News Updates
Why I Am a Volunteer Organizer
November 13, 2009
My name is Sandy Diaz -- a proud Teamster member of Local 714, a former employee of the Cook County Clerks Office, and Chief Steward to approximately 1,700 clerks.
After experiencing a brutal, hostile, yet ultimately successful organizing campaign at my place of employment; and after seeing, first hand, what true representation at work consists of; I was not only encouraged, but felt compelled to assist my local union in the Cook County Corrections Campaign which organized over 3,000 correctional officers. Because I was the Chief Steward for the County Clerks, all of my time spent working on the corrections campaign was donated. I had to fulfill my regular duties during the day, and yet I participated in early morning rallies, after work meetings -- and even midnight runs in front of the jail as the shifts changed.
During this activity, I found out how truly important a good organizing plan with experienced organizers is. But, just as important is rank and file member contact. Individuals that we organize expect the organizers to act, speak and handle themselves in a certain manner. But speaking from the viewpoint of a rank and file member is extremely important as it allows potential members to have a window as to what their experience and lives could be like after winning their election.
Workers looking to organize often want to see tangible benefits. Since organizers can't engage in certain activities and can't make any guarantees, being able to directly communicate my experiences to other workers can give them the information they are looking for. As rank and file members, we have other advantages in communicating with unorganized workers:
- We have been where they are, have experienced what they are experiencing, and can show them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
- We can give concrete examples of how having a union with the Teamsters has made a difference in our workplace
- We can show that we -- the members -- are the union!
- Becaue we can build relationships with the workers, we can help identify who the most important people in the workplace the campaign needs to get involved with are.
- We can show them that it's possible to live through this experience of battling with the employer and come out the other side better off.
I felt it was important to give my time not only to assist other workers achieve a better standard of living, but to help grow my local union. In numbers there is strength, which helps us all achieve better contracts and, in turn, helps us organize more workers. It's all a circle, but it all begins with us, the members, helping our local union grow.
Since the Corrections Campaign I have also worked on several others, including the Oak Brook Library and the Lake County Clerks. Some of the activities that I took part in during these campaigns include:
- Making phone calls to organizing committee members with information that needed to be put out to the unit.
- Participating in multiple rallies outside the facility -- we tried to get maximum exposure.
- Talking to workers outside their workplace.
- Helping to create and distribute campaign literature.
- Speaking at organizing committee meetings -- again, worker-to-worker contact is the key.
- Helping to make sure workers got to the polls. (We had vans ready to drive employees to the voting locations.)
- Encouraging my fellow Teamsters to participate in organizing.
All-in-all, my experience as a volunteer organizer has been fun and rewarding, and I encourage all my brothers and sisters in the Teamsters to get involved in organizing too!
Local 639 Hailing Recent NLRB Decision
October 8, 2009Current and former Quickway Transportation employees who tried to join Local 639 in Washington, D.C. in 2006 are hailing a decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to reinstate unlawfully fired employees and issue back pay and interest that could amount to $500,000 or more. The decision is the latest in a three-year long struggle to form a union and secure a contract.
Last month the NLRB sided with Teamsters Local 639, finding that Quickway Transportation is guilty of violating the rights of its employees who tried to form a union there. The NLRB decision falls on the heels of other court hearings in which judges have also sided with the union.
Phil Giles, Recording Secretary for Local 639, is calling the decision a step in the right direction.
“This is a huge step forward. The case is so compelling that there was no other decision that could have been reached,” Giles said. “Quickway Transportation is an outlaw company that doesn’t give a damn about the law and has done everything in its power to impede the rights of employees.”
Twenty-one Quickway drivers successfully formed a union in 2006 despite a massive anti-union campaign by the company that included surveillance of workers and termination of pro-union employees.
After the company refused the bargain in good faith and began diverting bargaining unit work to non-union owner-operators, Giles filed unfair labor practice charges and led a seven week strike against the company. Employees made an unconditional offer to return to work, only to have the company unlawfully lock them out of the facility.
Of the 21 employees in the original bargaining unit, only one, Earl Payne, remains with Quickway Transportation. Local 639 has yet to negotiate a successful contract with the company.
“At this point, I want to see one of two things happen. Either employees at Quickway get a contract or the company is removed from this area,” said former Quickway employee Kenny Tucker. “Even despite this great decision by the NRLB, I feel slighted that the company is still in business and continues to violate the rights of its workers.”
Though it is yet unclear if the company plans to appeal the decision by the NLRB, Giles and Tucker have promised to keep fighting.
“I made a personal vow that as long as I’m drawing breath, I won’t be satisfied until those drivers are covered by a contract,” Giles said. “Local 639 stands behind the Quickway drivers and we aren’t giving up.”
Groups Protest Whole Foods, UNFI at Natural Products Expo in Boston
September 24, 2009(
The organizations also criticized Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods for selling food and products that are greenwashed and labeled “natural” instead of being certified organic.
Teamsters Raise Concerns Over KKR's Dollar General IPO
September 16, 2009(
KKR stands to reap a sizeable portion of the $64 million in proposed transaction fees. Combined with the $75 million paid to KKR and investors upon the initial Dollar General buyout in 2007, KKR and its partners will withdraw $385.9 million in cash from the company’s coffers over two-plus years of stewardship – approximately 51.5 percent of the total IPO value. The Teamsters believe there is unnecessary uncertainty caused by lack of disclosure in the Dollar General SEC filings.
Download General Secretary-Treasurer Keegel's letter to KKR dated September 16, 2009.
Teamsters Call on Whole Foods, UNFI to Support Health Reform
September 12, 2009(Oakland, CA) – Today, the Teamsters protested at the “Entrepreneur's Open Forum” at the Numi Tea Garden to highlight Whole Food’s hypocrisy of claiming to support sustainable policies while its CEO lobbies against real health reform for its workers and customers. Executives from Whole Foods (Nasdaq: WFMI) and its leading supplier United Natural Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq: UNFI) led discussions on “strategies for healthy business growth.”
A Message from Whole Foods: Let Them Eat Cake
August 21, 2009
People who pay a premium for socially responsible products aren't exactly thrilled to learn they're enriching someone who is wildly, flagrantly irresponsible about social issues.
Whole Foods found that out last week after the Wall Street Journal published its CEO's op-ed opposing President Obama's health care reform. Their customers were so offended that 18,000 of them - last time I counted - signed on to a Facebook boycott of his stores.
They may as well have said, "Let them eat cake - with hydrogenated fats."
These ideas about health care are dated, absurd and deeply ignorant of how health insurance - indeed how the U.S. economy - actually works.
"We are all responsible for our own lives and our own health," CEO John Mackey wrote. "We should take that responsibility very seriously and use our freedom to make wise lifestyle choices that will protect our health."
That is patently absurd. Health care is a shared social responsibility -- for medical research, education, disease prevention, treatment of the military and military veterans, to name just a few.
The U.S. government already pays for half of the health care delivered in this country. Without government support, our existing health care system would collapse and so, probably, would our economy. Many Whole Foods customers would not be able to afford high prices if they had to pay for their own or their parents' health care past age 65.
Like many wealthy conservatives, Mr. Mackey espouses anti-government views while benefiting enormously from government largesse.
The U.S. government put its full faith and billions of taxpayer dollars behind the credit markets that enabled Whole Foods to operate and expand their empire.
The food they sell would be prohibitively expensive were it not for enormous government subsidies of dairy products, feed grains, wheat, rice, peanuts and sugar.
Whole Foods suppliers like UNFI couldn't deliver truckloads of organic oranges from California without a government-supported transportation infrastructure.
This irresponsible op-ed will no doubt cost Whole Foods dearly in lost customer loyalty. I just hope Whole Foods recognizes that going it alone isn't a feasible way to run a business or a country.
Local 135 Wins Recognition For 140 Americold Workers
August 18, 2009With the help of Teamsters Warehouse Division Director John Williams and the Teamsters Organizing Department, Local 135 won voluntary recognition August 5 of 140 employees at the Americold facility in Indianapolis.
“Over 70 percent of the unit had signed cards to be represented,” said Brian Buhle, Secretary-Treasurer of Indianapolis-based Local 135. “The coordination between the International Union and the local, along with the strong in-plant organizing committee, made this happen.”
“The workers want to negotiate a contract that will bring fairness and equal treatment,” said Jeff Combs, Local 135 organizer. “They also want to fix the current attendance policy and they want better healthcare coverage.”
The Americold campaign is a coordinated and strategic national campaign led by the Teamsters Organizing Department. There were approximately 400 workers organized last year between local campaigns and the Organizing Department.
200 Workers Who Keep Dunkin’ Donuts Running Join Local 25
August 14, 2009Nearly 200 workers who deliver products to Dunkin’ Donuts stores in New England voted to join Local 25 in Boston.
On August 11 and 12, the drivers and helpers at Northeast DCP in Bellingham, Massachusetts voted 100 to 78 to join Local 25. There are 194 workers in the bargaining unit. The drivers deliver all types of items to the stores, including the donut dough, furniture, coffee and coffee syrup, coffee machines, ad displays and other items.
A representation election at the company on April 1, 2009 fell short, but Local 25 filed charges against the company for violating the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) for misleading workers by telling them that their 401(k) retirement plan would end if they chose to join the Teamsters. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) overturned that election, paving the way for the second election.
“The company lost all its credibility by violating the NLRA,” said Sean M. O’Brien, President of Local 25. “This victory for the workers is an example of organizing in our core industry—trucking. Our charter going back more than a century mentions Local 25 being a union made up of drivers and helpers. This election brought us back to our roots.”
The workers are concerned about affordable healthcare, changes to their bonus plan and they want a consistent strong voice in the workplace.
To help make the campaign a success, Local 25 set up a dedicated page on its local union website. The web page featured updates about the campaign, fliers and letters from O’Brien.
“We also coordinated an elite group of member organizers for worker-to-worker organizing,” O’Brien said. “Our members are some of our best organizers and this is just another example of why it is so important to engage our members. All of our agents and officers at Local 25 were also on the ground working this campaign.”
Teamsters Call on U.S. Foodservice To Get Serious About Food Safety
July 21, 2009Today, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters call on U.S. Foodservice CEO Bob Aiken to step down from the board of the International Foodservice Distributors Association (IFDA), citing the trade association’s questionable positions on food safety. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die each year from food borne illnesses.
U.S. Foodservice, based in Rosemont, Ill., is owned by private equity firms Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Clayton Dubilier & Rice Inc. (CD&R), and is one of the largest food distributors in the United States. U.S. Foodservice supplies food to millions around the country. The company and its employees play an integral role in the food safety chain, purchasing food from hundreds of producers, and ensuring its transport to restaurants, hospitals, universities and military bases. The company recently expressed its support of President Obama’s efforts to protect the food supply.
“We applaud U.S. Foodservice’s public remarks in support of President Obama,” said John Williams, Teamsters Warehouse Division Director. “But if U.S. Foodservice is serious about food safety, the company must stop supporting trade associations that lobby against food safety reform.”
Robert Aiken, CEO of U.S. Foodservice, is a director of the International Foodservice Distributors Association, which has publicly opposed the Safe Food Act. The trade association has objected to measures like mandatory recall authority and an expansion of U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspections. It has even described expanded regulatory authority as "the greatest danger." Robert Aiken has donated thousands of dollars to the IFDA Political Action Committee.
“As the representative union of thousands of U.S. Foodservice employees, we know our members have a real stake in making sure their company follows
through when it comes to supporting food safety legislation” Williams said. “For that reason, we call on Bob Aiken to sever all ties to the IFDA and its harmful approach of weakening America’s already inadequate food safety laws. Strong food safety laws help build customer confidence in eating out. This directly affects our members’ jobs.”
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters was founded in 1903 and represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Teamsters Protest U.S. Foodservice’s Lobbying Efforts to Weaken Food Safety Laws
June 30, 2009
The Teamsters sent a strong message about U.S. Foodservice at the annual Southwest Foodservice Expo on June 29, highlighting the company’s hypocrisy of claiming ethics and integrity while lobbying against stronger food safety regulations.
During the Expo, a 4.5-foot-by-5-foot banner, reading “U.S. Foodservice Serves Misery” and tied to two large balloon bouquets, floated to the ceiling of the Dallas Convention Center, sending the message loud and clear.
Robert Aiken, chief executive of U.S. Foodservice, is a director of the International Foodservice Distributors Association, which has publicly opposed the Safe Food Act. It has objected to measures like mandatory recall authority and an expansion of U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspections. It has described expanded regulatory authority as “the greatest danger.”
The Teamsters also raised awareness about the plight of thousands of workers across the country who work at U.S. Foodservice.
Over the past 10 years, U.S. Foodservice has been cited 128 times by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for health and safety violations in the workplace, and more recently, by Region 28 of the National Labor Relations Board for almost 200 violations of U.S. labor laws. The Teamsters Union represents 4,000 workers at 26 U.S. Foodservice distribution centers.
When U.S. Foodservice helps to weaken food safety laws in the United States, consumers will choose to eat at home and the entire industry will suffer. This leads to further demands by U.S. Foodservice and other companies for weaker pay and benefit provisions in Teamster contracts.
U.S. Foodservice, based in Rosemont, Ill., is owned by private equity firms Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Clayton Dubilier & Rice Inc. (CD&R), and is one of the largest food distributors in the United States. U.S. Foodservice supplies food to millions around the country, including the U.S. Defense Department and the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department.
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