UNFI warehouse workers in Texas ratify first union contract

Three hundred UNFI warehouse workers in Lancaster, Texas, won a first union contract that gives them a 23% wage increase, Teamsters health care, a defined-benefit pension plan and strong job protections. The agreement matters beyond one warehouse because it sets a concrete benchmark for grocery distribution workers watching how far a first contract can go.

The Lancaster workers ratified the deal overwhelmingly, turning a December 2025 organizing win into a signed contract just months later. The site had already become a bigger labor target inside UNFI’s network when nearly 100 drivers there voted in May 2025 to join Teamsters Local 745. With the warehouse now covered too, the Lancaster facility has become a wall-to-wall Teamsters shop.

That local breakthrough sits inside a larger push at United Natural Foods Inc., the primary distributor for Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market. Teamsters said more than 3,500 UNFI workers have organized with the union since 2022, bringing total Teamsters membership at UNFI to more than 5,500 nationwide. The union has treated those wins as proof that first contracts can move quickly once workers secure a bargaining unit and stay unified through negotiations.

The Texas agreement also gives Walmart workers and managers a useful comparison point for the broader logistics sector. Walmart depends on a vast distribution network of its own, and labor standards in grocery warehousing can shape expectations around pay, health coverage, retirement security and discipline in adjacent supply-chain jobs. Even where the organizing path is different, a contract that locks in a 23% raise and a defined pension shows the kind of hard numbers workers elsewhere will compare against their own pay structure and scheduling rules.

UNFI’s own business priorities make the timing notable. The company reported net sales of $7.947 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 and said it was focused on operational efficiency and profitability. Against that backdrop, the union has continued to frame the Lancaster contract as part of an industry-wide push to raise standards in food distribution, not just at one warehouse in Texas.

The Teamsters have pointed to other recent UNFI gains as a sign the pattern is spreading. In Florida, Teamsters Local 79 won a first contract in August 2025 for more than 300 UNFI warehouse workers that delivered up to an $8-an-hour wage increase, Teamsters health care coverage and participation in the Teamsters Western Conference Pension Plan. In Lancaster, Local 745 member Laqurria Marshall said, “This contract is going to change our lives for years to come.”