The new rules cover workers at the Hunts Point Produce and Cooperative markets in the Bronx, the Gansevoort Meat and Fulton Fish markets in Manhattan, and the Brooklyn Terminal and Wholesale Meat markets. Thousands of workers in these markets process and distribute food for thousands of restaurants and stores across the city.

New York's wholesale markets are on city-owned land. But the 1997 bill granted the employers inside the markets an exemption from pickets as if they owned the property. In addition, the new bill reverses another feature of the 1997 law that threatens prosecution of individual workers forced by their bosses to use shoddy equipment, such as forklifts, which result in accidents.

Rudolph Giuliani, the city's mayor, campaigned for the 1997 measure on the pretext of eliminating "mob control" of the markets. Officials of the three union locals that organize market workers have been convicted of various corruption charges over the last decade, giving opponents of labor an opening to attack the democratic rights of union members.

At the time, before the city council passed the original bill, the New York City Central Labor Council negotiated with the Giuliani administration to eliminate additional onerous conditions initially proposed, such as fingerprinting market workers. The union officials then backed the final version.

The legislation coincided with changes in the organization of the meatpacking industry here. The historic "meatpacking district" in lower Manhattan is being transformed into an upscale section of condominiums and stores. The bosses are taking advantage of moving to the Hunts Point area to try to rid themselves of the union.

Workers at the markets are members of two locals of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Many, however, are not organized. The picketing restrictions have been supported by the owners of the food businesses, who have fought to eliminate unions from the industry, or at least reduce their power.

In 1998, a staff organizer for the UFCW was prevented from entering the Hunts Point market. This incident touched off the effort by the unions to reverse the antilabor legislation. The City Council passed the new law February 29, then, following Giuliani's veto of it, overturned the veto March 29. The mayor says he is considering an appeal of the decision.

During a strike at the Hunts Point meat market during the fall of 1999 by UFCW Local 174 members against beef processor Plaut and Stern, pickets were restricted to the gate outside the market. Strikers were challenged to identify trucks carrying struck work and cars shuttling scabs, but prevailed after three weeks.

Plaut and Stern sought to eliminate the union from the shop, but a contract was signed similar to ones that cover other UFCW shops in the market.

Keith Hatfield, a UFCW 174 member who works at lamb and veal packer B. Rosen & Sons near Plaut and Stern, helped mobilize solidarity picketing among his co-workers during the fight last fall.

He pointed out the hypocrisy of Giuliani's mob-baiting by noting that "anybody can come in" to the market easily. Hatfield also affirmed that the former law "is antiunion" and the reversal should be welcomed by all supporters of the labor movement.

Mitchel Rosenberg is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 174 and works at B. Rosen & Sons in the Hunts Point market.  
 
 
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