Today's Teamster News 07.23.14

Teamster News
Protecting Two-Person Crew Is Still Our Goal  BLET   ...We will continue to work with the National Representatives of SMART’s Transportation Division wherever and whenever in an effort to preserve and protect two-person crews...
Chicago Teamsters Will March to Department of Human Rights on July 28  teamster.org   ...A Chicago sink manufacturer that’s restricting employees’ time in the bathroom is now refusing to negotiate with unionized workers until they keep quiet about the discriminatory policy...
Seattle Teamsters Ratify Contracts With Three Major Grocers  IBT   ...Hundreds of Teamsters at three grocery warehouses – Safeway, SuperValu, and Unified Grocers – voted overwhelmingly to ratify their contracts over the weekend. The agreements contain annual wage increases and protections against subcontracting and the rising cost of health care...
GET Board To Vote On Proposal From Striking Union  Bakersfield Californian   ...he proposal was put forward by union negotiators during a Friday morning bargaining session between GET and Visalia-based Teamsters Local 517, which represents more than 250 striking GET bus drivers and mechanics...
Chesco Human Services Employees Ratify Contract  The Mercury   ...Unionized employees of the Chester County Department of Human Services have ratified a new contract that will guarantee them annual raises of about 9.25 percent over the next three years combined, according to those involved with negotiations. The contract comes about 15 months after the employees, who serve county residents needing social services, voted to be represented by Teamsters Local 384 ...
Trade
Administration Flooded with 26,000 Comments Opposing Proposal to Disguise Offshoring of U.S. Manufacturing  Public Citizen   ...More than 26,000 people nationwide have submitted comments opposing Obama administration proposals that would severely distort U.S. job and trade data by reclassifying U.S. corporations that offshore American jobs as “factoryless goods” manufacturers...
A quarter of McDonald’s restaurants in China may have been serving expired meat  Washington Post   ...  The supplier, Shanghai-based Husi Food Co Ltd, was forced to shut down after local television station Dragon TV (link in Chinese) ran footage of the company's factory workers picking hamburger patties and meat from off the factory floor and throwing them directly into meat mixers, and using bare hands to handle poultry and beef on the assembly line. The footage also showed sewage and trash spread on the floor of the processing plant; in addition, expired meat, which was described as “stinky” by workers themselves, was either concealed by mixing it together with non-expired meat, or simply altering its expiration date...
State Battles
Taxi Group Unveils Plan To Boost Fares, Fees To Help Drivers' Plight  Chicago Sun-Times   ...Mileage and waiting times that drive up Chicago taxicab fares would rise by 25 percent under a 10-point plan proposed Monday to put more money into the pockets of struggling cabbies...
Poor Job Growth Still Afflicts Kansas Despite Sam Brownback's Tax Cuts  Kansas City Star   ...Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and his advisers want to create an alternate reality when it comes to job growth in the state. They keep throwing out misleading numbers to the public while trying to cloud Kansas’ mediocre jobs picture...
War On Workers
BNSF Moves Toward Allowing Trains With Only One Engineer  Omaha World-Herald   ...BNSF Railway said Monday it has reached a tentative agreement with its largest labor union to permit single engineers to drive trains equipped with a pending new safety system mandated by Congress...
City of Austin worker killed in southeast Travis County crash  KXAN   ...A City of Austin worker was killed following a crash involving an 18-wheeler and a pickup truck on FM 973 just north of Highway 71...
Construction Worker Killed In 50-Foot Fall From Ladder  Q13Fox   ...A construction worker was found dead Monday at Bellevue College after what appeared to be a fall from a ladder around 50 feet above the ground, police said...
Miscellaneous
Imposter Uber Driver Reported In Virginia Highland Area  NBC News   ...She said when they arrived at her location she could see her friends standing on the sidewalk directly across the street, but the driver refused to let her get out and he quickly drove to another secluded location. She stated he demanded all of her money...
Workers At A Subway Sandwich Shop Vote To Unionize  Huffington Post   ...A group of Subway sandwich makers just proved that it isn't impossible for fast food workers to unionize. Workers at a Subway location in Bloomsbury, N.J., on Friday voted in favor of joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The 13 workers are employed by the Tennessee-based travel center company Pilot Flying J, but they all work inside the company's Subway franchise at the rest stop...

Victory! Teamsters win new pro-worker laws in California

California Gov. Jerry Brown last week signed three bills that will strengthen the state’s labor laws by protecting workers from employer retaliation.

This is a huge win for Teamsters Joint Council 7, which led the legislative battle to get the laws passed. It’s also a big victory for workers like Marquez Brothers employees who have faced harsh retaliation since they voted to become Teamsters last year.

Doug Bloch, political director of Teamsters Joint Council 7, says the trio of laws are the strongest labor protections for immigrant workers in the country:

Under these laws, immigrant workers who speak up now have new legal protections... That's because these laws put civil and criminal penalties in place for employers who threaten workers with immigration enforcement.

The three laws -- AB 263, AB 524 and SB 666 -- prohibit immigration-related retaliation and clarify that threatening to expose workers’ immigration status is extortion.

Marquez Brothers is a perfect example of why these laws are necessary. The cheese company has been ruthlessly intimidating workers at its Hanford, Calif., plant since they joined Teamsters Local 517, refusing to bargain and launching a campaign to get the union decertified.

Brother Bloch explains:

Marquez Brothers is one of the largest distributors of dairy products serving the Latino community in North America. After their workers organized a union, the company responded by bringing in Littler Mendelson, a law firm that touts its ability to advise clients on "union avoidance" and "maintaining a union-free workplace." One strategy Littler excels in involves a classic union-busting strategy: delay and decertify.

Marquez Brothers used the [decertification] petition as a legal justification to withdraw union recognition from the workers. In the year since they first organized, Marquez workers have faced a constant campaign of harassment and intimidation. In March, workers traveled to Sacramento to testify at a legislative hearing on employer intimidation, only to be followed by company management and Littler attorneys. One of the workers was fired shortly after the hearing. She was one of twenty union supporters fired since they organized. Others have quit in the face of a constant barrage of harassment.

The state’s new laws put abusive companies like Marquez Brothers on notice, calling their behavior exactly what it is: criminal.

Teamsters at Marquez Brothers have organized a recertification campaign to beat back the company’s anti-union drive. They filed to recertify the union last month, but that election is on hold pending the reopening of the NLRB after the government shutdown.

Bloch says the legislative victory once again puts California on the cutting-edge of pro-labor reforms. And it also shows that when Teamsters mobilize, we win!

The lobby days and work that many Locals did with their legislators on the ground made a huge difference, along with the high visibility of the Teamsters in the Prop 32 fight last year and the DRIVE contributions we make. This is a real testament to all of our JC7 Locals and members who have stepped up in politics.

This victory wouldn’t have happened without the brave sacrifices made by Marquez Brothers workers who lost their jobs during the campaign. With their trips to the state capitol and talking to the press, they won strong support from state legislators and showed why these anti-retaliation laws needed to be passed.

When companies are able to bully workers on immigration issues in order to suppress their wages and working conditions, it drives down standards for all workers. So this is a big win for all California workers.

And in a time when we find ourselves fighting off anti-worker legislation in so many states, it’s refreshing to score a victory for worker-friendly laws.

Way to go, California Teamsters!

Employer's brutal union-busting tactics pushed this Calif. lawmaker too far

Robert Millman of Littler Mendelson is one of the Marquez attorneys who followed a Marquez worker to the Sacramento hearing in March.

Two high-priced union-busters made a big mistake when they followed a Marquez Brothers employee -- a Teamster -- into an Assembly hearing room in Sacramento.

Rep. Roger Hernandez, chair of the Labor and Employment Committee, was infuriated by the company's  intimidation tactic. So much so that the West Covina Democrat drove nearly three hours to show his support for the workers.

On April 11, Hernandez spoke right in front of the company’s cheese plant in Hanford, Calif.  He told the 200 mostly Latino workers that he plans to launch an investigation of the employer.

Teamsters Local 517 organized the Marquez Brothers cheese plant last year, but employers are waging a nasty campaign to prevent the workers from getting a first contract.

“We have to prevent these kind of actions in our state ... and look after those people whose voices are not usually heard,” Hernandez told the Hanford Sentinel. Hernandez is asking for voluntary cooperation from Marquez officials, but stated he would take legal action to subpoena witnesses if necessary. “We will exercise every avenue to ensure that Marquez is held accountable,” he said.

Hernandez’s comments came after his committee held a March hearing looking at ways employers intimidate and retaliate against immigrant workers.  Marquez sent two managers and two attorneys to the hearing to track one Marquez employee who testified and others who attended. The company also fired one of its workers after the hearing. A bill Hernandez introduced earlier this year would provide worker protections against intimidation, retaliation or any coercive action like those being conducted by Marquez Brothers. The Assembly Judiciary Committee will hear AB 263 tomorrow and the Assembly Labor Committee will hear it on May 1.

Candida Vanegas, who worked at the plant for three and a half years, said she was fired for attending Hernandez’s hearing and supporting unionization. “Somehow, they take it personally, and they end up harassing us,” Vanegas told the Hanford Sentinel.

Marquez officials had threatened employees before the March hearing, saying that employees’ testimony would be monitored. The two lawyers working for Marquez and two company officials who attended the hearing violated a state law protecting workers who testify at hearings, Hernandez said.

Chester Suniga, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 517, said the union is asking for a minimum wage at the Hanford plant of $12 an hour. According to Suniga, the two sides have not reached an agreement on a contract after months of negotiations because of the company’s stalling tactics.