Updates

The Baumann Monitoring Commission, a volunteer commission made up of prominent community leaders throughout Long Island, held a press conference today to demand justice for the more than 1,700 workers on Long Island who work for the Baumann transportation companies—Baumann & Sons, Acme Bus, Alert Coach and Brookset Bus.

Due to poor working conditions, including low wages, a lack of affordable health care and other injustices on the job, workers at Baumann have decided to form a union with Teamsters Local 1205. In doing so, they have faced an aggressive anti-union campaign by the company, which includes high-priced “union avoidance consultants.”

The Commission seeks to ensure community support for these workers’ rights to form a union without fear and intimidation from their employer. Based on the actions of company management, the Commission presented a report on the status of worker treatment at Baumann, which makes several demands, including:

1)    Immediately fire the union busters, who are feeding off New Yorkers’ tax dollars paid to transport children;

2)    Cease and desist in interfering with employees’ legal right to make their own choice about forming a union;

3)    Remain strictly neutral during the remainder of the union organizing campaign;

4)    If the union is voted in, do not violate the law, which demands that the company bargain in good faith with the union about the employees’ terms and conditions.

Rather than take responsibility, Ron Baumann did not meet with the Commission and delegation of several dozen Baumann workers. Instead, he hid behind one of his highly paid anti-union consultants. 

The Baumann Monitoring Commission consists of:

• William Lindsay, Presiding Officer, Suffolk County Legislature;
• Luis Valenzuela, Executive Director, Long Island Immigrant Alliance;
• Gregory DeFreitas, Professor, Hofstra University;
• Father William Brisotti, Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Roman Catholic Church;
• Rev. Paul Ratzlaff, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington, and
• Nadia Marin Molina, Executive Director, The Workplace Project.

Review the Commission’s full report.

More than 100 Teamsters throughout Illinois mobilized to strengthen the union on Saturday during an Organizers Boot Camp at Teamster City in Chicago.

Hosted by Joint Council 25, the event brought the International Brotherhood of Teamsters together with union leaders in Chicago to train members as volunteer organizers. Packing the Local 705 auditorium, local union members officially joined the national effort to recruit and train more than 1,000 volunteer organizers before the end of the year.

“The determination of our members in Chicago and Illinois to come together and help drive the union forward is absolutely inspiring,” said John T. Coli, President of Joint Council 25. “Participation in the Organizers Boot Camp is a selfless commitment to bringing significant change to thousands of workers in this country. It’s heartening to see so many members assume such responsibility.”

The new volunteer organizers participated in a range of training exercises, from in-depth discussions on the rights of workers to active presentations on how best to communicate the Teamster message.

“Our local was just getting ready to start new organizing campaigns and the Boot Camp really hit home with us for getting started,” said Beverly Sisson, a member of Local 743. “The training helped us think about how we can help people without harming the campaign. It really got us into gear.”

Members from each of the 22 local unions represented by Joint Council 25 had the opportunity to gear up for future efforts. Antoine Brown, a Teamsters Local 142 member, wasted no time putting some of the techniques of the training to use.

“I learned a lot of little things about organizing that I didn’t know before, like all the good ways to break the ice,” Brown said. “Everyone’s got a story and the Boot Camp gave me methods to share my story the very next day on an organizing campaign.”

Joint Council 25 represents more than 100,000 hardworking men and women throughout Illinois.

School bus workers with Baumann, Acme, Brookset and Alert in Long Island, New York, are voting in their union election on November 20. Watch these workers live in action, talking about the changes they are going to make once they join the Teamsters! They recently rallied for respect with their coworkers, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa, political and community leaders and fellow bus workers from throughout Long Island. View their rally.

(WASHINGTON) — Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today applauded the National Mediation Board’s proposal to reform the voting process for union elections at airlines and railroads.

The NMB is proposing that a union be certified if a majority of the employees who vote support it.

The rule now requires a majority of all airline or rail workers to vote in favor of union representation to be certified as a union.

“This reform lets workers choose a union the same way they choose the president of the United States,” Hoffa said. “Whichever side gets the most votes, wins.

“This reform brings union elections up to modern standards of democratic election law. It gives workers the right to sit out an election if they choose, just as they can sit out the presidential election. They currently don’t have that right because sitting out an election is the same as a “no” vote.

“Anyone who’s been involved in an organizing campaign at a railroad or an airline knows that the deck is stacked against workers who want to form a union,” Hoffa said. “The current voting process is an obstacle that was deliberately created to discourage workers from exercising their right to form a union.”

The NMB is a federal agency created in 1934 under the Railway Labor Act to oversee National Mediation Board, the federal agency established in 1934 under the Railway Labor Act to oversee labor relations in the railroad and airline industries.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.