It is undeniable that warehouse workers are enduring ever more difficult working conditions, as companies are squeezing every last drop of tears and sweat from their employees to provide services and products on-demand.
These worsening conditions are why my coworkers and I, warehouse processors and quality technicians in Enfield, decided to form a union with Teamsters Local 671 almost a year ago to have a collective voice on the job.
Our employer – i-Health, a division of DSM-Firmenich, a multi-billion dollar European conglomerate headquartered in Switzerland – could have chosen then to start respecting our rights and dignity as workers.
Instead, DSM-Firmenich chose to respond with coercion, threats, and a fear campaign in an attempt to intimidate us to vote against forming a union. When we resiliently defeated these illegal tactics and won our union election, DSM-Firmenich retaliated by increasing the length of workdays at the facility by 50 percent through mandatory overtime, added a sixth day to the work week, withheld raises and took away the Memorial Day holiday.
Even with our certified union, DSM-Firmenich repeatedly refused to bargain in good faith to reach a first contract. What options were we left with?
The decision to strike is never an easy one to make, and is often only made when companies commit multiple Unfair Labor Practices like ours has done. Companies know how difficult the decision to strike is, and take advantage of that difficulty to make demeaning offers they know their workers cannot accept. So, we voted to go on strike in December 2024 – and that strike has continued to date, as DSM-Firmenich has only doubled down on their anti-worker posture.
Another example was the Stop & Shop strike of 2019, where the company’s offer entailed eliminating raises and premium pay on national holidays and Sundays, reducing contributions to pensions, and kicking family members off their health insurance plans. Thankfully, Stop & Shop workers united within their union, United Food and Commercial Workers, and went out on strike to preserve their wages and benefits and get a fair contract.
These examples of companies knowingly engaging in bad faith bargaining and committing numerous Unfair Labor Practices is why workers need the Connecticut General Assembly to pass the bill to establish unemployment insurance for striking workers.
As I testified – with my union siblings across Connecticut’s labor movement – at the Labor Committee Public Hearing on February 13 this year, we believe this bill will encourage companies to bargain in good faith from the beginning, rather than attempt to intimidate and starve out their workers. By passing this bill, we would join our neighboring states of New York and New Jersey who have had this pro-worker policy in effect for years.
With Donald Trump dismantling the National Labor Relations Board, employers are more free than ever to rampantly abuse workers. By shutting down the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Trump has also deprived workers of further options to settle labor disputes. A worker’s right to strike – which is legally protected – is one of the only options they have left to fight for justice on the job.
Unemployment insurance for striking workers will strengthen these last remaining tools workers need to fight for fairness. Contrary to certain uninformed perspectives, this bill will reduce the number of strikes, not increase them, by incentivizing employers to bargain in good faith and avoid increased unemployment costs.
This year, State Senate President Martin Looney, Labor Committee Senate Chair Julie Kushner and Senate Democrats filed Senate Bill 8, a combined warehouse worker legislation and Unemployment Insurance for Striking Workers bill that would help greatly in creating a safe and humane workplace for workers. In addition, House Democrats have filed House Bill 6904, a separate bill with just Unemployment Insurance for Striking Workers. I’m extremely grateful for the support of Sens. Looney, Kushner and the many other House and Senate members who understand the importance of taking state action to stand with workers at a time when federal labor protections are disintegrating.
We ask that all members of the General Assembly listen to our stories and experiences that were expressed in the public hearings for these bills, and to pass Unemployment Insurance for Striking Workers.
Lawrence Sanchez is a member of Teamsters Local Union 671.