Buena Park labor leader Andrea Zinder, a 42-year veteran of the United Food and Commercial Workers union in Los Angeles and Orange counties and who led tough negotiations with major supermarket chains in Southern California for decades, died unexpectedly last week.
Zinder was 67.
UFCW said in a statement that her death Saturday, Sept. 27 was “unexpected” and did not provide a cause of death.
Kathy Finn, the president of UFCW Local 770, worked with Zinder on just about every major labor campaign for the past quarter-century.
“She was feisty on everything,” Finn said Monday of her close friend. “I worked with her so many years. She was the backbone for the bargaining team for Southern California. She had the history and knowledge to absolutely be steadfast and not give up anything. She was tough as nails as a negotiator.”
After graduation from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in industrial and labor relations in Ithaca, New York, in 1980, Zinder began her career at the National Labor Relations Board where she investigated unfair labor practices and advocated for workers.
In 1983, she became the director of research and collective bargaining at UFCW 770 in Los Angeles.
Zinder was elected secretary-treasurer of UFCW Local 324 in 2003 and, in 2019, she became president.
Both Finn and Zinder had colorful tales about their battles together in the supermarket industry dating back to the 1990s.
Both were arrested and charged with civil disobedience during the 2003-2004 grocery strike and lockout in California, and again in 2008 when El Super inherited problematic labor contracts from Gigante when stores in the region were acquired.
“She did that against my advice. I told her, ‘Don’t do it. I understand principles of civil disobedience, but we have laws,’ ” her husband James Jordan, a retired attorney and novelist, said Monday. “If she were here today, she’d say how proud she was of her arrest.”
“She was a fighter,” chimed Finn, who was due to chat Monday with Zinder about current negotiations between 30,000 union nurses and hospital staff and Kaiser Permanente. Those talks to replace a five-year contract set to expire Sept. 30 continued Monday at the InterContinental Hotel in San Diego .
“We had a plan for this morning that I would be texting her updates on the bargaining while she was going to be in a dental chair,” said Finn. “We texted every single day about work things.”
Finn said she was devastated by the loss of her dear friend.
“She has big shoes to fill,” she said. Zinder, according to Finn, was planning to retire from her post early next year in order to spend time with her grandchildren and traveling with her husband. “She’s irreplaceable.”
Zinder, who walked 4 to 5 miles daily and was healthy otherwise, played a key role in resolution of several labor disputes over the years.
More recently, she worked to win new three-year-contracts with major supermarket chains in Southern California.
The major unionized supermarkets agreed to new contracts this year under her joint leadership with other UFCW unions. Those chains included Albertsons Cos., which also owns Vons and Pavilions, Ralphs, the largest supermarket unit of Kroger Co., Stater Bros., Gelson’s Markets and Super A Foods.
When the Trump administration fired Isael Hermosillo, a mediator negotiating labor contracts for California’s grocers, in March, Zinder stepped forward along with seven other UFCW locals representing 60,000 workers and the chains to rehire the former Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service agency worker with a “per diem” wage.
Zinder also was involved in the settlement of $233 million wage theft lawsuit filed by more than 51,000 Disneyland employees, approved earlier this month by an Orange County judge, ending a six-year dispute over pay for the Anaheim theme park’s “cast members.”
She also served as president of the UFCW Western States Council, and was appointed as a member to the California State Board of Pharmacy from 1998 to 2008. Zinder also served on two health and welfare pension funds.
UFCW Local 324 represents more than 22,000 retail clerks, meat cutters, pharmacists, pharmacy clerks and technicians, Disney cast members, food processing workers, parking attendants, lab scientists, and workers in the cannabis industry in Orange County and southern Los Angeles County.
Zinder, who lived in Santa Monica, is survived by her husband Jordan, two sons, Ben and Joseph Feinberg, stepson Max Jordan, and two grandchildren.