Teamsters Denounce Passage of Destructive Anti-Worker Bills in Kentucky

 

Kentucky Governor Signs Trio of Bills That Will Lower Wages, Weaken Unions in the Blue Grass State

(WASHINGTON) – Kentucky Republican state lawmakers pushed through three bills this weekend designed to attack working families by driving down wages and weakening labor unions. Gov. Matt Bevin has already signed the bills into law. The Republican majority in both chambers made these destructive bills a top priority, holding a rare weekend session to push through the controversial legislation while hundreds of working men and women protested in the statehouse.

House Bill 1 will officially make Kentucky the 27th right-to-work state, undercutting the bargaining power of union workers. House Bill 3 repeals the state’s prevailing wage law that ensured workers on public projects received good pay and benefits. Republican lawmakers also passed ‘paycheck deception’ legislation (SB6), making it more difficult for union members to pay dues to their labor organization.

“With three strokes of his pen, Gov. Bevin has gutted worker protections in the state of Kentucky,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. “The governor and the state’s Republican state legislators are leading the state down a road to ruin by passing right-to-work. There is no disputing the facts – wages and benefits are significantly lower in right-to-work states than in free bargaining states while poverty rates are higher. Right-to-work laws only enrich corporations while working families are left behind.”

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and “like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

HOFFA, TEAMSTER SCHOOL BUS WORKERS RALLY TO MARK A DECADE OF DRIVING UP INDUSTRY STANDARDS

Teamsters, First Student Workers Celebrate 10th Anniversary of National Bus Campaign

(BALTIMORE) – Today, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa rallied with First Student drivers and monitors who transport students for Baltimore City Public Schools to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Teamsters Union’s Drive Up Standards campaign.  

Since launching the Drive Up Standards campaign in 2006, the union-wide effort to raise industry standards has become a model for its success in organizing workers on a monumental scale. 

"When this campaign began in 2006, we had just 4,000 members in the bus industry. Today, we represent 46,000 bus workers at over 400 bus yards. First Student is now the third largest Teamster employer. The Teamsters are leading the way, and we have a bright future ahead of us,” Hoffa said.

"When we are united, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. Let’s continue to drive up standards by fighting for safer vehicles, higher wages, and better benefits and protections for all Teamster bus members,” said Kevin Shelton, a driver at First Student.  

The Baltimore rally is one of several events taking place at Teamster locals across the country to celebrate the campaign’s success. 

“From coast to coast, Teamster bus workers are joining together to mark the amazing success and rapid growth of this campaign. Wherever there is a driver in need of a voice on the job, the Teamsters are ready and willing to help,” said Sean Cedenio, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 570 in Baltimore. 

The Teamsters’ Drive Up Standards campaign is a global campaign to improve safety, service and work standards in the privatized school bus and transit industry. Since the campaign began in 2006, 46,000 drivers, monitors, aides, attendants and mechanics have become Teamsters. For more information on the Drive Up Standards campaign, go towww.driveupstandards.org.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and “like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

TEAMSTERS INVOKE EXPEDITED MEDIATION AT SUN COUNTRY AIRLINES

Union Demands Company Cease Stall Tactics

(WASHINGTON) – The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Teamsters Airline Division and Teamsters Local 120 have invoked a provision written into a 2014 Letter of Agreement with Sun Country Airlines after the company employed stall tactics at the bargaining table during a critical juncture of contract negotiations with Teamster flight attendants last week.

The provision, which takes the matter to the National Mediation Board, is intended to stop delay tactics by the company and ensure that negotiations remain serious and substantive.

“The last thing we want to see as a union is a company that wastes the money and time of its membership,” said Teamsters Airline Division Director Capt. David Bourne. “The Teamsters are committed to serious negotiations with the companies where we have members in collective bargaining agreements. It doesn’t benefit anyone to slow down this process and it isn’t fair to our membership.”

“This slow down at the table has to stop,” said Joe Battaglia, Recording-Secretary at Local 120. “We have entered a critical stage of bargaining. Wage negotiations are being discussed and we are committed to working efficiently to get our membership a contract they deserve. It makes the company look terrible when they will not negotiate fairly with the men and women who work tirelessly to make Sun Country Airlines great. They need to get back to the table and deliver a deal to our members.”

The National Mediation Board has assigned Eva Durham to arbitrate the Teamsters’ case.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and “like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

HOFFA WALKS PICKET LINE WITH US FOODS TEAMSTERS IN MD STANDING UP FOR THEIR JOBS

Drivers, Warehouse Workers About to Enter Third Week on Strike

(SEVERN, Md.) – Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa this afternoon met and walked the picket line with some 50 members of Locals 355 and 570 engaged in an unfair labor practices strike against US Foods at its Severn, Md. facility for almost three weeks.

Nearly 200 Maryland Teamsters working at the distribution center went on strike April 27. Warehouse workers and drivers filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that US Foods has bargained in bad faith about its decision to close the Severn facility in June.

Hoffa said the workers are standing up to threats by the company that would cut wages and benefits for each of them by about $40,000 a year.

“US Foods is attempting to pull these workers out of the middle class,” he said. “Slashing pay as well as health and retirement benefits is no way to ensure that this formerly Maryland-based company remains a good corporate partner in the Free State.”

Since the Severn ULP strike began, more than 1,000 Teamsters across the country have either gone on strike themselves or honored the picket line. US Foods workers who have stood in solidarity with the Severn workers since they went on strike include Local 722 members in Streator, Ill.; Local 337 members in Wixom, Mich.; Local 264 in Buffalo, N.Y.; and Local 507 members in Twinsburg, Ohio.

The current labor disputes are not new to US Foods. In February, more than 200 Teamsters at the Phoenix facility went on a four-day unfair labor practice strike. In 2011, an unfair labor practice strike by maintenance employees in Streator was extended to more than 10 US foods facilities across America. More than 2,000 Teamsters honored extended picket lines during the 2011 strike.

US Foods is the nation’s second-largest foodservice provider. It is owned by Wall Street private equity behemoths KKR and CD&R, which added nearly $5 billion of debt to US Foods’ books when they bought it in 2007. US Foods announced its IPO in February, trying to raise $1 billion from investors.
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and “like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

CON EDISON CONTRACT WORKERS TAKE UNION FIGHT TO SHAREHOLDERS MEETING

Teamsters Deliver Petition to Board of Directors Asking Company to Intercede with Allstate Power Vac on Workers’ Behalf

(NEW YORK) –– Workers at Allstate Power Vac, a Con Edison contractor, delivered a petition to Con Edison’s board of directors today at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Manhattan. The petition asks the company to urge Allstate Power Vac to treat its workers with fairness and respect.

Allstate Power Vac workers are on the front lines of Con Edison’s work across the city, cleaning and vacuuming underground electrical infrastructure so that Con Edison employees can maintain power lines and transformers. 

Allstate Power Vac workers voted to join Teamsters Local 813 in November 2015, but negotiations have dragged into their seventh month without progress toward a first contract.

“It is unacceptable that workers are risking their lives and maintaining this essential infrastructure for near minimum wage salaries,” said Sean Campbell, President of Local 813. “Allstate Power Vac and Con Edison need to take these workers’ demands for fair pay and respect seriously. The workers are only asking Con Edison to hold their contractor to the same workplace standards that the company holds itself to.”

Allstate Power Vac starts new workers at close to the minimum wage ($12-$13/hour), far lower than Con Edison employees doing the same work. The company endangers temp workers by putting them on the job untrained. One worker suffered a bad electrocution. Employees fear being disciplined if they try to refuse unsafe work.

While the petition was presented inside the meeting, Local 813 members distributed fliers about the labor conflict to shareholders entering the meeting.

“We work side-by-side every day with Con Ed workers and Con Ed takes their safety seriously. So why shouldn’t its contractor be held to the same standard?” said Reginald Riddick. “We all signed the petition because Con Ed can make a difference and protect its frontline workers at Allstate Power Vac.”