Food prices to rise with Sysco-US Foods merger, Teamsters say

The proposed Sysco-US Foods merger will probably hurt workers and consumers if it is allowed to go through, a new report by the Teamsters concludes.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters warned the $8.2 billion merger would result in a virtual monopoly in many markets, costing workers' jobs and raising food prices. According to The Street:

The Teamsters found that the merged company would hold 60% in metro Chicago, 70% in Los Angeles and Southern California, more than 70% in metro Philadelphia, 75% in the midwestern region around Denver and 80% in Minneapolis-St. Paul. 

If corroborated by the FTC, the market shares estimated by the Teamsters would obligate the agency to require sizable divestitures for which there may not be viable buyers, the Teamsters warned.

The Global Competition Report today quoted Teamsters International Vice President Steve Vairma, director of the warehouse division, making that point:

Even with divestitures of physical assets, he said, a smaller competitor could not easily become a check on a combined Sysco and US Foods. 

“Nobody has bought a facility, loaded it with product and taken significant share overnight,” he said.

Teamsters have plenty of experience with what Wall Street likes to call 'rationalizing the supply chain': merging smaller distributors into one behemoth. To pay the exorbitant costs for the merger, companies borrow money. To be able to pay back the debt, they shut down some operations, fire workers and stop investing in new plant and equipment. Oh, and raise prices.

That's exactly what will happen if Sysco and US Foods merge.

The two companies say they will only have a combined market share of 25 percent, but the Teamsters dispute that. Again, from GCRI:

...critics of the tie-up such as the American Antitrust Institute and Food & Water Watch put it at 55 per cent. Alan Meyers, a mergers specialist in the Teamsters’ capital strategies department, said the union had performed an extensive field study to produce its own estimate. 

The union claims 11,500 Sysco and US Foods warehouse workers and truck drivers, who helped the Teamsters survey the number of employees at and the amount of available floor space in those facilities, which determines how much product can be moved through for distribution. Meyers said 70 per cent is an unweighted average of the markets the union has been able to verify, accounting for all types of customers for which Sysco and US Foods currently compete.

You can keep up with what's going on at Sysco and USFoods on the Protecting Sysco & US Foods Workers Facebook page.

Today's Teamster News 08.14.14

Teamster News
BLET organizes Illinois Railway short line workers  teamster.org   ...The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) scored a short line organizing victory last week as a majority of workers at Illinois Railway voted to make the BLET their designated collective bargaining representative...
Teamster at US Foods Seeks Information About Merger  teamster.org   ...Frank Rinetti, a Teamster member and employee of US Foods, recently sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeking information about the proposed Sysco-US Foods merger and he also outlines his concerns about the merger's impact on jobs...
Union teamsters met Wednesday, will vote Thursday  KERO Bakersfield   ...GET union employees met Wednesday to discuss the proposal from GET...
Trade
Five Tests Walmart Must Pass to Show its 'Made In America' Street Cred  manufacture this   ...If Walmart is truly serious about its pledge to help American manufacturers, the corporation will slash its imports into the U.S...
Country-Of-Origin-Labeling Dispute Threatens U.S. Exports, Jobs  The Hill   ...A long list of U.S.-manufactured goods and agricultural products are being threatened by a trade dispute about whether U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements discriminate against our bordering countries’ meat products. Absent quick action to settle the dispute, the governments of Canada and Mexico—currently the two largest markets for U.S. exports—could impose $2 billion in retaliatory tariffs that would endanger thousands of American jobs...
State Battles
Corporate front groups pushing laughable “National Employee Freedom Week” and other anti-union effort  eclectablog   ... “National Employee Freedom Week”... encourages union members to become freeloaders by leaving their unions while the unions continue to bargain for on their behalf for better wages, better working conditions, and better benefits...
Floridians tried to stop gerrymandering, and Republicans gerrymandered anyways. We’re about to see who wins.  Washington Post   ...If it passes muster with the courts in anything like its present form, it will have been a pretty major victory for the GOP in overcoming the so-called Fair Districts amendments -- and an equally large setback for redistricting reformers seeking to rein in partisan gerrymandering...
Christie: GOP governors to spend millions in Maine  Associated Press   ...New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie returned to Maine on Tuesday to help raise money for Gov. Paul LePage and predicted that the Republican Governors Association would spend millions of dollars in the state this fall to help LePage win a second term...
Record number of labor candidates prep to run for public office at New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates School  Politicker NJ   ...A record-sized class of rank-and-file union members representing 23 local unions from across all sectors of the labor movement took part in the New Jersey State AFL-CIO Labor Candidates School August 9-10, 2014, at the Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center in New Brunswick...
The Big Money Behind Walker’s Campaign  Express Milwaukee   ...Walker returned to the deep pockets of his recall mega-contributors, including Las Vegas gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam. Adelson donated $250,000 to Walker in 2012...
Labor and small businesses team up on California franchising law  MSNBC   ...the theory appears to be that protecting franchisors against the threat of closure will make it easier for them to do things like raise workers’ wages...
War On Workers
Electric Worker Hit By Train, Killed In Edmond  KWTV   ...The train was traveling southbound when it hit and killed Edmond Electric Worker, Bob Waterson Tuesday evening. Edmond city officials say Waterson was with the company for more than 34 years...
Rail CEOs to Investors: "Bomb Trains" Safe At Almost Any Speed  DeSmog Blog   ...Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) recently said it would proceed with plans to increase speeds for oil-by-rail unit trains in Devil’s Lake, N.D. to 60 MPH from 30 MPH, despite opposition from local officials...
What’s Lost in the Market Basket Stories  Economic Policy Institute   ...they have succeeded by taking a distinctly high-road approach: the company takes care of its workers, paying decent wages, offering benefits to full- and part-time staff, and providing employees with a profit-sharing plan. At the same time, Market Basket still offers prices lower than its competitors, Walmart included...
Union Workers In Maine Join Protest Of FairPoint Outsourcing Plans  Portland Press Herald   ...Hundreds of unionized FairPoint Communications Inc. workers in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire staged “informational protests” Tuesday to educate customers about the negative impact of company plans to boost outsourcing, union representatives said...
For Largest U.S. Companies, Jobs Growth Has Lagged Profits, Revenues  Reuters   ...From 2001 to 2013, inflation-adjusted revenue at 100 of the largest publicly traded companies grew 71 percent and inflation-adjusted operating profit rose 150 percent. Global headcount reported in company financial filings rose 31 percent...
Los Angeles To Vote On Killing Major Wall Street Deal As City Drowns In Financial Fees  International Business Times   ...Los Angeles lawmakers were expected to vote Wednesday on a proposal to renegotiate or terminate an interest rate swap deal from the mid-2000s that critics say now costs the city millions of dollars a year in fees. If successful, the initiative could make the city the nation's largest to challenge ballooning Wall Street levies that accompany similar interest rate swap deals throughout the nation...
Front and center: Amendment 3 pushes teacher tenure into the spotlight  Southeast Missourian   ...if teachers have been teaching in the same district for five years, they're granted due process rights by statute. "Before that, they're at-will," Meyer said. Five years, she said, is probably the longest probationary period used around the country...
Miscellaneous
Does Your Boss Know You’re Reading This? Surveillance Technology Boosts Efficiency But Creates Workplace Issues  Atlanta Journal-Constitution   ...There are few laws and court cases to help companies or workers understand the limits, leaving some gray areas for protection of employees’ privacy...

Food could get even more expensive with Sysco, USFoods merger, Teamsters warn

Teamsters today warned state and federal officials that food costs could rise and workers could be hurt if foodservice giant Sysco buys foodservice giant USFoods.

Teamsters met with  Federal Trade Commission staff and state attorneys general investigating Sysco’s proposed acquisition of US Foods for antitrust issues

Teamsters represent more than 7,600 Sysco warehouse workers and drivers and nearly 4,000 at US Foods covering 70 warehouses in the U.S.

Sysco’s $8.2 billion buyout is currently under review by the FTC and a multi-state committee of attorneys general tasked with examining the effects on competition.

Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said,

The costs of this merger will be borne not only by people who want to go out for dinner with their families, but by taxpayers who fund public institutions, travelers, elderly patients in nursing homes and the employees. It deserves careful and deliberate scrutiny.

Today's Teamster News 04.08.2014

Teamster News
Teamsters seek contract at Corona food warehouse  Press-Enterprise   ...Union leaders in Southern California are asking U.S. Foods, the second-largest food supplier in the country and the subject of a huge proposed merger deal, to begin contract negotiations with workers at a Corona distribution center...
Trade
What The Heck Is The Trans-Pacific Partnership And Why Should I Be Concerned?  Consumerist   ...It's 2014, and we're living in an increasingly globalized economy. International trade has been ramping up for centuries and a carefully plotted web of agreements keeps goods, services and money moving around the world...
Colombia's Anti-Union Violence Remains Rampant after Three Years of the FTA-Enabling Labor Action Plan  Public Citizen   ... 73 Colombian unionists have been murdered, according to a report released today by Colombia’s National Union School, a group recognized by the LAP as an authoritative source of monitoring data. There were more four more unionist murders in 2013 than in 2012...
Congress needs to act on China’s unfair trade practices  Indianapolis Star   ...America ran a $456 billion trade deficit in 2013, $318 billion of which came from trade with China alone. This doesn’t happen naturally. China illegally subsidizes for its state-run businesses to encourage these deficits. And it manipulates its currency to make its goods cheaper and competing American goods more expensive...
U.S. Expresses Support For Taiwan's TPP Bid  Radio Taiwan International   ...Taiwan's foreign ministry says the United States has openly expressed its support for Taiwan's bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
State Battles
More Lawmakers Pushing Identical Bills Written By National Groups  AZ Central   ...Arizona lawmakers introduced six bills this session seeking a U.S. Constitutional Amendment to impose new fiscal restraints on the federal government...
Exploited Temp Workers May Finally Get Some Relief  Salon   ...California could become one of the first states in the nation to hold companies legally responsible for wage and safety violations by their subcontractors and temp agencies if a bill proposed Friday becomes law...
War on Workers
More Than 20 Striking Students Arrested, Belying University of California’s Era of ‘Labor Peace’  In These Times   ...The work stoppage, staged in protest of past alleged attempts by UC to intimidate graduate workers for labor organizing, was quickly met with what workers say was a further attempt at intimidation: The arrest of 20 students at UC Santa Cruz who were picketing early Wednesday morning...
Paid-For Legislature Takes Teacher Tenure From Thousands In Kansas  firedoglake   ...Weekend, overnight exploits by purchased ideologues and rank amateurs in the Kansas State legislature stripped KS public school teachers of due process rights...
I Looked Up The Fastest-Growing Jobs In America, And Boy Was It Depressing  Business Insider   ...secretaries, food workers, and caretakers. The median salary for the fastest-growing raw-numbers occupations, shown in the table below, is $30,000...
Hot Air Hisses Out Of Housing Bubble 2.0: Even Two Middle-Class Incomes Aren’t Enough Anymore To Buy A Median Home  Testosterone Pit   ...in 40 large cities, only 10% of the homes are affordable on one median salary … and … “just 41% of homes currently for sale across 40 US cities are affordable for a family earning two median incomes…”
The Money Against The Minimum Wage  Open Secrets   ...The minimum wage debate is back on Capitol Hill, and the usual suspects -- trade groups in industries that hire a lot of low-wage workers …have laid out huge amounts of money …  giving more than $5.5 million to Congress over the past two election cycles and spending more than $91 million on lobbying just last year...
If the New York Stock Exchange is a “High-Frequency Brothel” then the SEC is its Pimp  Wall Street on Parade   ...Not only are the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq allowing high frequency traders to co-locate their computers next to the main computers of the exchanges to gain a speed advantage over other customers at a monthly cost that only the very rich can afford to pay but they’re now tacking on infrastructure charges that price everyone out of efficient use of the exchanges except the very top tier of trading firms...
All Work And No Pay  Moyers & Company   ...You've heard about the wave of recent protests calling on fast food chains like McDonald's and Burger King to raise wages for their employees, who are forced to live on next to nothing. But did you know that many workers in sit-down restaurants may be faring even worse?...
Corker Must Come Clean On The Volkswagon Union Election  The Hill   ...Sen. Bob Corker's problems concerning his intrusion in February's union election at Volkswagon in Chattanooga just got more serious. Confidential e-mails obtained this week by a Nashville television station...
Labor Secretary Will "Respect" NLRB Ruling Granting Northwestern Football Players Right To Unionize Des Moines Register   ...U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez will respect the decision by the National Labor Relations Board last week that Northwestern football players have the right to unionize, he said at a news conference in Des Moines Saturday...
Miscelleneous
Young People Understand Unions Can Solve Problems  U.S. News and World Report   ...Last week, the National Labor Relations Board's Chicago Regional Director issued a notable finding: football players at Northwestern University are employees of the university for purposes of federal labor law...

Today's Teamster News 11.05.11

South Jersey workers back Ill. action  Courier Post   ...Warehouse workers and truck drivers at US Foods halted deliveries of food Friday morning in sympathy with striking employees in Illinois. US Foods distributes food and related products to restaurants, military bases and hospitals in the greater Philadelphia and New York areas...
Art of the Protest: Teamsters Target Jackson Lewis's Work for Sotheby's  The American Lawyer   ...The labor and employment specialists at Jackson Lewis have again drawn the ire of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with union members mustering this week outside Sotheby's locations in New York and Philadelphia to protest the law firm's representation of the famed auction house in an ongoing contract dispute with its art handlers...
MGM workers vote on 4-year deal  Detroit News   ...MGM Grand Detroit workers approved a new four-year contract with the casino Friday night after overwhelmingly rejecting a proposed agreement last week...
First recall effort launched against Walker, triggering unlimited fundraising   Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...A Republican campaign contributor officially filed a recall effort Friday against Gov. Scott Walker, triggering a powerful tool for the GOP leader: unlimited campaign fundraising...
Sarah Palin Endorses Ohio Issue 2 As Anti-Union Measure Heads To A Vote  Huffington Post   ...Ohio's Issue 2, a referendum on a controversial law curtailing collective bargaining rights for public employees, picked up the endorsement of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Friday...
Herman Cain: 'I am the Koch brothers' brother from another mother'  New York Daily News   ...Herman Cain heaped praise on the Koch brothers Friday, calling himself the Republican power brokers' "brother from another mother..."

US Foods strike spreads to CO, WA

Fife, Washington.

Teamsters are now refusing to cross a US Foods strike line held overnight during a blizzard in Englewood, Colo., and a line in Fife, Wash. Their contracts require them to notify their employer 72 hours before they can honor the picket line.

In the past six days, nearly half of the 4,000 Teamsters who work at US Foods have struck. They've shown heroic solidarity with maintenance workers who struck in Illinois on Sunday over unfair and illegal treatment by US Foods. The strike spread to Buffalo, N.Y., and St. Louis, Mo., then to Plymouth, Minn., and Fishers, Ind. This morning, Teamsters formed picket lines at three New Jersey warehouses in Bridgeport, Perth Amboy and Swedesboro.

Messages of solidarity and support can be found on the Teamsters Facebook page:

Vicki Fay Union now. Union forever.

Chet Grzesnikowski Unity baby

Rick Maginnis As a former driver of 30 yrs at U S Foods LA I'm with you brothers an sisters all the way , give them hell an stand tall an strong

@oneunionmom tweeted:

My son and daughters are learning a lot these days - they sure know which side we're on.

Here's the latest Teamsters news release about the strike:

At the Fife facility, more than 100 members of Teamsters Local 117 walked off the job early today, honoring a picket line established by Teamsters Local 174 in Tukwila.

In Englewood, more than 200 members of Teamsters Local 455 walked off the job at US Foods at noon today. They are honoring a picket line set by Teamsters Joint Council 3 in Denver.

Two additional Teamster locals in Oregon and Washington have also notified US Foods that they will honor picket lines if any are extended to facilities where their members work or deliver product.

More than 1,800 Teamsters have now honored picket lines at US Foods facilities in Illinois, Missouri, New York, Indiana, Minnesota, and New Jersey.

Follow it closely on the USfoods Workers Facebook page or the website, http://www.usfoodsworkers.org/. And see more photos here.

US Foods strike spreads, disrupting service in NY, NJ and PA

Solidarity in Bridgeport, N.J.

Teamsters made another bold surprise attack on US Foods today, spreading the strike to three New Jersey warehouses.

Teamsters Local 1414 put up sympathy pickets at the US Foods warehouse in Swedesboro, while Local 676 picketed in Bridgeport and Teamsters Local 111 in Perth Amboy. Not one Teamster crossed the strike lines.

Across the country, hundreds and hundreds of Teamsters refused to cross US Foods picket lines. It is a remarkable show of solidarity. And it extracts a heavy price for law-breaking by US Foods' fast-buck artists, KKR and CD&R.

Teamsters are posting messages of support on Twitter and on the USfoods Workersunited Facebook page:

Alexandria Davis Soprano Teamsters are my heroes. They just are so proud and strong and never give up. I'm a young person who wants to become a union organizer some day and help make a better America.

Harry Ladner Jr ‎628!!!!!Support the Brotherhood!!!

Michael Brutschea Holding the line at Bridgeport

Honoring the line in Bridgeport.

The strike is disrupting service thoughout the company, as this tweet tells us:

@USFoodsWorkers: Huge props to #Teamsters Local 107 and 169 representing Bridgeport #NJ - we've been told only 2 loads out of 80 left #USFoods last night!

Here's the Teamster press release about today's action:

US Foods Teamsters in New Jersey extended picket lines last night and early today, leading to more service disruptions for the Rosemont, Ill.-based company.

The sympathy pickets were in response to a strike Sunday at a US Foods warehouse in Streator, Ill. More than 1,500 Teamsters have now honored picket lines this week at US Foods in St. Louis; Buffalo, N.Y.; Fishers, Ind.; Plymouth, Minn.; and Fife, Wash...

Perth Amboy

These (three New Jersey) facilities feed thousands of restaurants and other customers in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. More than 700 Teamsters who work at those facilities refused to cross the picket lines.

The initial strike began when maintenance workers in Streator struck US Foods in response to the company’s unfair labor practices, which included retaliating against employees for engaging in union activity. US Foods disciplined a Streator employee for being absent while he was in contract negotiations with the company as a member of the bargaining committee for Teamsters Local 722.

The Teamsters represent about 4,000 workers at 25 US Foods distribution centers throughout the United States.

For recent pictures, click here. For more information at the US Foods Workers website, click here.

Strike forces US Foods into Keystone Kops routine

 

Standing tall together in Buffalo.

Whoa! US Foods management was so confused by the Teamsters' rolling strike that it partially shut down operations at two New Jersey warehouses in Bridgeport and Swedesboro this morning. Those two warehouses were not picketed, though close to a thousand Teamsters have been honoring picket lines at US Foods facilities around the country.

Here's a post from the USfoods Workers Facebook page that explains what happened:

The company was apparently so frightened that a single custodian from rural Illinois would descend on Philadelphia this A.M., that according to one Teamster member there was a whole "lot of turmoil and disruption to the business at both Bridgeport and swedesboro this morning. They cut 18,000 cases from delivery at Bridgeport and 24 routes from swedesboro." But here's the rub: the Streator, IL strikers were nowhere near New Jersey. We'd apologize to all the hard working folks at US Foods Swedesboro and Bridgeport for the disruption, but the company brought it on itself.

Memo to fast-buck artists Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Clayton, Dubilier &Rice, plunderers of US Foods for the past four years: Breaking the law has consequences. (The company retaliated against employees for engaging in union activity.)

And here's a P.S.: There's more of us than there are of you. Standing together makes us strong.

As @ShannanZ tweets:

Back to Old School. This is a Teamster family and you wont find any scabs here. This is what Solidarity looks like. @USFoodsWorkers

The New York Times reported on the strike, no doubt to the dismay of KKR and CD&R:

A small strike that began on Sunday at a US Foods plant in Streator, Ill., has spread to other cities in recent days, causing disruptions at the food distribution giant, which is owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.

A pair of sanitation workers in Streator affiliated with the Teamsters union went on strike after the company refused to bargain in good faith, the union said. On Monday morning, drivers and warehouse employees at the plant, which employs about 100 workers, elected not to cross a picket line at US Foods, but they later went back to work in the afternoon.

“We believe the illegal conduct of US Foods in Streator is part of a broader war the company is waging against its workers,” the Teamsters said in a statement posted on a Web site that was created expressly for the dispute.

Yesterday's Teamsters news release explains further:

After striking US Foods workers extended picket lines from Streator, Ill. to St. Louis, Mo. and Buffalo, N.Y. on Tuesday, Nov. 1, the picket lines were extended again last night and early this morning to Fishers, Ind., Plymouth, Minn., and Fife, Wash.

More than 830 Teamster-represented warehouse workers and drivers have now honored the picket lines at the US Foods locations in Illinois, Missouri, New York, Indiana and Minnesota. In Fife, Wash., the union gave notice that it intends to honor the picket lines starting Friday morning.

A picket line was also set up overnight in a blizzard at the Englewood, Colo., facility. Teamsters will honor that picket line on Friday as well.

Photos of the picket lines can be viewed here.

For more information, go to the website: http://www.usfoodsworkers.org/. Or you can post messages of support to the Teamsters Facebook page (trolls, you will be banned). Follow the action on Twitter at @USFoodsWorkers.

Today's Teamster News 11.03.11

A strike at US Foods takes aim at private equity  New York Times   ...The relationship between labor unions and private equity, which has always been chilly, has just gotten colder...
Port closure culminates Oakland protest  The Press-Democrat   ...Semi-truck drivers trying to leave the Port of Oakland stopped as throngs of demonstrators poured in....“It's OK,” said Mann Singh, 42, a truck driver from Pittsburgh who was stuck in the middle of the road with demonstrators climbing on his vehicle. “They are for us, you know. We work 16 hours to make $200...”
Sotheby's arrest 2  youtube   ...Four occupy wall street activists were arrested tonight at Sotheby's auction house in NYC, for distutbing one of sotheby's biggest nights of the year, in support of the locked-out workers...
Teamsters Protest Union-Hostile Law Firm Jackson Lewis  IBT   ...Teamster members protested the anti-union law firm Jackson Lewis, which was hired by Sotheby’s Auction House [NYSE: BID] to help outsource good, middle-class jobs...
Porsche Sells Malbec to Keep Argentine Access  Bloomberg   ...President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who won re- election Oct. 23, is forcing sellers of foreign-made cars to become exporters of everything from bio-diesel to bottled water in return for access to an auto market that’s growing 30 percent a year. Argentina introduced the program in March to boost export, increase investment in local industry and shore up dwindling central bank reserves...
Anonymous retreats from Mexico drug cartel confrontation  The Guardian   ...Plans by the hacker collective Anonymous to expose collaborators with Mexico's bloody Zetas drug cartel – a project it dubbed "#OpCartel" – have fallen into disarray, with some retreating from the idea of confronting the killers while others say that the kidnap of an Anonymous hacker, the incident meant to have spawned the scheme, never happened...

US Foods: Teamsters hold the line in IL, NY, MO, MN, IN, WA

Teamsters picketing in Indiana.

In an inspirational show of solidarity, Teamsters are striking in sympathy with their brothers at US Foods in Streator, Ill. Nearly a thousand Teamsters are refusing to cross picket lines across the country. They stand tall with their brothers in this latest attack on workers by fast-buck artists from Wall Street.

Today in the predawn cold, Teamsters set up new picket lines in Plymouth, Minn. and Fishers, Ind. The lines are not being crossed. In Fife, Wash., workers gave notice that they will honor the picket line on Friday. (See more stunning photos here.)

High winds and driving snow didn't stop two Teamsters from holding the line through the night in Englewood, Colo. The company has been told the picket line will be honored at noon Friday.  

Here's today's Teamsters press release describing the latest action:

On Sunday, maintenance workers in Streator struck US Foods in response to the company’s unfair labor practices, which include retaliating against employees for engaging in union activity. US Foods disciplined a Streator employee for being absent while he was in contract negotiations with the company as part of the bargaining committee for Teamsters Local 722.

Buy these brothers a hot toddy when you're in Denver!

Yesterday, one of the maintenance workers traveled to St. Louis, Mo. to extend the picket line to US Foods’ distribution center there. In Buffalo, N.Y., Teamsters Local 375 held a sympathy strike at the local US Foods facility, as did Teamsters Local 174 at the Fife, Wash. US Foods warehouse.

Last night, the striking member of Local 722 traveled to Fishers, Ind. to extend the picket line to US Foods’ local distribution center. In Plymouth, Minn., Teamsters Local 638 began a sympathy strike at the US Foods facility there early this morning.

KKR and CD&R, the private equity firms plundering US Foods, began waging war on their own workers when they bought the company four years ago. Said striking US Foods worker Mike Vagasky,

Walking the line in St. Louis.

I’ve worked at US Foods for 28 years. I don’t want to strike, but these top 1 percent private equity companies have done nothing but harass and intimidate us. As a worker, I’m part of the 99 percent in America and I can’t stand by any more while our jobs are destroyed.

The USfoods Workersunited Facebook page is filling up with messages of encouragement. We bring you a few:

Randall Mintze Indy local 135 stands up for our workers and our teamsters brothers and sisters love all and we continue to fight

Larry Iannuzzi ...God bless and best of luck. I hope things turn out ok for the men, sooner rather then later.

Hunter Heartshot Detroit supports you!! Word is out!

For more information, go to the website, http://www.usfoodsworkers.org/. Or you can post messages of support to the Teamsters Facebook page (trolls, you will be banned). Follow the action on Twitter at @USFoodsWorkers.