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!

Teamsters challenge layoffs after organizing victory.

In a stunning reversal of fortune, Pyramid Brewery in Berkeley, Calif., closed its facility and laid off all the employees ... who had voted to join Teamsters Local 896 just two months ago.

Brother Doug Bloch, Teamsters Joint Council 7 political director, shared the bad news with us.

...the company has indefinitely shuttered the facility and laid off the employees, presumably because the plant needs cleaning.  If this all sounds fishy to you, it does to us, too.  Local 896 is communicating with the company to get more information and we will keep you posted. 

On August 7, the workers at Pyramid Brewery had voted overwhelmingly to be represented by the Teamsters. Brian Indelicato, business agent, said at the time:

The parent company, North American Breweries, ran a hard dishonest campaign. However, the workers were all engaged and saw through the lies.

The members were eager to get to the table to negotiate ways to improve their jobs. Their concerns included unsafe working conditions, unfair and inconsistent treatment, no pension, substandard benefits, wages well below the industry standard, no established work schedule or work week and a working relationship completely lacking in dignity and respect.

Watch this KTVU-TV news report to hear the workers' side of the story:

Teamsters protest retaliation at McKesson today

Teamsters protest McKesson's retaliation against Florida warehouse workers. 

The Teamsters protest of McKesson Corp.'s retaliation against its Lakeland, Fla., warehouse workers is taking place right now during the company's annual shareholder meeting in San Francisco.

Though McKesson employees voted for Teamster representation more than a year ago, the company still will not agree to a first contract that provides decent wages and affordable health care.

McKesson, the largest pharmaceutical distributor in North America hired a union-busting law firm and has threatened and intimidated the workers rather than agree to a contract.

CEO John Hammergren, meanwhile, is looting the company treasury with $131 million in compensation last year -- after McKesson paid nearly $1 billion to settle claims that it stole from taxpayers and customers through price-fixing. 

The Teamsters protest against retaliation at McKesson is just the latest manifestation of labor unrest that's sweeping the country. Today hundreds of fast-food workers in Chicago and Detroit walked off the job, following similar actions in New York, St. Louis and Kansas City. Teamsters are striking Gold Cross Ambulance in El Centro., Calif., to protest low wages and dangerous working conditions. The protests, strikes and rallies are fueled by anger by CEO looting. They are all aimed at the same thing: empowering workers to stand together and fight for fair treatment and living wages.

McKesson faces not just the Teamsters protest. Investors at today's meeting are challenging the election of two directors and demanding changes to the company's compensation policy.

Forbes reports today:

Should one of the largest drug wholesalers have a clawback policy for executives? Two institutional investors believe the notion is overdue for McKesson MCK +0.35%, since the wholesaler has paid more than $1 billion in recent years to resolve regulatory and other legal disputes without publicly disclosing any clawback steps. Meanwhile, McKesson ceo John Hammergren received $131 million in compensation last year. 

And so, the LongView Funds run by Amalgamated Bank and the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust are pushing a proposal to be voted on at the McKesson annual shareholder meeting tomorrow. As they see it, the move will “increase transparency, encourage executive pay-for-performance and discourage senior executives from engaging in behavior that could cause significant financial harm to the company.” 

What do they want? The investors argue that the current McKesson policy is too weak because misconduct is defined as acts that are intentional, regardless of the degree of harm, and they maintain the existing policy sets too high a standard under which clawbacks may be applied. For instance, theft is not covered if the amount of money stolen by an exec does not materially harm the wholesaler.

Stay tuned.

Woo hoo! Good guys win one over the U.S. Chamber

TeamsterNation is blown away that the U.S. Supreme Court voted 8-0 AGAINST the U.S. Chamber and the Spanish company it backed and FOR an employee whistleblower. (Yes, you may be wondering why the U.S. Chamber is spending members' dues defending a Spanish company against an American worker. It's because the Chamber's loyalty is to the international plutocracy, not the United States nor the U.S. worker.)

Anyway, we're blown away by the unanimous decision because big corporations have some good friends on the high court.

The New York Times has the story:

Firing a worker’s fiancé in retaliation for a sex discrimination claim filed by the worker is itself unlawful, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

Here's what happened: In 2002, Miriam Regalado complained to the EEOC that her employer, North American Stainless, paid her less than her male counterparts and twice demoted her because she's a woman. Her fiancé, who also worked at the company, was fired after the company learned about Regalado's complaint. The fiance sued the company, and the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that he had the right to do so.

North American Stainless, in Ghent, Ky.,  is owned by Spanish-based Acerinox. The U.S. Chamber and other business groups backed the company.


This case matters to more people than you may think. According to the Wall Street Journal,

Earlier this month, the EEOC reported that nearly 100,000 discrimination complaints were filed in the year ended Sept. 30, an all-time high. Retaliation was the most frequently filed charge, at 36,228 complaints, for the first time edging out racial discrimination.

Chalk one up for the good guys!