, according to NLRB data.

Three-state contract signed earlier this year

Where the union already was established, the Teamsters’ efforts at UNFI paid off in a big way earlier this year. Workers in three states–Florida, Georgia and Illinois–ratified their first contract with the food distributor, covering four locals. 

The size of the workers covered by the contracts was estimated by the union in a prepared statement issued in March at more than 1,000. According to the statement, the contract provides “significant wage increases, improved benefits, and a defined benefit pension plan.”

As for UNFI, a separate list of questions submitted by FreightWaves about the Teamsters organizing drive brought a generalized response without specifics.

“UNFI offers competitive pay and benefits and safe working conditions to all associates,” according to an UNFI statement supplied to FreightWaves. “Where our associates are represented, UNFI maintains constructive relationships with those unions, and we bargain 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.”

In its most recent 10-K report, UNFI said it had approximately 28,333 full and part-time employees as of August 2024. Of those, UNFI said, 10,704, or approximately 38%, were covered by 48 collective bargaining agreements.

The Teamsters are also claiming new representation victories at several other UNFI facilities this year. But there are no NLRB records of elections at either of those locations.

That suggests authorization cards as the process used to declare victory. This suggests that the union won representation through a process that it calls an authorization card but which is also known colloquially as “card check,” a term the Teamsters rejects.

Cards or ballots?

The NLRB’s website on election results does not record successful authorization card drives.

Organizational victories were announced this year by the Teamsters at an UNFI facility in Lancaster, Texas, affecting more than 90 workers, which joined Local 745, and more than 75 workers at an UNFI facility in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They joined Local 776. 

Given that the NLRB page on election results does not record card authorization efforts, it can not be determined whether there were UNFI facilities where a card-based authorization drive may have failed. 

The Teamsters did not respond to a specific question about the victories in Lancaster and Harrisburg and whether authorization cards were submitted as the method to obtain union representation.

Uncertainty at NLRB

The status of obtaining union representation via authorization cards before the National Labor Relations Board is unclear. 

Earlier this year, Trump-appointed head at NLRB pulled the Biden administration guidance on agency recognition of organizing drives that culminate in a majority of the work force submitting authorization cards expressing their desire to be represented by a union. That edict came down in a memorandum issued by NLRB Acting General Counsel William B. Cowen.

The NLRB itself does not at present have a full quorum but two Trump nominees are awaiting confirmation.

Specifically, the Cowen memorandum pushes back against a Biden-era NLRB decision known as Cemex which was seen as making it easier for a union to secure worker backing through authorization cards. 

And it’s still around, despite the Cowen edict.  

In a blog posted earlier this year by attorneys John Hargrove and Matthew Lonergan of the Bradley Arant law firm, the post, which otherwise read as critical of the Biden administration’s NLRB, noted that standards set in the Cemex decision were not eliminated by the Cowen memo.

“Do not fall into the trap of thinking that being concerned about union activity and how to respond to it is over,” the Bradley attorneys wrote. “Union election demands still require instantaneous actions by companies under Cemex, and caution dealing with union supporters still is required.”

Earlier this month, in an email to FreightWaves, a Teamsters spokesman reiterated that the Cowen memo had not killed off the findings of the Cemex decision.

“CEMEX is the presiding standard for determining whether an employer receives a bargaining order in the absence of a response to a group of workers’ demands for voluntary recognition,” he said. 

More in the middle were the views of Glenn Spencer, the senior vice president of the employment policy division of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In an email to FreightWaves, Spencer said the Cowen memo “does not have the effect of overturning a Board ruling.”

But he added that it is a window to Cowen’s opinion on how frequently the NLRB should turn to it in its decision-making.

“The Cemex decision itself does not specify exactly what type of unfair labor practice charge would necessitate a Cemex bargaining order, nor how many (charges) are needed,” Spencer said in the email. “In other words, the General Counsel has broad discretion as to when a Cemex bargaining order is appropriate. We don’t know his exact thinking on that, but it is likely to be less often than the Teamsters would hope.”

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