Please carefully read the information updates for Bellingham Cold Storage.

Bellingham Cold Storage Teamsters On Brink of Strike Strike by over 100 workers will cripple food supply chain in northern Washington Teamsters Local 231 members at Bellingham Cold Storage (BCS) have voted unanimously to authorize a strike against their employer, after months of contract negotiations have led nowhere.

June 5, 2021 After 7 months of negotiations and over 20 meetings with the Company, Bellingham Cold Storage members at Teamsters Local 231 met during two meetings today to receive an update on negotiations and a thorough recap of the bargaining process to date, and to be made aware of what the Company currently has on the table.

Route sales drivers in the laundry business earn their bread and butter through negotiated commission structures and on relationships they've cultivated and maintained, often over years, with their customers. For members of Teamsters Locals 117 and 231 at Aramark, commissions in Washington State are simply not on par with other Teamsters up and down the West Coast. While contracts in Oregon and California boast 10% commissions across-the-board on route sales, drivers in our state earn a rate that fluctuates well below that, sometimes dropping to as low as 4%. This inequity, which the company has shrugged off in ongoing contract talks, has agitated these frontline workers and led groups of Local 117 Teamsters at Aramark facilities in Kent, Everett, and Tacoma, and members of Teamsters Local 231 in Bellingham to vote unanimously to authorize a strike. Tensions are building as Teamsters at Aramark have been providing pandemic essentials - hand sanitizer, toilet paper, and masks, in addition to their standard deliveries - to their customers for several months past the expiration of their contract. The next negotiations with Aramark are scheduled for June 4.

On March 20th, 2021, 35 of your dedicated Local 231 Shop Stewards volunteered their time for training on how to better serve and represent you in the workplace! Although we were not able to meet in person, the ZOOM meeting went on without a hitch.

A group of 30 employees working for Sudden Valley Community Association have voted to join Teamsters Local 231. The workers, who take care of the grounds, roads, golf course, parks, marina, administration, and accounting voted strongly in favor of becoming Teamsters. The final election results should be certified by the National Labor Relations Board soon.