Today's Teamster News 03.14.15

Teamsters
FedEx Freight Workers In California Vote To Join Teamsters Local 439  teamster.org   ...A group of 50 drivers at FedEx Freight’s Stockton, Calif., terminal have voted to join Teamsters Local 439. The vote took place Thursday, March 12 and today, and the workers voted 33 to 12 to become Teamsters...
Teamsters Testify About UNFI At Supply Chain Commission Hearing  teamster.org   ...Former Workers Tell Commission Members About UNFI’s Abuses...
Drivers For Facebook Contractor Loop Transp. Gain Strong Agreement, Wage Increases  teamster.org   ...Drivers for Facebook contractor Loop Transportation are now covered under a Teamsters Local 853 contract, providing for wage increases, health care benefits and a number of improvements to their working conditions. The contract, which workers overwhelmingly voted to ratify on Feb. 21, went to Facebook for its agreement as Loop’s paying client before implementation...
San Bernardino County Public Employees To Vote In Teamster Election  teamster.org   ... Ballots were mailed out this week to more than 15,000 San Bernardino, Calif., county, city and agency employees to vote in an election for Teamsters representation...
Teamsters Continue Fight To Unionize More Bay Area Drivers KGO ...The Teamsters hit the streets of San Francisco for a rally. They're handing out union cards to the drivers of Bauer Transportation, a company contracted to drive workers to some Bay Area tech companies, including Cisco and Google...
Woodbridge Winery Workers Join Teamsters Local 601 In California  teamster.org   ...Nearly 50 workers at Woodbridge Winery in Acampo, Calif. joined Teamsters Local 601 in Stockton, voting 32-13 in favor of representation. The new bargaining unit of cellar operation employees includes 46 workers who are seeking improved pay, benefits and the protection of a union contract...
Trade
Unhappy Third Birthday for Korea FTA Drags Down Obama Push for Fast Track  Public Citizen Global Trade Watch   ...U.S. Exports Down, Imports from Korea Up and Job-Killing Trade Deficit With Korea Balloons 84 Percent on Third Anniversary of Korea Pact, Which Is TPP Template...
Progressives: We’ve Never Heard Of This “Progressive” Group Backing Obama’s Trade Deal  BuzzFeed News   ...The “Progressive Coalition For American Jobs,” run by former Obama campaign staffers, purports to represent the progressive left on the trade deal that the progressive left hates...
Major Unions Stepping up Battle against Free-Trade Pact  Associated Press   ...the Teamsters union called for U.S. negotiators on the trade pact to press for a crackdown on Mexican cross-border trucking as part of the emerging agreement...
‘Exploitation’: Clothing Labels Accused Of Cambodia Worker Discrimination, Child Labor  RT   ...HRW [Human Rights Watch] says workers in Cambodia’s garment factories, producing name-brand clothing sold in the US, Canada and Europe, often come to grips with "discriminatory and exploitative labor conditions." According to HRW, the combination of short-term contracts which make it easier to get rid of workers at any moment, poor government labor inspection and enforcement, as well as aggressive tactics against independent unions make it extremely difficult for workers to assert their rights...
State Battles
Push to rewrite Kansas collective bargaining laws stalls  Kansas City Star   ...The committee was set to vote Friday on both measures, but Chairwoman and Olathe Republican Julia Lynn canceled the meeting. Lynn said she’s not sure when the votes will occur and said House GOP leaders have signaled that they’re reluctant to tackle such issues...
Chumbley: Right to work all wrong for Missouri  Springfield News-Leader   ...Missouri's General Assembly is preparing to pass the deceptively titled Right to Work and Paycheck Protection bills. These bills are an attack on workers and an offense to the God of justice...
Union members rally against GOP labor bills outside Legislature  Las Vegas Review-Journal   ... Hundreds of union members rallied in front of the Nevada Legislature on Thursday to protest Republican efforts to curb collective bargaining and push public employee retirement reforms...
Union workers to protest Walker in NH  New Hampshire Union Leader   ...Union members and organizers plan to protest outside when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks to a state Republican Party event Saturday at Concord High School...
WV Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signs prevailing wage change, Coal Jobs and Safety Act  WOWK TV   ...Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed three bills into law March 12, including one that changes West Virginia's prevailing wage law...
Maine Republicans Try Again To Push Through 'Right-to-Work' Legislation  NPR   ...Republicans are once again trying to move a so-called "right-to-work" bill through the Legislature. Their goal is to put an end to a long-standing requirement that public and private sector workers in a unionized shops must either join the union or pay representation fees as a condition of employment...
Senate Kills Bill To Restore State Minimum Wage  New Hampshire Union Leader   ...The Republican-dominated state Senate has rejected a bill to restore a state minimum wage in New Hampshire. The legislation would have set the hourly rate at $8.25 in 2016, $9 in 2017 and $10 in 2018...
War on Workers
The Retirement Savings Gap Between Haves and Have-Nots Is Getting Bigger  Bloomberg   ...The median retirement account balance when you look across all households? $2,500...
Dangerous Trains, Aging Rails (opinion)  New York Times   ...To protect communities and the environment, the Transportation Department needs to act quickly to require more resilient rail cars, improve the safety of rail infrastructure and operations, and reduce the volatility of oil at the wellhead, before it is loaded onto trains...
Miscellaneous
U.S. Retail Sales Fall Amid Rough Weather  Wall Street Journal   ...U.S. retail sales fell for the third consecutive month in February as a mix of bad weather and consumer caution outweighed an improving labor market and cheap gasoline prices...

Northern California Teamsters hit the precincts, the picket lines, the capital

What a week for our brothers and sisters in Teamsters Joint Council 7 in Northern California. Within the past seven days, more than 450 Teamsters lobbied for a pro-worker bill at the capital, joined striking fast-food workers on the picket line in Oakland, packed a meeting in Tracy to tell public officials about horror stories at Taylor Farms, kicked off a political organizing rally in the Central Valley and walked precincts for pro-worker candidates in the Bay Area.

Here's Brother Doug Bloch, Joint Council 7's political director, with the rundown:

Wednesday
Over 50 Teamsters and Taylor Farms workers hit the Capitol to lobby for AB 1897, a bill by Assembly Labor and Employment Committee Chair Roger Hernandez that will hold companies accountable for wage theft and other abuses when they use staffing agencies and other contractors who break the law.  We joined the California Labor Federation, UNITE HERE Local 11, and UFCW Local 5.

Roughly 900 Latino workers at Taylor Farms in Tracy  are organizing with Teamsters Local 601.  Over 2/3rds work for two temporary agencies, although some workers have been there for over 10 years as so-called "temps"!  When workers are injured, have wage claims, or other issues the temporary agencies and Taylor Farms both point fingers at the other one, denying responsibility.  AB 1897 would fix that.

Teamsters Local 601 led a delegation of Taylor Farms workers throughout the Capitol, earning support for the campaign and legislation.

The lobby day was highlighted by the California Labor Federation in their blog Labor's Edge.

Thursday
Taylor Farms workers leave Tracy at 4:30 to join striking McDonald's workers on the picket line at 6 am in Oakland. Taylor Farms supplies McDonald's, Subway, Chipotle, and other fast food chains with produce.

On Thursday evening nearly 200 Taylor Farms workers, Teamsters, and community supporters packed a meeting in Tracy where Assemblymember Hernandez and others heard horror stories from Taylor Farms workers and pledged their support.

Others on the panel included Modesto City Council Member Tony Madrigal; Maria Noel Fernandez, Working Partnerships USA; Don Villarejo, founder of the California Institute for Rural Studies; Father Rex Hays, Sacred Heart Catholic Church; and Jessica Cabrera, San Joaquin Immigrant Youth Coalition. A representative from Senator Cathleen Galgiani's office was also at the forum.

Friday
Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA) Executive Director Joann Lo publishes an article in the National Journal highlighting the struggles of Taylor Farms and other food chain workers to earn decent pay. Joint Council 7 is a proud member of the FCWA.

Saturday

Over 100 shop stewards from Teamsters Local 439 and Teamsters Local 601 kicked off a political organizing campaign in the Central Valley.  

This effort includes joining DRIVE (the Teamsters political action fund), voter registration, and supporting candidates who support workers.

At the same time, over 20 shop stewards from Teamsters Local 386 were meeting in Modesto.

And back in the Bay Area, 20 Teamsters from Locals 70, 315, and 856 walked precincts for Tim Sbranti in his race against Steve Glazer for Assembly District 16. Sbrant is a long-time friend of workers, while Glazer is running on a platform of banning the right for transit employees to strike.  Teamsters 665 members were also walking precincts in the 10th Assembly District against incumbent Assemblymember Marc Levine.

We are gearing up for even larger events in June.  When Teamsters take action, we win!

A Teamster shop steward exposes unfair employer

Teamster Local 439 members and Brother Joseph Trujillo,
shop steward.

Our Teamster brother Joseph Trujillo is a shop steward from Teamster Local 439 in Stockton, Calif., and he asked us to help expose the unfairness of an employer.

We're happy to oblige:

Here's what Brother Trujillo told us:

My fellow Brotherhood. I'm a shop steward out of Local 439. We are in negotiations for a new contract, but the company is trying to railroad us out of our health and welfare as well as wage increases. The company is UNITED STATES COLD STORAGE from Tracy, Calif. 

Here are the details, Our contract expired March 1, 2012. We have been through numerous negotiating meetings, as the company has been very adamant in wanting US to give up our Teamsters healthcare, and go with their company plan only because it will cost them less -- as well as only offering US a 20-cent increase upon signing ratification.  

We've been persistent and have given them a final proposal to stick with our NORTHERN CALIFORNIA GENERAL TEAMSTERS FUND PLAN, and there is still their issue with the new Obamacare argument. It has upset ALL members here at OUR Tracy, Calif., plant, and it's an insult of only a 20-cent increase with no backpay!

We constantly hear about these kinds of attacks on workers. It's time to stop the war on workers!

Teamsters march with farm workers (slide show)

California Teamsters want for farm workers what all Teamsters want for America: Good jobs. Which is why Teamsters from California's Central Valley joined farm workers in Stockton on their 167-mile march to the state capitol. They want Gov. Jerry Brown to sign the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers bill.

The Examiner reports,

Thousands of California farm workers and their supporters today rallied at the State Capitol in Sacramento, after a 13-day, 167-mile march through California’s Central Valley, to demand better protections and more union rights. The march, organized by the United Farm Workers union (“UFW”), began nearly two months after California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed Senate Bill (SB) 104, the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act, which would have made it easier for California’s farm workers to join unions such as the UFW.

 .... The protest also occurs against a backdrop of at least two allegedly heat-related California farm worker deaths in the past several months.

The farm workers’ march to Sacramento seems to have had an effect: according to various reports, Governor Brown has offered a compromise which would give added protections to California farm workers and their unions under current law.

Teamsters International Vice President Rome Alois spoke to the crowd in Sacramento. Plenty of Teamsters were there, along with the brand new Teamsters Joint Council 7 truck.

Teamsters had also fed the marchers in Stockton, reports the North Valley Labor Federation,

Teamsters 439, UFCW 8, Teamsters 601 provided lunches and dinners for the walkers. Lots of food to get them on their way.

Sam Rosas and Local 439 brought their big rig to travel with the walkers and bring NEWS (channel 3) interest to the march.

Si se puede!!