Friday, June 8, 2012

Solidarity! Republic pickets extend to Long Beach


Teamsters honored a third California picket line extension today to support locked-out Indiana Teamsters at Republic Services/Allied Waste.

Members of Local 396 at Republic honored the picket at a facility in Long Beach, in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Evansville, Ind.

The 80 Republic Teamsters at Local 215, locked out since May 8, have also been supported by  Teamsters at a transfer station in Richmond. They honored pickets set up on June 1. Teamsters in Milpitas, Calif., also refused to cross their picket line extension on Monday.

Republic obviously doesn't understand the power of Teamster solidarity yet.  You'd think they'd get it after picket line extensions went up for striking Alabama Teamsters at Republic in March. They had 400 Teamsters at their backs in Columbus, Ohio, Buffalo, N.Y., and Seattle. The Alabama workers ratified a contract and returned to work a week later.

As the workers wrote on Facebook this morning:
...members of Teamsters Local 215 are picketing in Long Beach, CA this morning. Where will they go next? ‎300 members of Teamsters Local 396 chose to honor the picket line...that's Teamster unity!
Stay strong and keep fighting!