(LANCASTER, NEW YORK) – As 350 Teamsters and area Union Members and Representatives participated in an informational picket held outside Tops Markets’ warehouse distribution facility in the Buffalo Suburb of Lancaster, a Teamsters Auditor traveled to Western New York to review the company’s books over a dispute of $16 million in pension money.

The Teamsters say Tops management is “breaking a promise” to provide a good retirement for its 650 Members who are employed by Erie Logistics Employees, which operates as a subsidiary of Tops Markets LLC and has an warehouse distribution facility in Lancaster.  The dispute involves getting $16 million in pension money that the Union wants restored to the Employee’s Pension Fund. 

On Monday (August 22nd), an estimated 350 Teamsters and area Union Members and Representatives took part in a day-long information picket in front of the Lancaster warehouse distribution facility on Genesee Street, including those from the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the Public Employees Federation (PEF), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Western New York AFL-CIO Area Labor Federation (WNYALF), the Western New York Council on Occupational Safety & Health (WNYCOSH) and the Coalition for Economic Justice (CEJ), Teamsters Local 264 Representative Darrin Ziemba tells WNYLaborToday.com.

“We’re getting under (Tops) nerves,” Ziemba told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper.  “Our Union Auditor from Washington, D.C. is in town now and ‘there won’t be any more meetings’ between our Union’s Representatives and Tops’ management ‘until they’ve looked over the company’s books,’ which management has made available to them.  All I know is they ‘better have’ the pension money ‘that’s owed’ to our Members.”

Local 264 previously issued the following statement in regards to its campaign against Tops and Erie Logistics: Teamsters Local 264 has engaged in a Corporate Campaign against Tops Markets/ Erie Logistics due to a dispute over frozen retirement benefits for our Membership.  Our Members have been caught in the middle of a dispute between the Employer and the New York State Teamsters Retirement Fund since early 2014.  The Local Union has tried to resolve this issue through all possible means available including mediation, direct negotiations and arbitration - and yet our Members continue to go without retirement benefits.  We have fought for our Members in every way possible, in every venue, except in the public eye - until now.  We recently brought our fight to the public at the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge and we have multiple campaigns planed just like it.  We will not idly stand by while this employer to continues this injustice against our Membership.  Our hope is the Employer will reverse its course now that they are being judged in the public eye.  Currently the Employer has two options to protect and restore benefits to our Membership: Accept an offer from the Pension Fund to restore retirement benefits and release past accruals for our Members; or Place our Members accrued pension contributions into a trust ensuring the money would only be used for its intention, their retirement.  Of the two options, the Local Union would prefer the first, but short of an agreement we must insist that at least the second occur immediately.  We will continue to pressure the Employer until it does. 

In a subsequent press release, Teamsters Local 264 President Brian Dickman said: "This is ‘leaving Workers in limbo.’  There are ‘numerous Workers in the facility who want to retire, but aren't able to.’  Companies were at the race to show they are ‘good’ neighbors.  Tops ‘portrays itself as a friendly community market,’ but ‘this kind of corporate behavior is outrageous.’  It ‘hurts us, our families and our communities."

WNYALF President Richard Lipsitz, a Teamster himself who heads the Area Labor Federation whose Affiliated Member Unions combine to represent nearly 150,000 Workers across the region, told WNYLaborToday.com: “This is ‘an important’ pension liability issue.  There’s a ‘question of who’s responsible for it,’ the past or current owners.  This is a ‘serious issue because you are denying people their hard-earned pension and nobody wants that.’”

Buffalo AFL-CIO Central Labor Council President John Mudie told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper: “This is ‘so odd’ because Tops has been ‘so cooperative,’ especially with us in the past when we raised tons and tons of donated water and transported them ‘to those in need’ in Flint, Michigan last year.  They’ve been a family-owned operation and ‘what’s going on right now is hypocritical.’  I know the Teamsters ‘will be out in force’ at our annual Labor Day Parade in South Buffalo and they be ‘bringing it’ to Tops, ‘especially in light of the fact that there are a lot of South Buffalo residents who shop Tops.’”

In an earlier interview with WNYLaborToday.com, the Teamsters’ Dickman said: “Tops has’ moved away and stopped making pension payments.’  They are ‘holding’ (the $16 million) and are ‘claiming it as an asset when it must be put into a trust.’  The company ‘refuses to segregate ‘(the $16 million in pension money) and ‘we can’t think of one good reason why.’  We’ve ‘exhausted all our energy sitting down and trying to get something done.’”

When asked by Your On-Line Labor Newspaper why Tops would take this kind of non-action with the Union Members’ pension money, Dickman answered: “We have (650) Members who ‘don’t have a pension.’  ‘You would have to ask Tops why not.’” 

Since late June the Teamsters-represented Tops Workers have gone public with their problems, distributing leaflets to those who took part in the annual 3.5-mile JP Morgan Corporate Challenge run in Buffalo’s Delaware Park that read: Tops Never Stops … Breaking Promises, as well as to the hundreds of thousands of Western New Yorkers who attended the annual Taste of Buffalo Event in Downtown Buffalo in July.

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: The photos that appear with this Labor News Report are courtesy of CWA Local 1133 Political Director Terry Legierski via the Social Network Facebook.