Above photo: This photo shows an IKEA location in Philadelphia, Monday, January 6, 2020. Matt Rourke/AP.
The distribution workers have been on strike since mid-November.
Citing seniority treatment and pay which is below the cost of living.
Perryville, Maryland – On December 28, 320 unionized workers at the Perryville IKEA distribution center in northern Maryland voted to remain on strike into the new year after voting down a tentative agreement offered to them by the company and the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union.
The distribution workers have been on strike since mid-November, citing seniority treatment and pay which is below the cost of living.
“Seniority is the most important thing here,” said striking worker Lisa Mengel in a video statement released by More Perfect Union. “It keeps favoritism at bay. If they don’t care for you, if you’re not one of their ‘favorites’ they can give you less likeable jobs. They can move you from one job to another… without any real concern about your ability” to keep up.
A review of the job on Indeed notes, “your daily duties change for whatever manager on duty’s priorities are at that moment. one never gets a chance to complete a job and then is asked why it wasn’t done.” According to the job listing site, the average worker at the facility makes around $39,000 a year, about half of the median income level in Perryville.
The distribution hub delivers to 39 retail stores throughout the United States and Canada, and is located approximately halfway between Baltimore and Philadelphia on the economically critical Interstate-95 corridor. In August, the warehouse became the first IKEA hub in the country to introduce AI-powered inventory-checking drones to fly alongside workers “24/7,” according to the technology publication The Verge.
In 2012, the facility was the first IKEA hub in the US to unionize, as 320 of the location’s 550 employees are organized as part of IAM Local 460.
The strike has been turbulent, with multiple arrests on the picket line. In late November, local press reported an unnamed union official was arrested for blocking traffic to the facility and “disturbing the peace,” after police confronted workers for picketing outside the entrance.
On December 19, over a month after the strike began, another worker, Joshua Anthony Wescott, was arrested on the picket line for blocking traffic and disorderly conduct. Authorities allege Wescott, 33, was intoxicated.
Workers at IKEA have courageously opted to continue their fight for improved living conditions. This is part of an international industrial upsurge within the working class as workers in industry after industry rebel against pro-management contracts and offers, demanding their living standards be met.