‘Incomprehensibly tragic’: Friends, colleagues mourn unexpected death of local union leader

Retail clerks, pharmacists, parking attendants and other workers across the Southland are mourning the unexpected death of a local union president who died over the weekend.

Andrea Zinder, 67, had been the president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324 since 2019 before suffering a heart attack Saturday night, a union representative confirmed with the Watchdog. The union publicly announced Zinder’s death in a statement Monday.

“We’re all heartbroken. It’s incomprehensibly tragic,” said longtime friend and colleague Kathy Finn, president of UFCW Local 770. “I’ve learned so much from her over the years. I channel her — we all do. We’re still here, continuing the work and fighting for what she spent 40 years fighting for.”

Zinder is survived by her husband James, sons Ben and Joseph and her grandchildren.

Before joining the union, Zinder worked for the National Labor Relations Board investigating unfair labor practices, according to the union’s statement. She went on to become the director of research and collective bargaining  at UFCW 770, which represents workers across Los Angeles County.

It was during her time at 770 that Zinder met Finn, who was a union-side labor lawyer. In 1997, Zinder joined the staff of 324 as chief negotiator, with Finn stepping in to fill her role at 770.

Finn recalled that she knew she had big shoes to fill but that Zinder always made herself available to help. The pair spent nearly three decades negotiating contracts for workers across Los Angeles and Orange counties.

In 2003, Zinder was elected secretary-treasurer of Local 324. Sixteen years later, in 2019, she was elected president, a position she held until her death.

Zinder and Finn also both served on the UFCW International executive board as well as the California Labor Federation executive board, which meant they regularly traveled to cities all around the country for meetings.

“We would always fly together and I was her walking buddy,” Finn recalled fondly, noting that Zinder walked five miles a day and ate healthy, which made her death all the more unexpected. “We walked all over every city. We walked all over Denver. We walked all over Atlanta, Sacramento, DC, San Diego — everywhere.”

“The saddest thing for me is not having those walks,” Finn continued. “We talked about work, we talked about our families, we talked about politics — we were never at a loss for what to talk about. I really, really, really miss her.”

Finn still finds herself picking up the phone to call Zinder with a question or comment only to stop herself when reality crashes back down on her.

“She is completely irreplaceable,” Finn said. “But, as any good leader, she mentored a lot of people. She’s got a lot of people on her staff who are very capable. It’s a tremendously great loss … but Local 324 is in good hands.”

In its statement, the union recounted Zinder’s perseverance through the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires and civil unrest to secure “historic gains” in contracts for the local's 22,000 members “in the grocery industry, at Disney and Kaiser Permanente, in cannabis retail shops, at CVS, and for parking attendants.”

“Everyone will say how Andrea was such a fierce leader and how much she cared and fought for our members," Jenna Thompson, communications director for UFCW 324, said in a statement to the Watchdog. “But she was also a friend and mentor to everyone she worked with. She was feisty and so funny that we would still be laughing about what she said hours later.

“She didn't let many people see the true her, but to those she did, we knew she would always be a shoulder to cry on or available to hear a story about something unbelievable that had happened,” Thompson continued. “She leaves such a huge hole in our local and in the labor movement. I will miss her terribly and wish I had more time to learn from her.”

The union is accepting donations to the UFCW 324 Food Bank in Andrea's name here or via check made out to the UFCW 324 Food Bank at 8530 Stanton Ave., Buena Park, CA 90620 ATTN: Accounting.