Teamster Food Drivers Won Their Strike by Taking It Nationwide
Last month in Chicagoland, 130 Teamster food-service drivers went on strike and secured major contract gains. The workers won by extending the picket line nationwide, hitting employer US Foods at dozens of distribution centers across the US.
Members of Teamsters Local 705 gather around a fire during their strike in Bensenville, Illinois. (Teamsters / X)
While most Chicagoans were bracing for a major snowstorm, 130 truck drivers who deliver food from warehouses to cafeterias and kitchens spent the first weekend in January preparing for another kind of storm: a strike.
US Foods had stalled negotiations over wages, health care, and safety provisions. At 12:01 a.m. on Monday, January 8, Teamsters Local 705 picket lines went up at the Bensenville, Illinois, facility.
Over the next three weeks, Teamsters extended the Bensenville line nationwide. Rolling pickets hit more than two dozen US Foods distribution centers and drop yards from Los Angeles to Indiana to New Jersey, paralyzing its operations in some of the nation’s highest-volume markets.
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