Workers' fight for justice takes on many forms

Calif. Assemblyman David Chiu

PHOENIX -- Workers are facing substantial challenges on the job. Whether it's low pay or work schedules that vary in hours per week and can change at almost a moment's notice, many are not earning enough to support themselves or their families. But they are not alone in trying to fight these issues.

Unions, worker allies and even some lawmakers said during the Netroots Nation conference here they are stepping up their efforts to challenge corporations that are trying to maximize their profits at the expense of their employees. And many involved in the movement told attendees they are beginning to win, and others can too.

California Assemblyman David Chiu helped lead the movement to force large retail companies in San Francisco last year to issue worker schedules two weeks in advance, and penalize those employers that change it. He said the debate is now moving forward elsewhere:

This is a conversation not just happening in San Francisco, but around the country. And the more it is, the greater the chance it will prevail. ... I have no doubt over the next few years we will prevail.

Part of the battle is trying to discuss the issue in a way that the public will understand. While the constant discussion of income inequality in the media and elsewhere over the past few years has raised awareness of the need for increasing the minimum wage, for instance, the discussion over the need for scheduling certainty still lags behind. It is part of an ongoing awareness campaign.

Nelini Stamp, co-director of Rise Up Georgia, said she originally began working in retail as a way to save up money for college. But the low wages and unpredictable schedules, mixed with the ever-increasing cost of higher education, has stalled that dream for now:

We want jobs. People want to work. But employers are taking it out of our hands. ... We believe we can push corporations to offer better schedules for their workers.

Of course, there are ways for workers to challenge these matters themselves. By organizing and joining a union like the Teamsters, workers can take these issues head on and win. It isn't always easy, but it can and does succeed.

Maria Neyoy, a bakery department employee for the El Super grocery chain in Arizona, is working to bring change that will help workers there. Since she got involved, the company has raised her salary by $4 an hour in hopes to get her to stop unionization efforts, but she said through an interpreter she won't until her coworkers can also receive a better salary:

This company ... does have the money to give us the raises we deserve. They are treating us like slaves. We are going to be out there until we get the contract we deserve.

Report: Misclassification is a significant problem for workers

Employee misclassification is not a well-known issue for most people. But with millions of workers teetering on the edge of the U.S. economy, that is changing. And luckily, the Teamsters and other groups are here taking a stand to end the practice also known as wage theft.

A recent Economic Policy Institute report sums up the full size of the problem. Upwards of 20 percent of employers misclassify at least one worker as an independent contractor. Many of these workers are in the trucking and construction industries, but the problem is growing in other sectors as well. While the employer saves on paying taxes and social security as well by not providing health insurance for such workers, the public is left on the hook to support these people if they are injured on the job.

Francoise Carre, the document's author and the research director for the Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, said unscrupulous employers engage in misclassification to avoid employment-related obligations:

Misclassification is one way in which employers deprive workers of the ability to bargain over wages and working conditions. It is a troubling and understudied trend and seems to be on the rise. The growth of the "sharing economy," which mostly treats on-demand workers as self-employed, further highlights the need for clarity on employee status.

In recent years, the Teamsters have been actively involved in fighting such issues, both for port truck drivers at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as well as with food processors working at places such as Taylor Farms in California's Central Valley. And the union is winning.

Meanwhile, states are beginning to catch onto the scam. The GOP-controlled Georgia Legislature, for instance, is investigating whether companies in that state deliberately misclassify employees as part time or contractors in order to avoid paying minimum wage or payroll taxes.

Companies that engage in misclassification are not paying their fair share. The Teamsters believe that workers should be treated fairly, that the letter and spirit of employment law should be upheld, and that deliberate violations of employment law should be punished to the fullest extent possible.

Georgia sanitation workers set to join Local 728

Months of rallies look to have paid off for DeKalb County sanitation workers.

Some 450 Atlanta-area sanitation workers are on the brink of joining the Teamsters. The DeKalb County Commission is slated to take a final vote next month to officially recognize the workers as members of Local 728 after years of attempting to organize.

The looming decision to change local law so the union can be recognized comes after workers attended many county commission meetings in recent months to urge DeKalb officials to allow them to join the Teamsters. Ben Speight, an organizer with Local 728, said the move has already paid benefits as the country recently approved a three percent raise for the workers.

Dejuan McDaniel, a 13-year department employee who drives a front-end loader and is a member of the organizing committee, said 80 percent of employees backed the move to organize. He said the strong support for the union comes from the desire to have a say in the workplace:

We have been without a serious voice for so long. We had safety issues that have been unheard. We had pay issues, mistreatment of employees. It was long overdue.

Fellow front-end loader driver and organizing committee member Charleen Anthony, who’s been with the department for five years, said the union will improve the workplace:

We really need the representation for when the guys go in to talk to their supervisors. If we had representation of the union, it would be a much better organization.

McDaniel said he was proud that he and his fellow workers are part of a long movement of sanitation workers fighting for better wages and conditions going back to when Memphis workers marched with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the eve of his assassination in April 1968:

It is a continuing saga. I look at it like we are picking up [the] torch.

We look forward to officially welcoming our new brothers and sisters to the Teamster family!

300 learn how to cheat a worker at Teamsters' forum for Savannah port drivers

(UPDATE: CORRECTS 2nd graf to indicate meeting was in Savannah, sted Atlanta.)

Savannah port drivers told nearly 300 people on Saturday how their employers cheat them of wages and benefits by calling them "independent contractors."

Teamsters Local 728 hosted a community forum for the drivers in Savannah as part of the union's continuing battle against the misclassification of drivers.

The drivers told news reporters, elected officials and government authorities about their adverse working conditions as contract workers for trucking companies. They explained they are full-time employees in everything but name. They said they have to jump through hoops to take a day off, even though they're supposed to be independent.

The Savannah Morning News detailed how the current situation leaves many drivers in difficult straits when it comes to caring for themselves or their families. Carol Cauley, who drives for C and K Trucking, said:

I can’t afford to go to a doctor. I can’t afford the stuff I transport daily.

And driver John Jackson painted an equally grim picture, according to WSAV:

They classify us as independent contractors but control [us] pretty much as an employee. They tell us what to do, they tell us what they are going to pay us.

Several drivers explained how they are responsible for all of the costs of operating their rigs, which can add up quickly. One driver said while he grossed $61,000 last year, in the end he only pocketed $22,000 after fuel, maintenance, repairs.

Fred Potter, Teamsters' international vice president, said trucking companies are exploiting workers:

These independent truckers are underpaid and undervalued. They call you employees when it suits them and then call you independent contractors when it suits them. The port drivers are the new sharecroppers on wheels. Ports have replaced the cotton fields.

The good news is the drivers' plight did earn the interest of at least one state lawmaker. State Sen. Lester Jackson said the Georgia legislature could intervene to make a clearer distinction of what makes someone an employee rather than a independent contractor. He also said he would like truckers to meet with the Chatham County legislative delegation.

And Larry Benjamin, assistant director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s labor wage and hour division in Savannah, said he would like to meet with drivers to develop test cases that might more clearly allow them to challenge their treatment and classification by the trucking companies.

Attendees share their grievances during Saturday's forum.

Ga. port drivers to speak out about low wages, misclassification tomorrow

Savannah port drivers are fighting back against the trucking companies that exploit them at a community forum tomorrow morning.

The Port of Savannah is the fourth largest and fastest growing container port in the U.S. That means steady work for port drivers. But it doesn't mean work that can support a middle-class family.

Savannah's professional port drivers are treated like sharecroppers on wheels. They are shackled by classification as independent contractors and stripped of all the rights of an employee.

Wages are low, operating costs are high, and the hours are dangerously long.

The drivers aren't paid enough to safely maintain the trucks or to upgrade them to the clean-burning rigs that environmentalists and public health advocates are demanding at the Port of Los Angeles Long Beach, Seattle and Newark.

Our Teamster brothers and sisters at Local 728 in Atlanta are hosting a forum tomorrow for the drivers to tell the community about their dangerous, low-wage jobs.

WTOC-TV reporter Bob Logana will moderate the panel, which includes an impressive line-up of elected officials, labor leaders and clergy. Attending the forum will be:

• The Honorable Carolyn Bell, alderman, Savannah City Council
• Larry Benjamin, assistant district director, U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
• The Honorable Bob Bryant, state representative, Georgia House of Representatives
• Chester Dunham, Savannah Chapter president, A. Phillip Randolph Institute
• John H. Finney, CEO, Chief Executive Officer, Economic Opportunity Authority for Savannah-Chatham County
• Brett Hulme, president, Savannah Regional Central Labor Council
• The Honorable Lester G. Jackson, senator, Georgia State Senate
• Pastor Ricardo Manuel, Second Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, Inc.
• The Honorable Albert J. Scott, chairman, Chatham County Commission
• Willie J. Seymore, president, International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) ~ Local 1414.

You can see a great television news story about conditions at the Port of Savannah here. Find out more here.

Who knew? Ga. film industry a bright spot for Teamsters

Actually, we knew the entertainment industry in Georgia is flourishing and creating good union jobs. Our members are working on the sets!

Lately they've been working more than ever. Between July 2011 and June 2012, Fortune reports 333 -- yup, 333 -- feature films, television movies, commercials and music videos were shot in Georgia. The state is now one of the top five in film production.

It's been a boon for Teamsters in Local 728 in Atlanta, where film director Tyler Perry has his own 200,000-square-foot studio. Atlanta Teamsters have worked on a number of productions lately, including the last X-Men, Identity Thief and the Vampire Diaries.

The entertainment industry has employed Georgia Teamsters for at least two generations. Stephen Roland, a Local 728 member since 1993, said his mother raised him on a set going back to the original Dukes of Hazzard. Now he works on theatrical productions operating anything that runs on gas or diesel with a steering wheel.

The reason for the recent entertainment boom in Georgia is the state tax incentive passed in 2008, Fortune reports.

Jeff Bennett, the deputy general counsel and associate executive editor of SAG-AFTRA says that the number of Georgia residents who have found union-covered work has increased 90% since its theatrical collective bargaining agreement in 2009. 

The growth of the entertainment industry in Georgia has translated into increased union jobs for construction set builders, glaziers, hairdressers, and Teamster truck drivers who help move equipment and trailers to film sites, according to Lee Thomas, the director of the Georgia Film, Music, and Digital Entertainment Division. 

The tax incentives lured Flight  to Atlanta in 2011. Local 728 Teamtsers worked on the movie, which stars Denzel Washington as an alcoholic airline pilot. Wikipedia explains,

The film's relatively small budget of $31 million, which (director Robert) Zemeckis later calculated was his smallest budget in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1980, was due to tax rebates from Georgia and from Zemeckis and Washington having waived their customary fees.

Local 728 has also worked on Zombieland, Joyful Noise, Fast and Furious 5, Hunger Games 2, Drop Dead Diva, 42, Identity Thief, Walking Dead and Anchorman 2.

Today's Teamster News 05.20.13

Bangladesh Factory Safety Accord: At Least 14 Major North American Retailers Decline To Sign Huffington Post   ...The deadline to sign onto the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh passed on Tuesday, and at least 14 major North American retailers declined to participate...
The great tax charade: Amazon plays the system while businesses like ours suffer  The Independent   ...We own a pair of independent book shops in Warwickshire. All around us the high street is, essentially, collapsing.... It’s simply not fair that Amazon starts at a an advantage on every sale because it’s not paying its fair share of tax...
Robert Reich: The Hollowing-Out of Government  Moyers & Company   ...The deadly explosion at a West, Texas, fertilizer plant was absolutely preventable. The plant was had not been inspected since 1985, and heavily violated safety standards. Why did this happen? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the government agency set to ensure workplace safety, but it’s been steadily hollowed out by Republicans…
Koch Brothers Dump Three-Story Pile of Toxic Byproduct on Detroit  The Gawker   ...There's a new addition to the scenic view along the Detroit River: a three-story pile of petroleum coke, a byproduct of the tar sands drilling in northern Canada over 2,000 miles away...
Class-Action Lawsuit Aimed at Walmart  Hispanic Business   ...Walmart can be sued for being negligent in hiring contractors that employ workers at their distribution centers, according to a federal ruling this week...
Michael Kinsley Feels Your Austerity Pain, Middle Class, But Pain Makes You Beautiful  Huffington Post   ...The austerity policies that gripped the world in the face of the global economic downturn have not worked. Unless the intent was to make a bad situation almost intractably worse...
Say no to Chained CPI scheme (opinion)  Times-Standard   ...Recipients of Social Security benefits and those about to retire should be aware that President Obama's proposed switch to the so-called Chained Consumer Price Index is, if adopted, will result in reduced benefits to all recipients...
Corporations Are Stealing From Hard Working Americans  New Hampshire Labor News   ...If you do not agree that corporations are stealing from Americans then you do not understand our current tax structure...
How Trade Pacts Threaten Public Health and Freedom  U.S. News & World Report   ...Let's face it: trade agreements bore most people. But modern trade pacts reach deep into our lives in ways that have nothing to do with trade. Deals now under discussion undermine the freedom of people everywhere to decide how to live, and they restrict the ability of democratically-elected governments to promote public health. It's time for the rest of us to pay attention…
Winners and losers from the 2013 session of the Missouri General Assembly  Kansas City Star   ...More importantly for the labor movement, the GOP largely abandoned the bill that unions most despised — a ban on unions requiring workers to pay dues, better known as “right to work.”...
Wisconsin Gov. Walker signs work-share bill  Green Bay Press Gazette   ...Gov. Scott Walker has signed into law a bill creating a program that gives employers an alternative to laying off employees when work slows...
Minimum Wage Hike Would Give Women A Needed Boost  Hartford Courant   ...Recently, the Appropriations Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly took a strong step toward growing and strengthening the wages of Connecticut's lowest-wage earners by voting to increase the state's minimum wage. In doing so, the committee also took a stand for women, as women are disproportionately impacted by a low minimum wage...
Texas sues BP, Halliburton, others over oil spill  CNN News   ...Texas on Friday became the latest state to sue BP, Halliburton and others tied to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, alleging the parties "engaged in willful and wanton misconduct" and seeking penalties and damages "to the fullest extent allowed by law."...
Indiana Halts Support of Fertilizer Plant on U.S. Bomb Concerns  Bloomberg News   ...Indiana Governor Mike Pence pulled his support of a plan by a Pakistani company to build a fertilizer plant after the Pentagon raised concerns that its products were being used to make bombs...
Georgia depends heavily on federal money  Atlanta Journal-Constitution   ...With Congress promising more federal spending cuts, some Georgia officials are facing up to a politically unpopular fact: the state has become more reliant on billions of dollars from Washington since the start of the Great Recession...

Great news! Ga. House blocks ban on unemployment for seasonal workers

Teamsters have been fighting for their unemployment benefits since last summer. Today they scored a victory.

This just in: The Georgia House of Representatives voted to protect 60,000 seasonal workers from a ban on collecting unemployment benefits.

Brother Eric Robertson from Teamsters Local 728 tweeted:

Successfully got language that eliminated unemployment benefits for school workers removed from HB 361. 60,000 workers protected. 

Teamsters represent school bus drivers who work for private companies. Traditionally they collect unemployment benefits when they're laid off over the summer. But this year, Labor Commissioner Mark Butler decided he didn't have to pay them. Teamsters are fighting that decision in the courts.

They proved today that when Teamster fight, Teamsters can win.

Here's the Atlanta Journal Constitution on the House action:

The House blocked a plan to bar seasonal employees such as bus drivers from receiving unemployment benefits over the summer. 

The measure was added in the Senate to House Bill 361, which began life as a bill to allow many workers to opt out at any time from automatic payroll deductions for union dues. 

Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, ruled Thursday that the Senate amendment violated the constitutional requirement that any bill deal only with one topic. 

The bill now goes back to the Senate in its original form. 

The ban on jobless benefits in the bill would affect seasonally unemployed bus drivers and other private-sector workers whose employers contract with public-sector entities such as school systems. Supporters said it would save the state up to $10 million annually.

Georgia's war on workers gets nasty

WTOC-TV: Savannah, Beaufort, SC, News, Weather

Anti-worker politicians in Georgia are taking their war on workers to a whole new level. The labor commissioner is withholding unemployment benefits for school workers laid off in the summer, and now the Legislature is considering a bill to ban them.

Teamsters Local 728 is fighting hard against this blatant attack. They're challenging the labor commissioner in the courts and they're lobbying lawmakers. They even plan a march from Atlanta to the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington on April 20.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that state lawmakers are taking the attacks even further. Other parts of the same bill would allow union members who want to freeload -- drop out of the union but still get the benefits -- to do so whenever they want.

The state Senate approved a measure that would make changes to Georgia’s labor laws, including a proposed ban on whether some employees such as school bus drivers would qualify for unemployment benefits. 

The 36-16 vote along party lines Monday sends House Bill 361 back to the House for consideration because it was changed in committee. Opponents on Tuesday said the General Assembly’s own lawyer warned that the bill could be unconstitutional, but supporters were unmoved. 

HB 361 would additionally allow workers to opt out at any time from automatic payroll deductions for union dues — although it exempts certain groups, including MARTA workers, teachers, law enforcement officers and firefighters. Current law says workers must have only an annual option to opt out. 

The ban on jobless benefits in the bill affects seasonally unemployed bus drivers and other private sector workers whose employers contract with public sector entities such as school systems. Supporters said it is expected to save the state up to $10 million annually.

Georgians, you can send an email to your representatives here to urge them to vote no on these attacks on workers.

Georgia wants to rob unemployment benefits from workers

Georgia Teamsters rallied against cuts in unemployment benefits last summer.

Georgia lawmakers are now trying to take away unemployment benefits from laid-off workers who've paid for them.

A bill is moving through the state Senate to prevent seasonal school bus drivers, food service workers and custodians from drawing unemployment benefits. They'd been relying on those benefits to survive during school breaks. Last spring the workers were shocked to learn their benefits were cut off.  Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler had made the decision to do so -- in violation of federal guidelines. Now the Senate wants to make those cuts permanent.

Atlanta Jobs with Justice gives us the background on the bill, SB 227:

SB 227 makes the unemployment benefits cuts imposed on over 64,000 workers by GA Labor Commissioner Mark Butler permanent under law.  The workers that this impacts are private-sector workers in the education industry who are typically laid off multiple times a year during school breaks.  These school workers are living paycheck to paycheck working hard for limited pay and they require unemployment benefits to survive during these breaks. 

Fortunately, the US Department of Labor challenged Mark Butler in his decision to cut benefits for these worker. They claimed that he had violated state and federal guidelines and threatened to cut off $72 million in federal administrative grants to the GA Department of Labor if the benefits were not restored. Unfortunately, the USDOL has not followed through with this action and now this issue has landed in front of the GA State Senate.

Georgians, you can help fight this bill, which is expected to move quickly, by sending your representative an email here.

Brother Ben Speight is the organizing director for Teamsters Local 728 in Atlanta. He argued last May that unemployed workers are a good political scapegoat, but they're not the problem. Wrote Brother Ben:

Cutting benefits for seasonally unemployed workers is not just unfair, it’s bad for the local economy. 

In Savannah, it is not just school bus drivers, food service workers and custodians that have historically drawn unemployment benefits during seasonal layoffs. Hundreds of hospitality workers do too. 

Hospitality workers are not impacted by the new rule change to eliminate summer unemployment benefits. But at the rate Commissioner Mark Butler is going, they may be next. 

Stripping essential unemployment payments from 500 educational workers in Chatham County will directly impact the local economy. According to the non partisan Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, each $1 of unemployment payments creates up to $1.90 in local economic growth as these workers pay for basic necessities from local businesses. That equates to millions of dollars taken out of family budgets and cash registers.

Georgia lawmakers trying to wipe out unions -- again

Last year's rally against extreme anti-worker legislation in Georgia.

(UPDATES to correct graf 3, lobby day on Thursday sted today.)

Radicals in Georgia's Legislature are once again trying to destroy unions and impoverish workers. They've proposed a bill that would require union members to re-join their union every year.

HB 361 not quite as obvious an anti-worker measure as last year's attempt to make it a felony to talk about picketing. But it's bad. Our brothers and sisters in Georgia are working hard to defeat this heinous proposal.

On Thursday, Teamsters and other union members will descend on the Georgia Statehouse to urge lawmakers to vote against the bill. If you can't manage to get to Atlanta, you can contact your representative.

An action alert has been sent to Teamsters and our allies in Georgia. Here's what it says:

Georgia Teamsters need your help! Send a message to your House member, and tell them to stand up for Georgia’s middle class. Our politicians need to be focusing on creating jobs, not playing politics at the expense of workers.

Georgians, click here to tell your representative to vote no on HB 361.

ALEC lawmaker in GA to step down in disgrace

Remember when loony Georgia state lawmakers tried to make it a felony to conspire to picket? Fortunately that attack on basic rights was defeated by our brothers and sisters at Local 728 in Atlanta, along with the Tea Party, faith leaders, community groups and other labor unions.

Well, Sen. Don Balfour was one of the leaders of that attack.  And now it looks as if he's stepping down from his powerful committee post. Reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Informally, word has long been out that Don Balfour, R-Snellville, had reached the end of his tenure as chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. Officially, nothing has changed.

Better Georgia, a populist good-government group, was pretty happy about the news (so were our brothers and sisters at Local 728).

News is breaking today that Senate Rules Chair Don Balfour will step down from his leadership post. 

You’ll remember that during the last election season Better Georgia broadcast an ad pointing out Sen. Balfour’s unethical behavior during his time as an elected official. (That's the video above.)

In September, Georgia law enforcement officials announced Balfour was under criminal investigation for filing false expense reports.

And are you surprised to learn that he's a member of ALEC, the corporate dating service for state lawmakers that's linked to the Benedict Arnold Koch brothers?

We thought not. 

US says GA must stop starving laid-off workers

Well, that's not exactly what the U.S. Labor Department said, but that's what it meant. Thousands of educational workers in Georgia had been left hungry and nearly homeless when Labor Commissioner Mark Butler suddenly cut their unemployment benefits without warning.

Butler is a former real estate appraiser who had an interesting dating history while serving as assemblyman. (He said there was nothing wrong with the relationship.)

Seven hundred members of Teamsters Local 728 were hurt by his decision. But now they may get justice.

We learned last week that the U.S. Department of Labor told Butler has to reverse his decision. They said that state and federal law prevent him from cutting workers earned benefits.

Here's the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Thousands of Georgia bus drivers, cafeteria workers and private school teachers, who this year were denied usual summertime unemployment checks, may get that money after all, according to the U.S. Department of Labor... 

Washington officials determined last week that the Georgia Department of Labor violated workplace laws by refusing to pay the benefits. In an Aug. 2 letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the federal government ordered Butler to rescind the ruling and pay the teachers and contract workers for the weeks, or months, of lost unemployment benefits... 

Butler met Monday in Atlanta with Teamsters Local 728 and other union and community leaders representing thousands of affected workers. He was granted a month's reprieve by the U.S. Labor Department to seek legal guidance from Georgia's attorney general. 

By then, though, Washington expects the state to begin repaying workers such as Everton Daswell, a shuttle bus driver at Kennesaw State University whose summertime unemployment compensation claims were denied. 

"If the [U.S. Labor Department's] ruling stands, then I say justice has been done," said Daswell, who works for a private company that contracts with the university.

Stay tuned.

Georgia Labor Commissioner decides kids should go hungry

Thousands of Georgia workers are struggling and desperate this summer because of a sudden decision to end the small weekly stipend they earned during the school year. Some are losing their homes. Some are losing their cars. Their phones are turned off. The food pantries are running out of food. Children are going hungry. Health care? Forget it.

They are contract workers for the state's educational system. They're employed by Sodexo, First Student and Aramark, to name a few. For many years their unemployment benefits tided them over during the summer, when they were laid off. They'd learned to live on the small unemployment benefit they'd earned while going to work every day.

This spring, Labor Commissioner Mark Butler suddenly ordered a stop to those benefits. Workers had no time to plan or to save for the lean months. As many as 64,000 were shocked to find they no longer had the $150-$200 a week they'd worked hard for all year.

Mark Butler. Heckuva job.

There are no jobs now for them in Georgia. There is no pay.

Velmar Hightower and Alvin Edwards stood up and spoke out for their fellow workers. Sister Hightower worked in food service for Aramark at Spellman College. When she suddenly lost her unemployment benefits in May, she got involved with the Justice for School Workers campaign led by Jobs With Justice. But it's been hard for her:

I can't pay my bills. I have no income. I got a letter of eviction and I can't pay my utilities. I'm low on food. I can't pay my car note. My cell phone was turned off. It's hard. I only have my mom, and I'm tapped out borrowing from her. She works at Georgia State for Sodexo, and she's out of work too. 

Brother Edwards is a retired deputy sheriff who worked as a First Student bus monitor for special needs children in Savannah. He speaks for the 700 members of Local 728 in Atlanta who lost their benefits.

So many can't pay their light. So many can't pay their water. So many can't pay their rent. We're grateful to the union. People piled in to get a bag of groceries. You hear the stories over and over. We were grateful for the extra cornflakes.

Mark Butler has two children, Sydney and Blake. They look well fed. We're quite certain they get all the cornflakes they want.

GA Teamsters fight savage attack on bus workers

Local 728 bus workers heading to the Department of Labor last week.

The Georgia Department of Labor quietly decided to prevent Teamster school bus workers and others from getting unemployment benefits when they're laid off for the summer.


The Savannah Morning News, owned by a multinational corporation, supported the move. The newspaper published a snooty editorial that said the workers should consider themselves lucky. Really.


Local 728 organizing director Ben Speight penned a rebuttal. It has yet to be published, so we're posting it here.

Cutting benefits for seasonally unemployed workers is not just unfair, it’s bad for the local economy. 

In Savannah, it is not just school bus drivers, food service workers and custodians that have historically drawn unemployment benefits during seasonal layoffs. Hundreds of hospitality workers do too. 

Hospitality workers are not impacted by the new rule change to eliminate summer unemployment benefits. But at the rate Commissioner Mark Butler is going, they may be next. 

Stripping essential unemployment payments from 500 educational workers in Chatham County will directly impact the local economy. According to the non partisan Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, each $1 of unemployment payments creates up to $1.90 in local economic growth as these workers pay for basic necessities from local businesses. That equates to millions of dollars taken out of family budgets and cash registers. 

Labor Commissioner Mark Butler’s strategy has been to attack the unemployed by slashing benefits -- from the weekly amounts paid, to the number of weeks an eligible employee could draw benefits, to this attack on educational workers. 

In a May 7th press release, Butler asserts that educational workers should be treated like teachers who do not receive unemployment benefits during the summer. However, the Labor Commissioner fails to point out that teachers are offered the choice to get paid on a 12-month cycle. That's an option subcontracted school bus drivers and custodians don't have. These educational workers are not given guarantees that jobs will be available at the end of the summer as the school system has ultimate discretion over what work will be needed or not for the fall and spring classes. 

Butler further states that it was the Georgia DOL not the federal government that ‘determined’ through its own review that a rule change is necessary now. 

Georgia’s unemployment trust fund has been negligently de-funded for over a decade through tax breaks to businesses that all started when the economy was strong. That de-funding has continued through the recession. 

With the passage of legislation signed into law by Gov. Deal earlier this month, Georgians now have among the lowest number of weeks of benefits in the country. They now receive benefits from 12-20 weeks, down from 26 weeks. 

Currently, there are 1.7 million Georgians living in poverty. There are 482,321 unemployed workers in our state, while only one-third receive unemployment benefits. Every job opening has five job seekers competing for it.

Unemployed workers may be a good political scapegoat, but they are not the problem. 

Cutting unemployment benefits for Georgia’s educational workers is bad economic policy at the worst possible time for working families and small businesses.

Woo-hoo! SB 469 killed in GA!

At midnight in Georgia we celebrated a tremendous and unexpected victory for labor, civil rights groups, religious groups and the Tea Party. The heinous SB 469 bill -- anti-union, anti-free speech and un-American -- died when the legislative session ended.

We're relying on our fabulous tweeps in Georgia -- @erictheteamster (Teamster Eric Robertson), Teamster @JimNichols and @JennAudrey (Jennifer Kauffman of the AFL-CIO) -- for the news. The bill would have criminalized picketing and interfered with a worker's right to decide to join a union.

Last night @jennaudrey tweeted:

Sine die! Georgia session over and anti-free speech bill #SB469 is dead! #WeAreGA! #1u #stateSOS #p2 #ows

We were up against a powerful enemy. The bill was sponsored by four members of ALEC, the corporate conspiracy supported by the Benedict Arnold Koch brothers. ALEC (the American Legislative Exchange Council) writes bills for state lawmakers that are good for corporations and bad for ordinary people and democracy. SB 469 had ALEC's fingerprints all over it. Here's the New York Times' Paul Krugman recently on ALEC:

What is ALEC? Despite claims that it’s nonpartisan, it’s very much a movement-conservative organization, funded by the usual suspects: the Kochs, Exxon Mobil, and so on. Unlike other such groups, however, it doesn’t just influence laws, it literally writes them, supplying fully drafted bills to state legislators. In Virginia, for example, more than 50 ALEC-written bills have been introduced, many almost word for word. And these bills often become law.

Many ALEC-drafted bills pursue standard conservative goals: union-busting, undermining environmental protection, tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. ALEC seems, however, to have a special interest in privatization — that is, on turning the provision of public services, from schools to prisons, over to for-profit corporations. And some of the most prominent beneficiaries of privatization, such as the online education company K12 Inc. and the prison operator Corrections Corporation of America, are, not surprisingly, very much involved with the organization.

What this tells us, in turn, is that ALEC’s claim to stand for limited government and free markets is deeply misleading. To a large extent the organization seeks not limited government but privatized government, in which corporations get their profits from taxpayer dollars, dollars steered their way by friendly politicians. In short, ALEC isn’t so much about promoting free markets as it is about expanding crony capitalism.

In defeating SB 469, Teamsters Local 728, led by President Randy Brown and energized by organizer Ben Speight, deserves huge props. They did extraordinary work bringing attention to this attack on our rights and reaching out to allies in the community. Without them, SB 469 would have passed through the House and Senate like poop through a goose. A handful of people made an enormous difference.

A big lesson from this amazing victory is the power of social networking -- especially twitter -- to inform and mobilize allies you didn't know you had. You may not find more passionate or effective tweeters in the union than Eric and Jim. It's hard to imagine this victory without twitter. So folks, get tweeting!

Awesome anti-SB469 rally with Tea Party, labor, civil rights, faith groups



Debbie Dooley at today's news conference.

Our brothers and sisters in Atlanta are rocking the Statehouse Dome right now with a rally against the anti-worker, anti-free speech bill that could pass today. It's high drama on the last day of the session. They're shouting "We own the Dome" in protest against Senate Bill 469.

SB469, an ALEC-related union-busting proposal, would criminalize picketing and let the government interfere with a workers decision to join a union.

Teamsters from Local 728, firefighters and members of the AFL-CIO were joined at a 10 a.m. news conference by Debbie Dooley of the Atlanta Tea Party and Dr. James Lowery, former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The alliance between the Tea Party, labor unions and civil rights groups is like catnip to the news media. More than 200 people came to the news conference, according to Eric Robertson, political director for Local 728. (Follow him @erictheteamster).

We gleaned some news conference highlights from the tweetosphere:

Debbie Dooley of Atlanta Tea Party spoke opposing #SB469 - this bill a violation of constitution, we will remember your vote #weareGA #1u

#SB469 is class warfare! - Georgia Firefighters Union

#SB469 would not allow churches to assemble peacably. We are calling on the Christian church to stand up for freedom and justice. -@IWJ

Georgians are urged to come to the Statehouse any time between now and midnight, when the session ends. Tweets our brother Jim Nichols,

kill SB469 come out to the Gold Dome. Tell the 1% Free Speech is not for sale #weareGA #union @OWSAtlanta

Today's Teamster News 03.29.12

JOBS Act benefits financial criminals (Opinion)  Marketwatch  ...Criminal minds must be working overtime now, because the new legislation — which seemingly every investor- and consumer-protection group has railed against — effectively makes it open season on small investors...
US employs Vinnie the Kneecapper to collect student debt  Automatic Earth   ...With $67 billion of student loans in default, the Education Department is turning to an army of private debt-collection companies to put the squeeze on borrowers. Working on commissions that totaled about $1 billion last year, these government contractors face growing complaints that they are violating federal laws...
Bill banning picketing of homes unites unlikely Ga. coalition of tea partiers, labor unions  Associated Press   ...State lawmakers must decide Thursday on the final day of their session whether to pass legislation that targets labor unions. A range of groups who don't often agree with organized labor — libertarian tea partyers, small-government Republicans, anti-abortion activists and others — want it rejected, saying the bill fixes a problem that doesn't exist and would harm their free speech rights, too...
Mitt Romney amuses Wisconsin voters with yarn about Michigan losing an auto plant  Detroit Free Press   ...Mitt Romney told a jokey anecdote on a conference call today with Wisconsin primary voters that had Michigan – and the closing of an auto plant – as part of the punch line...
Public safety concerns amid probation cutbacks  ABC 7   ...The Teamsters Local Union 2011, which represents most Florida corrections officers, filed an administrative petition, challenging the decision on grounds it violates Florida law and endangers its communities. Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott calls the decision regrettable, noting "folks are generally better behaved when they know they are being watched."... 
Teamsters join in the protest against selling off Ontario Northland assets  Timmins Times   ...Queen’s Park has alternatives to selling off the 106-year-old Ontario Northland Railway and killing jobs and negatively impacting thousands of lives in Northern Ontario, according to the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees, which represents 200 ONR workers...

Teamsters, Tea Party fight SB 469 in GA

Last week's rally against SB 469.

This will get their attention: The Teamsters and the Tea Party will join together at the Georgia state capitol to fight an anti-free speech bill that could be enacted tomorrow.

Senate Bill 469 would criminalize picketing and let the government interfere with workers' decision to join a union. It has already passed the House and is headed for the Senate floor. Tomorrow is the last day of the Georgia legislative session.

Our brothers and sisters at Local 728 in Atlanta are urging all those who support workers' rights and free speech to come to the Capitol tomorrow. A news conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. outside the Statehouse. So far, the speakers include Debbie Dooley, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, and Charlie Flemming, president of the Georgia AFL-CIO. Plenty of Teamsters will be there too.

We Party Patriots notes

:...what has been quite interesting about this issue, is that SB469 has brought together labor unions and the Tea Party, as well as the Occupy movement. They all agree it is an utter bastardization of American values and Democracy.

Now it gets even better as the Atlanta Tea Party has issued the following call to action and has invoked Martin Luther King. Take that, people who call the Tea Party racist.

Live in Georgia? Click here to tell your state Senator to vote no on SB 469.

Today's Teamster News 03.27.12

Iowans Win Victory Over Gov. Branstad’s Abuse of Power  AFSCME   ...A unanimous Iowa Supreme Court ruling declares that Gov. Terry Branstad ... cannot unilaterally shut down the unemployment offices...
Judge Sides with Maine Governor in Labor Mural Dispute  Maine Public Radio   ...U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock found that Gov. Paul LePage was within his rights to order the mural removed last year...
Minnesota’s War on Voting  The Nation   ... the legislature is bypassing the governor by approving a constitutional amendment for voter ID that will go on the November ballot... 11 percent of US citizens lack government-issued ID, including 18 percent of young voters and 25 percent of African-Americans...
Runaway Spending: Private Contractors Increase the Cost of School Transportation Services in Pennsylvania  Keystone Research   ...We estimate that if all districts switched to the self-supply of transportation services, total spending on student transportation services would fall by $78.3 million, with all of the cost savings accruing to the state...
Your morning jolt: ‘Right to quiet enjoyment’ bill passes House committee  Atlanta Journal Constitution   ...State Rep. Bill Hembree, chairman of the House Industrial Relations, confirmed that his committee this morning passed out SB 469, which would ban union pickets at private residents and require union members to confirm the dues check-off on their paychecks on an annual basis...
Wisconsin One Year Later  Economic Policy Institute   ...overall non-farm employment since Jan. 2011 has rebounded in the Midwestern states surrounding Wisconsin, with Michigan leading the region with Jan. 2012 employment 1.6 percent higher than in Jan. 2011. Wisconsin stands out in the region, lagging with employment significantly lower — by 0.5 percent — in Jan. 2012 than a year earlier...
Nazareth Area School District custodians union agrees to salary reduction to help balance budget proposal  The Express-Times   ...the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union, representing custodians and other maintenance personnel, has agreed to give back an undisclosed percentage of next school year's pay raise...