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July 10, 2007 (London) - Teamsters are fighting on many fronts to force a Scottish multinational to treat its U.S. workers with dignity. This week, bus drivers who have been harassed and intimidated by First Student are traveling to London and to Aberdeen to tell all who will listen—including the parent company’s top management—of their mistreatment. Four First Student school bus drivers who were punished for supporting Teamster organizing efforts arrived in the U.K. on Monday. To enlist allies in the cause of fair treatment by parent company FirstGroup Plc., George Benedict and Lori Polesel traveled from New York, Hope Lee from San Diego and Shannon Reeder from Wilson County, Tennessee. Their agenda calls for meetings with Members of Parliament, international human rights groups and trade unions to give eyewitness accounts of the abuse that the company denies. As they arrived, Teamster General President Jim Hoffa held a conference call with reporters in the U.S. and the U.K. to tell them about the trip’s purpose. “I admire the British sense of fair play, and I admire the fact that the British have more regard for workers rights than employers do here in the U.S.,” Hoffa said. Their first stop in London was the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) headquarters, where they met with the union officials who are engaging Members of Parliament in the effort against First Student. Steve Turner, T&G national secretary, told them that transnationals operate with impunity now. “Whatever they can get away with, they will,” he said. “Our job is to make sure they don’t.” “If we allow it to become that way around the world, it’ll become the standard,” he said. The school bus drivers meet Tuesday afternoon with Members of Parliament, who will use parliamentary procedures to put pressure on First Group to treat workers fairly. Tuesday night brings a reception with international human rights activists at the London School of Economics. The workers travel Wednesday to Aberdeen, where they comment on a shareholder resolution calling on the company to adopt an enforceable workers’ rights policy. |
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