A Bronx Diner Becomes a Teamsters Battleground
The pro-union sign atop the Celeste Diner in Hunts Point. The union leased the space to support its drive to draft workers at Baldor Specialty Foods nearby. Since then, business from Baldor has slowed at the Bronx diner.
Entrance to Baldor Specialty Foods, on Barry Street in Hunts Point. The company, which supplies produce to restaurants and corporate cafeterias, is fighting against efforts by Teamsters Local 202 to organize its drivers.
Business is down at the Celeste Diner, but not because of what’s on the menu. The tacos, eggs and sandwiches are as tasty as ever. The place might be quieter now, because of what’s on top of it: signs urging truckers at a nearby company to join the Teamsters in an election scheduled for May 21.
This year, union organizers waging a campaign against Baldor Specialty Foods in Hunts Point, paid $250 a month to perch the bilingual signs declaring “It’s Your Time to Organize — Yes We Can” on the corner diner, right where Baldor’s drivers are sure to see them as they go out to deliver produce to restaurants in the metropolitan region.
The signs were the union’s response to Baldor’s own signs outside its headquarters a block away declaring the produce company “Proud to Be Union Free.”
Celino Linares, the diner’s manager, said soon after the signs went up over the diner, Baldor managers tried pressuring him to remove them. He did not. Now, Mr. Linares said, no orders come from Baldor’s office workers or drivers. It has cost the diner, he said, about $200 a day in lost orders.
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