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The Government Affairs Department closely follows legislative and regulatory issues that impact Teamster members and their families. Below is a list of top issues that will maintain and grow good jobs at home, protect workers at their jobsite and help provide our members with good wages and benefits. As Congress changes its focus and we identify other priorities affecting our members, our agenda will be modified accordingly. Employee Free Choice Act The Teamsters will continue to fight for passage of this important bill. A bipartisan coalition reintroduced the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) in February 2007 (S. 1041 and H.R. 800) and the House bill passed by a 241-185 vote. The act would strengthen protections for workers to choose to form a union. It would require employers to recognize the workers’ union after a majority sign cards authorizing representation. It also would provide for mediation and arbitration of first-contract disputes, and would authorize stronger penalties for violation of the law. Mexican Truck Pilot Program The Teamsters will continue to fight to keep our borders closed to unsafe Mexican trucks. Transportation Department officials have implemented a pilot program, despite Congress’ action to shut off funding for the program, which initially allows 100 Mexican carriers access to the United States beyond the currently permitted commercial zones. Mexican trucks and drivers have not met all safety requirements, especially hours of service, drug and alcohol testing, and hazmat background checks. In addition, the database of driver violations for Mexican truckers is lacking accurate and complete information. Worker Misclassification Worker misclassification puts the economic and retirement security of working families at risk. By misclassifying workers as “independent contractors,” the employer evades basic federal and state labor standards and tax obligations. Misclassified workers lose important rights and benefits, such as overtime, job-protected leave, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, the right to organize, and legal protections from discrimination, safety and health violations. Misclassification hurts law-abiding businesses. Employers who misclassify gain an unfair competitive advantage over employers who play by the rules. This practice also results in billions of dollars in lost revenues for federal and state governments in the form of unpaid and uncollectible income taxes, payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation premiums. The Teamsters Union supports legislation to close loopholes, improve meaningful penalties and strengthen the enforcement of laws against misclassification. Minimum Wage Teamster members generally make more than the minimum wage, but all workers should have an opportunity to earn a living wage from their hard work. Holding all employers to a minimum standard protects workers and small businesses against unscrupulous employers who might otherwise take advantage of workers and compete at cut-rate prices. The Teamsters Union will support legislation to increase the minimum wage to $9.50 per hour by 2011 and then make the minimum wage subject to an annual adjustment. Health Care Now is the time to make universal health care a reality. Despite a 7.7 percent rise in costs over the last year, benefits are being reduced. Close to 16 percent of all Americans do not have any health insurance. Eighty percent of the nearly 47 million uninsured Americans are from working families. Quality, affordable health care for all Americans must be a priority for this Congress. Retirement Security We must ensure that all Americans are provided with retirement security and work to reverse the decline in defined benefit pension plans. More than 40 percent of working families are in danger of not having enough retirement funds to ensure an adequate standard of living. Rail Safety The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWE) became part of the Teamsters Union more than two years ago. As such, the Teamsters Union is concerned that rail workers continue to be injured and killed on the job as a result of lax safety regulations and/or little or no enforcement of laws already on the books. Fatigue continues to be a major threat to rail safety, yet the railroads push employees to the limit, often keeping some on duty past their regular hours of service through the use of limbo time. H.R. 2095, the Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007, which passed the House last year, makes significant strides in improving rail safety by severely restricting the use of limbo time, where a worker cannot sleep, but must remain vigilant, and in most cases is not paid for this additional work. The legislation also improves safety by requiring the installation of signals in dark territory (unsignaled track) and also contains positive train control requirements. Trade Policies that Work for Workers The U.S. faces a trade crisis. This crisis has been fueled by U.S. trade policies consisting of just more bad free trade agreements (FTAs) that only benefit the CEOs of multinational companies rather than creating jobs here at home or making sure that our trade laws are enforced. The Teamsters are fighting for trade and globalization policies that will ensure that jobs are not off-shored to the lowest bidder, and policies are implemented that will in fact stop unfair trade, improve labor standards globally, stop the manipulation of currency, protect our families from tainted imports, stop the importation of sweatshop-made goods, and that finally creates and keeps jobs in the U.S. Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements These free trade agreements are almost identical in every way to previous agreements that follow the flawed NAFTA/CAFTA model. There are insufficient labor and environmental protections, and the FTAs would encourage U.S. companies to move overseas. Also, the assassination of union activists and impunity that exist in both Colombia and Panama are an outrage and are totally unacceptable. No one should ever lose their lives fighting for their right to organize—and our government should not attempt to reward such impunity thru passage of an FTA. Overtime Pay for Drivers The Teamsters have blocked several attempts by a coalition business interest to reverse a change in SAFETEA-LU (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act – A Legacy for Users) that allows drivers of vehicles 10,000 pounds or less to be paid overtime. This change in the 2005 highway bill removed this class of vehicle from the authority of the Transportation Department Secretary, and consequently removed drivers of these vehicles from the Motor Carrier Exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act. It is estimated that close to 1 million workers are now eligible for overtime pay. The Teamsters will continue to fight any attempt to reverse this law. Amtrak The nation’s passenger railroad continues to be starved for cash and has received only enough funding to fail for more than a decade, forcing the carrier to defer capital maintenance to an unacceptable level. The White House has stocked the Amtrak board with ideologues whose goal is the dismantling and privatization of the system. The Teamsters Rail Conference and all of rail labor are committed to securing full funding for Amtrak to address all deferred issues and to provide a base for growth in the 21st century. Background Check Uniformity/Redundancy The Teamsters Union has been in the forefront of protecting workers’ rights and privacy, and limiting offenses that disqualify them from earning a living, since Congress enacted legislation requiring additional background checks for workers after 9/11. Improvements were made in limiting disqualifying offenses for drivers who haul hazmat, giving them the right to appeal and limiting look-back periods for disqualifying offenses. That model is the basis for the Transportation Work Identification Credential (TWIC) for port workers. The Teamsters will continue to push the Bush administration and Congress to make worker background checks uniform and less intrusive across the transportation modes. The Teamsters will also work to ensure that workers do not have to bear the burden or expense of undergoing multiple background checks to satisfy security requirements in various sectors of the industry. Commercial Driver Licenses/Personal Vehicle Violation Relief Teamsters who incur serious traffic offenses while driving personal vehicles face suspension or revocation of their commercial driver license (CDL) driving privileges. This provision was part of the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act that passed the Congress and was signed into law in 1999. The Teamsters Union fought these changes in Congress and in the regulatory arena, filing a petition for reconsideration with the Transportation Department. Some improvements were made as a result of this action, but some Teamsters are facing suspensions/revocations of their CDLs and possible termination from employment because of these laws. Hardship and temporary “work only” licenses have been eliminated. The Teamsters Union is urging Congress to review this law and will continue to work to ease these onerous restrictions. Federal Prison Industry Reform Federal prison industries continue to unfairly compete with the private sector by using cheap prison labor and limiting competition for federal contracts. The Teamsters will continue to support and work for passage of legislation that removes these barriers, allows the private sector to compete on a level playing field, and restructures programs to rehabilitate federal inmates around effective vocational training linked to a solid remedial education program. RESPECT Act A strategy often used by employers to deny workers a voice on the job is to narrow the group of employees entitled to join a union. This is done by expanding the group of employees they label as supervisors, since supervisors are exempt from coverage under the National Labor Relations Act (workers designated as supervisors may not join a union or engage in collective bargaining, and can be legally fired for union activity). Recently, the National Labor Relations Board voted to deprive millions of workers of the legal right to join a union by greatly broadening its interpretation of the statutory exemption for supervisors to include, for example, nurses who serve as shift supervisors on a periodic, rotating basis, or a construction worker who provides incidental instruction on a job site. The Teamsters Union will work to pass the RESPECT Act (H.R. 1644/S. 969), legislation that would restore the intent of the law regarding characteristics of a genuine supervisor and protect key workplace rights of employees who are not, and have never previously been viewed as supervisors. Aircraft Maintenance Outsourcing Major U.S. domestic air carriers dramatically increased outsourcing in recent years, and now spend nearly two-thirds of their maintenance dollars on contract repair stations here and abroad, including facilities in China, El Salvador, Mexico and the Philippines. Foreign repair stations are not required to have the same number of FAA-certificated mechanics, or the same security rules, as airline-owned repair facilities in the U.S. These foreign repair stations do not undergo the same depth of FAA inspections as domestic stations, have no drug and alcohol testing requirements for their workers, and security is almost nonexistent, with no background check requirements for workers. Teamsters Union mechanics are urging Congress to impose a moratorium on any further outsourcing of aircraft maintenance by the country’s airlines until there are uniform maintenance standards both here in the U.S. and abroad, and proper FAA oversight, because current practices endanger passenger safety and national security.
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