Striking Emery/Menlos Workers in San Jose Extend Pickets to L.A. Area, Beyond

Striking Emery/Menlos Workers in San Jose Extend Pickets to L.A. Area, Beyond

Employees Protest Company’s Violation of Contract Regarding Subcontracting

December 12, 2003

(San Jose, CA) – Teamsters on strike at Emery/Menlo Worldwide in San Jose, California, an air freight company, have extended pickets to the Los Angeles area and will target other sites across the country to protest the company’s decision to subcontract their jobs to non-union businesses in violation of the contract.

“We have been negotiating with the company to put our members back to work,” said Douglas O’Neal, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 287 in San Jose. “We thought we had reached agreement, but that agreement was not included in the company’s final offer. As a result, we recommended to the membership that they reject the offer, and the members did so last week.”

“We are now extending the pickets to company work sites in Los Angeles to show the company we are serious. Soon, we will extend the pickets to other sites across the country. We will not allow them to violate the contract by subcontracting our members’ jobs,” O’Neal said.

The company fired the 50 workers in March and announced that the San Jose center would close. The company then shifted the work to non-union companies. The company’s move violates the contract, which is in effect through March, 2005.

“We will not stop until the company abides by the contract in place and puts our members back to work,” added Bill Hoyt, a Local 287 business agent.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States and Canada.