Street Chaos and Long Hours Push Farmers’ Market Workers to Unionize

One day last year, a man was slashed as he walked through the Union Square Greenmarket, collapsing to the ground as blood seeped through his sliced-open clothes. One of the first to respond to the chaotic scene was a market employee working an already hectic 12-hour day.

Another time, a teenager near the market was stabbed in the neck during a brawl.

And then there was the day at the Tompkins Square Greenmarket when an out-of-control car careened over the curb, sending market workers and customers scrambling in panic.

The eruptions were part of the difficult and occasionally dangerous work of running the more than 70 open-air farmers’ markets and other programs overseen by GrowNYC, a nonprofit organization. While shoppers often find their local farmers’ market to be an idyllic oasis of green vegetables, fresh eggs and organic baked goods, it can sometimes be a far different experience for the people who work there.

Most of the workers at the city’s farmers’ markets are hourly employees who make between $19 and $26 an hour. Some work year-round, but many are part time or work erratic schedules. Few receive benefits or have job security. Now, hoping to improve their wages and benefits and persuade GrowNYC to focus more on their safety, they are forming a union.

In interviews, several said they were driven to organize after an especially turbulent period last summer, when market patrons or passers-by spat on them, called them racial slurs or otherwise lashed out.

A union may not end such attacks, but the organizers hoped GrowNYC would provide training in how to respond to emergencies and de-escalate hostile situations, they said.

“There are so many different kinds of interactions that are possible on market day, from a quiet day to something really violent happening,” said Grace Paik, 34, an operations manager at the Union Square Greenmarket, GrowNYC’s year-round flagship site.

On Tuesday, almost 200 employees asked GrowNYC to voluntarily recognize their union within 24 hours, and when that deadline passed on Wednesday they filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board. Hours later, the organization said it would recognize the union, which will be affiliated with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

Marcel Van Ooyen, the president and C.E.O. of GrowNYC, said “a strong, dedicated and supported staff is essential” to the organization’s mission.

“We respect the decision our employees have made to unionize and have already contacted the union to work respectfully together,” Mr. Van Ooyen said in a statement. “We look forward to cooperating with our employees’ representatives as this process moves forward.”

The unionization effort at GrowNYC comes at a time of increased labor activity in a range of industries, including strikes at the New School and Rutgers University in recent months that resulted in wage increases for faculty.

Some nonprofit and religiously affiliated organizations, where tight budgets are often dependent on philanthropy and donations, have resisted unionization and have struggled to balance their response with their commitment to social justice or their progressive images.

GrowNYC had an operating budget of more than $21 million in 2021, the latest year for which data are available.

Employees at Housing Works, a high-profile New York nonprofit founded in 1990 to assist homeless and low income people with H.I.V., unionized in 2020 after a two-year conflict between workers and management.

Kim Sheu, 37, said she took a job at the Tompkins Square Park market because “I care about feeding people.” But like many GrowNYC workers, she is the only staff member at the market where she works. (Workers at individual stands are employed by the farms, not GrowNYC.)

“You’re also in charge of social media, in charge of a cooking demonstration, in charge of cleanup, in charge of food safety, while also doing transactions and keeping an eye open for emergencies,” said Ms. Sheu, who once stood outside all day when it was just 5 degrees. “And you’re doing it in any weather.”

She was working at Tompkins Square the day last year when a car accidentally jumped the curb.

“He was going fast enough that I honestly thought he was trying to run people over,” she said. “It is a lot of responsibility for one person.”

Win-Sie Tow, 39, whose job is to close down the Union Square market in the evenings, said the working conditions last summer led her to support the unionization effort. Her shifts can sometimes go for 12 hours and involve everything from heavy lifting to inspecting fish and guiding trucks out of the square and into traffic.

In the past year, Ms. Tow said, she had been subjected to racial slurs and other demeaning treatment.

“It is very much a market where you have to show toughness and strength,” she said. “Being a woman of color, you have to struggle to be heard and be seen and be taken seriously.”