Workers on weekslong strike at IKEA warehouse in Maryland

By Samir Hazboun
January 27, 2025
IAM members picket IKEA distribution center in Perryville, Maryland, Jan. 13. Nearly 320 have been on strike since Nov. 15 fighting to protect seniority, against boss favoritism.
Militant/Samir HazbounIAM members picket IKEA distribution center in Perryville, Maryland, Jan. 13. Nearly 320 have been on strike since Nov. 15 fighting to protect seniority, against boss favoritism.

PERRYVILLE, Md. — Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge I-460 have been on strike at the IKEA distribution center here since Nov. 15. Nearly 320 IAM members work at the warehouse, which distributes furniture to 39 IKEA stores across the region.

“The biggest issues we’re fighting for are to protect seniority, to protect tenure, and to defend against favoritism,” Anthony Venzon, strike captain and secretary-treasurer of IAM Local I-460, told the Militant.

“I’ve been at this plant 10 years. We just want to be able to come in each day and know that we’re going to be doing the job we are trained in and know how to do well and safely,” he said. “The company wants to be able to do away with seniority, to assign us to jobs we’ve never been trained on and demand 100% productivity speed from day one.”

Striker Ron Jarusek, a loader who has worked at the plant for 16 years, said, “I had never been in a union before here, but over the years I learned that being in a union means you have to think about others. I thought about voting yes on the contract because maybe I would personally be OK, but when you think about your co-workers being negatively affected you have to stand together with them and vote no.”

Donna Matthews, who works in stock control, explained that the company already can move workers with less than three years seniority wherever they want. “We’re just asking for what’s fair. Respect our years of experience and don’t mess with our seniority, give us a real raise and pay us what’s comparable to the other warehouses in the area. And we need cost-of-living adjustments.”

“We’ve gotten so much solidarity from places that aren’t even IAM, which means a lot,” Venzon said as he handed out strike paychecks. “AFSCME visited our picket lines the other day and some people from the IAM and AFL-CIO came down here all the way from Maine!”

Members of IAM Local S6, who won a hard-fought strike at the Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine in 2020, brought support from their local. “IKEA needs to wake up and realize that negotiating a fair contract is the only way forward,” their statement said. “The 320 members of Local I460 deserve a good deal and Machinist Union Leadership will continue to fight until they get that deal. There is power in a union!”

The IAM unionists invite the public to join their picket lines Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. along Ikea Road in Perryville.

Contributions to the strike fund, payable to IAMAW Workers Local I-460, can be sent to IAM Local Union I-460, P.O. Box 536, Perryville, MD 21903. Messages of solidarity can be sent to info@iamlocal460.com.