Members of Teamsters Local 202 at Hunts Point Produce Market in the Bronx went on strike at 12:01 AM on Sunday, January 17, for the first time in thirty-five years, to demand a $1-per-hour raise in the first year of their new contract. The thirty companies that make up the produce market — which collectively received a $15-million-dollar forgivable loan during the pandemic on top of regular profits — refused to go higher than 32¢. Six days later, the workers voted to ratify their new contract in the early afternoon on Saturday, January 23.

After a week of picketing that included the arrest of striking workers on Martin Luther King Day, workers turning away twenty-one freight cars of merchandise on Wednesday night, and several socialist elected officials, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, speaking about the importance of labor and solidarity on the line, Local 202 won a 70¢ raise in the first year ($1.87 over three years) and three extra sick days without making any concessions from their previous contract. None of these wins would have been possible if the workers had not struck.

I have organized in support of a few different strikes as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). As a young socialist and trade unionist, I helped organize picket support with a group of NYC-DSA Labor Branch and Bronx/Upper Manhattan DSA members. Supporting this strike in particular was a deeply moving experience — both in seeing working-class militancy kick off right in front of me and doing so alongside hundreds of socialists eager to support it.