Workers at FRESHFARM Markets vote to unionize

A vote to join United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400 by 25 employees at 28 FRESHFARM Markets in the District of Columbia area succeeded Wednesday.

FRESHFARM is a nonprofit organization.

The newly unionized employees staff and operate FRESHFARM Markets; booths are run by individual vendors. There are 17 in D.C., one in Silver Spring, Maryland, the rest in Virginia: five in Arlington, two in Fairfax, one each in Oakton, Reston and Springfield.

“We are excited to announce that FRESHFARM has unionized! With our union, we will have a greater voice in the workplace and the opportunity to collectively address our working conditions, pay and benefits,” the workers’ organizing committee noted in a statement.

Seasonal swings had workers seeking greater stability and better pay, which spurred the drive to join a union.

“It’s almost impossible to have a salaried job and also run three markets where two of them are on the weekdays and then one is on the weekend,” Ariana MacMartin, one of the organizers of the new union, told DCist.

The network of farmers’ markets is the first unionized by UFCW Local 400.

The final tally of the vote was 15-2 in favor of unionization, according to the Washington Business Journal. The ballots, authorized in December and distributed on Jan. 18, were tallied by the National Labor Relations Board.

FRESHFARM management is on board with the unionization push.