What real people tell Teamsters about wanting to join us

Teamsters hear from many, many people who want to join us. Most employers make it extremely difficult. They intimide and harass workers who want to form a union. Intimidation and harassment are illegal, but they did it anyway because they don't fear punishment. Sometimes we're amazed that people actually manage to join Teamster locals, given all the obstacles.

People want to join unions now more than ever. We've shared anonymous requests to join in the past, and today we bring you more anonymous requests from workers asking for help to become Teamsters. Our Organizing department is deluged with requests from workers who are bullied by employers, forced to work long hours, treated unfairly and exposed to dangerous working conditions.

Here's what they tell us: 

The Teamsters have  been trying to organize  us. I know you have been in the production people. But what about  us folks in the office? We are being run into the ground by the management! I would  really like to know what's going on and be included in the conversation. 

...we would like some information on organizing ourselves, so that we might help focus the company's vision and attract other top professionals to our workplace.

Me and my fellow coworkers have no protection. All of us work overtime but the employer does not pay -- only 40 hours.  Nor do we get paid holidays or vacations or personal days. All workers agree to vote for the union without the employer being notified. We need help organizing a union secretly. 

We are a printing company with minimum safety and they're making us run two presses at once while some pressman spend most of the time on the phone or the internet.  We are being exposed to chemicals while others are not. I'm sick and tired of being bullied and need some help. 

Please help me organize my distribution center. We have been taken over ... and they are looking to make working conditions unbearable. 

My employer changes our wage at will. They spy on us with in-cab cameras. They spy on us and give us time off for violations of their safety rules, yet we drive trucks that are unsafe? They have hourly employees supervise several other hourly employees without compensation. Several years ago a group of men tried to unionize and when the company got wind of their efforts they were all fired.

It's tough out there. 

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!

Today's Teamster News 11.21.13

Cook County Corrections Officers Vote to Remain Teamsters  teamstersjc25.com   ...Officers at the Cook County Department of Corrections voted last week to remain members of Teamsters Local 700, the strongest union in Cook County...
Why Port Truckers Are Striking: 12-Hour Shifts, Noxious Fumes and $12.90 Paychecks  In These Times   ...The drivers have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board charging that the company retaliated against them for pushing forward with a drive to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters...
Wall Street Boom Doesn’t Lessen Workers’ Gloom  teamster.org   ...A key Wall Street indicator, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, crossed above 16,000 for the first time this week. But for Teamsters and other working Americans concerned about economic security, the news meant damn near nothing...
CEOs With Massive Retirement Fortunes Push Social Security Cuts  The Nation   ...“I find it hypocritical to see CEOs sitting on massive retirement fortunes of their own saying that the solution to the country’s fiscal challenge is to put an even greater burden on retirees, many of whom already struggling,”...
Inequality is (Literally) Killing America  The Nation   ...“The lower people’s income, the earlier they die and the sicker they live,”...
Fact Check: Social Security Does Not Increase the Deficit  Alternet   ...Bought politicians and pundits continue to spread nonsense about America's best-loved program...
Poll: Voters want Social Security expanded, not cut  Salon   ...A new poll from the Democratic-aligned Public Policy Polling (PPP) and MoveOn.org has found that by overwhelming margins, voters want Social Security expanded — not cut...
Meet the Koch funded “stink tanks” that are influencing policy  Salon   ...By disguising corporate propaganda as legitimate research they're pushing a hard-right agenda...
In an Attack Ad, an Alaskan Voter Is Really an Actress From Maryland  New York Times   ...In a tough new advertisement from the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, an unnamed woman looks directly into the camera and upbraids Senator Mark Begich, Democrat of Alaska...
Gov't finds merit in labor claims against Wal-Mart  Associated Press   ...Federal officials said Monday they are prepared to file formal complaints against Wal-Mart for allegedly violating the legal rights of protesting workers last year...
How can you study when you can’t eat? The invisible problem of hunger on campus  Salon   ...Thousands of students around the country are homeless or hungry, and their classmates and colleges might never know...
David Beats Goliath!: How the Little Guy Beat A Mega-Corporation  AlterNet   ...Target publicly announced it would “ban the box” on all its employment applications nationwide. This is great news for hundreds of thousands of job seekers across the country who have criminal histories, people who, in this economy, need access to jobs more than ever...
Man claims Bank of America gave him heart attack, files lawsuit  WSOC-TV   ...A man is suing Bank of America claiming the bank gave him a heart attack. He said their mistake caused him stress and he collapsed in a local branch and had to be rushed to the hospital...
US to advise Puerto Rico on economy  Associated Press   ... The U.S. government is sending a team of federal officials to help Puerto Rico manage an economic crisis as the U.S. territory braces for its eighth year of recession...
Hundreds of Chinese workers protest after Microsoft Nokia deal  Reuters   ...Hundreds of workers shouted slogans on Wednesday outside a Nokia factory in southern China to protest against what they called nfair compensation after the company sold its mobile telephones business to Microsoft Corp...
The reality of hungry schoolchildren  EnetEnglish   ...Based on a sample of 16,000 (Greek) households last year, research funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation found that 60% faced food insecurity, while 23% were experiencing food insecurity accompanied by hunger...
Supreme court prosecutor says former finance minister should face criminal charges  EnetEnglish   ...Former finance minister George Papaconstantinou should be tried by a special court over his handing of the so-called Lagarde list of over 2,000 suspected Greeks with undeclared cash deposits in a Swiss bank, a supreme court prosecutor recommended on Wednesday...
Japan Pitches Its High-Speed Train With An Offer To Finance  New York Times   ...They are trying to bring a maglev train to the crowded Northeast Corridor that will cruise between New York and Washington at more than twice the 150-mile-an-hour top speed of Amtrak’s Acela, the fastest train in the United States. Maglev trains could make the journey in an hour, compared with just under three hours, on a good day, for Acela...
Anheuser-Busch provides relief to tornado victims  Packaging Digest   ...Anheuser-Busch is providing 2,156 cases of emergency drinking water-or 51,744 cans-for use by residents affected by the recent storms in Washington, Pekin and East Peoria, IL...
Utah town forgets to hold election — again  Salt Lake City Tribune   ..."Wallsburg never advertised or prepared for an election this year, so no one signed up," said Wasatch County Clerk Brent Titcomb. "They’re going to have to appoint the current mayor and council for two more years and they’ll advertise and have people elected [in 2015]."...
Detroit accused of exaggerating $18bn debts in push for bankruptcy  The Guardian   ...A Demos thinktank report ... lays the blame for the city's woes at the feet of falling revenues, Wall Street banks and "extreme assumptions" calculated to make its problems worse than they are...
How Wall Street — not pensioners — wrecked Detroit  Salon   ...Detroit’s bankruptcy was primarily caused by a severe decline in revenue and exacerbated by complicated Wall Street deals that put its ability to pay its expenses at greater risk...
Non-Union Contractors Hit with $400k Fine in Deadly Philly Building Collapse  The Building Trades   ...Because of the lack of safety procedures in place by Campbell Construction and S&R Contracting, the demolition project of a vacant four-story structure went disastrously wrong; resulting in a large masonry wall collapsing onto an adjacent Salvation Army store next door to the project...
Ohio Senate votes to reduce days for early voting, eliminate so-called 'Golden Week"  Cleveland Plain Dealer   ...In a party-line vote, the Ohio Senate on Wednesday approved a bill to shorten early voting to eliminate the so-called “Golden Week” that allowed people to both register to vote and cast early in-person absentee ballots at the same time...

McKesson CEO makes 943 times average workers' pay, wants Social Security cut

Yay! I make 943 times what the average
worker makes at McKesson!

McKesson, the pharmaceutical distribution giant, pays its CEO John Hammergren 943 times what the average McKesson worker makes.

That puts McKesson right behind Walmart when it comes to CEO plundering of a company and abuse of employees.

Walmart CEO Mike Duke makes 6,132 times what the average Walmart worker earns, according to the Huffington Post. Walmart claims it cares for its workers, but it has a funny way of showing it: A Walmart store in Ohio is running a Thanksgiving food drive for its own employees who are so underpaid they need charitable donations to have a holiday dinner. Yum, canned peas!

Hammergren empathizes with his employees the same way Duke does. In McKesson's Lakeland, Fla., warehouse, workers don't earn enough to afford health insurance. The workers voted to join the Teamsters, and now the company is threatening and harassing them in a by-the-book union-busting effort.

Hammergren's signal achievement at McKesson was racking up nearly $1 billion in fines for price-fixing and Medicaid fraud. Now he claims he's concerned about government debt (he's not) and wants to lower it. Presumably he wasn't too worried about contributing to the government debt while he was looting the Treasury.

Hammergren belongs to that uniquely loathsome group, Fix the Debt, which wants to cut your Social Security. The Institute for Policy Studies found three of the Fix the Debt CEOs who want to impoverish millions of retirees have pensions of more than $100 million each. Hammergren  has the largest retirement fortune of the three: $144.3 million.

Another group aiming to throw millions into poverty, the Business Roundtable, is made up of CEOs whose retirement savings are 1,200 times bigger than the average worker's.

The Nation recently exposed the shocking cruelty of Fix the Debt and the Business Roundtable. Reports The Nation:

These CEOs aren’t just trying to short the average American retiree; they’re throwing their own under the bus. While raising alarm about the federal debt, Business Roundtable CEOs have run up massive deficits in their employees’ pension funds. According to the report, ten companies led by members of Business Roundtable have shortfalls in their employee pension funds of between $4.9 and $22.6 billion. The largest of those belongs to General Electric, run by Business Roundtable and Fix the Debt member Jeffrey Immelt, the prospective beneficiary of a $59.3 million retirement fund. 

GE stopped offering traditional pension plans for new employees in 2011, forcing workers to switch to 401(k) plans. Many other companies have shifted the burden of retirement savings to their employees in this way in recent years, and that’s been a significant driver of the retirement crisis. Just 18 percent of workers can expect traditional pensions today, compared with 38 percent in 1985. Instead of getting a fixed check, retirees are at the mercy of the market—making the assurance of Social Security benefits even more essential.

How did we ever let this happen?

 

Woot! TPP looks dead for this year

It may well be time for Teamsters to celebrate. The secret Trans-Pacific Partnership, also known as the TPP, looks to be dead this year!

A key U.S. House of Representatives leader said yesterday there isn't enough time left on the calendar to pass a fast one 'fast track' legislation. 'Fast track' is just a euphemism for 'rubber stamp,' and without a rubber stamp, the TPP will not pass.

Here's why: If people knew what was in the TPP, they'd throw everyone who voted for it out of office. It's a deal to destroy democracy, empower corporations, lower wages, censor the Internet, raise the price of medicine and undermine food safety. Giant corporations have been let in on the negotiations, but the American public has not. Even members of Congress are only allowed tiny peeks at the TPP texts. 

Fortunately, Congress may have already killed the TPP by sending two letters opposing fast track. They were signed by 173 lawmakers, 151 Democrats and 22 Republicans.  

Reuters reports,

The Obama administration's hopes of securing "fast-track" trade negotiating authority from Congress this year look certain to be dashed given the limited time left on the congressional calendar, the No. 2 House Democrat said on Tuesday. 

The administration wants Congress to quickly pass Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA, to help it secure a trade agreement with 11 other Pacific Rim nations, including Australia, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia and Mexico. 

"I don't realistically see TPA moving," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer told reporters, saying that Congress would likely be busy with other bills during the eight working days it has left in 2013.

Of course, there's always next year....

Colbert takes on employee food drive at Walmart (video)

Teamster Nation told you Monday about the Walmart in Ohio that's running a Thanksgiving food drive over the holidays -- for its own employees. Now we bring you comedian Stephen Colbert, who pokes fun at the retailer in his inimitable way.

We bring you Colbert as a reminder that Teamsters are supporting Walmart workers in Black Friday protests. To find an event near you, click here.

Today's Teamster News 11.20.13

Teamsters File Suit Against Allegiant Air   Teamsters Local 1224   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Airline Division and Teamsters Local 1224 filed a lawsuit against Allegiant Air Friday afternoon, November 15, in the federal district court in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  The lawsuit alleges that Allegiant Air is violating the Railway Labor Act by disregarding many of the provisions and protections contained in the Work Rules Agreement negotiated by Allegiant Air and AAPAG, the former independent union representing the pilots of Allegiant Air...
Teamsters, church distribute free dinners  Troy Messenger   ...This Thanksgiving, the Teamsters National Black Caucus and the youth department of Dunn’s Chapel AME Church are teaming up for their sixth annual distribution of Thanksgiving meals for the elderly, handicapped and disabled veterans on November 23...
36-Hour Strike Targets Trucking Companies at LA and Long Beach Ports  89.3 KPCC   ...Dozens of truck drivers for companies that move cargo in and out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are walking picket lines on Monday, as part of a long-running campaign by the Teamsters Union to organize truck drivers at ports nationwide...
Port Truck Drivers On Strike in Long Beach  teamster.org   ...Port truck drivers employed by Green Fleet, Pac9 and American Logistics were joined on picket lines by Teamster port drivers from New Jersey along with drivers from Savannah and Seattle during the 36-hour strike in Long Beach. See the video...
Revealed: McDonalds tells workers to “sing away stress,” “chew away cares,” and go to church  Salon   ...“Stress hormone levels rise by 15% after ten minutes of complaining" the giant corporation warns employees online...
Wal-Mart could pay every U.S. employee $14.89 just by not buying its own stock  The Salon   ...Rather than buying stock to enrich Waltons, says new report, Wal-Mart could use the same cash to give $5.83 raises...
Meet The Lawmaker Trying To Protect Workers' Thanksgivings  Huffington Post   ...(Mike) Foley, a Democrat representing Cleveland in the Ohio House of Representatives, plans to introduce a bill in the next several weeks requiring that stores open on Thanksgiving pay their workers triple time. The bill would also protect workers from retaliation if they opt out of working the holiday...
Congress May Have Just Killed The Trans-Pacific Partnership   The Diplomat   ...The increasingly beleaguered Trans-Pacific Partnership might have been delivered a mortal blow last week when a large bipartisan group of Congress members came out against giving President Obama Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority...
JPMorgan finalizes $13 billion settlement with U.S. over toxic mortgages  Washington Post   ...This marks the largest penalty ever levied against a single company...
Capital gains: Spending on contracts and lobbying propels a wave of new wealth in D .C.  Washington Post   ...The winners in the new Washington are not just the former senators, party consiglieri and four-star generals who have always profited from their connections. Now they are also the former bureaucrats, accountants and staff officers for whom unimagined riches are suddenly possible...
OSHA Levies $1 Million Fine Against Carrier for Firing Whistleblowers   Trucking Info   ...The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has ordered Gaines Motor Lines of N.C. along with company officials to compensate four former truck drivers who were fired in violation of federal whistleblower laws and pay more than $1 million in back pay wages, interest and damages...
Kids to Skip Meals After Food Stamp Cuts  AlterNet   ...A map published by Stateline highlights the impact of $5 billion in food stamp cuts across the country...
Right-wing pension-cutters get humiliated by their own survey data  Salon   ...Though the anti-pension coalition has spent millions of dollars on ads and public campaigns to portray public employees as greedy parasites, the pollsters found that “voters have generally favorable views of public employees” and that those favorable views are found among voters of both political parties. Poll respondents gave teachers, police officers and state public employees net favorability ratings of 88, 86 and 60 percent, respectively....
How Austerity Kills Innovation  Alternet   ... the most important background condition for any seller of things is the ability of other people to buy the things you want to sell. Thus, a years-long spell of mass unemployment will be absolute poison to the entrepreneur class as a whole...
A ‘Historic Moment’ for Campus Solidarity  In These Times   ...In a labor action rarely seen on university campuses, graduate student employees in the University of California system announced on Wednesday that they plan to strike alongside university service workers walking off the job next week due to allegations of illegal retaliation against members of their union...
State Rep. Uses Sledgehammer To Destroy Homeless People’s Possessions  ThinkProgress   ...five-term State Rep. Tom Brower (D) ... told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser about his own personal brand of “justice”: “If I see shopping carts that I can’t identify, I will destroy them so they can’t be pushed on the streets.” Brower has waged this campaign for two weeks, estimating that he’s smashed about 30 shopping carts in the process....
Google to pay Massachusetts $357k to settle allegations that it improperly tracked some consumers’ Web habits  Boston Globe   ...Google Inc. has agreed to pay the Commonwealth $357,000 as part of a $17 million settlement with nearly 40 states to settle allegations that it placed tracking cookies on the computers of some consumers using the Safari browser without their knowledge or consent, the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said Monday...