Local 70 Secretary-Treasurer Marty Frates reports that Danny Chong, a UPS Package Driver from the Oakland building, has won his arbitration—including getting made whole for back wages, health and welfare, pension, and more. All told, the arbitration award is about $250,000.
After 30 years at UPS, with a good work record and no discipline, Danny was accused of theft of time and was removed from his job in August 2019. Danny is an Early Air Driver (EAR).
Keep readingLocal 856 Food Processing Teamsters recently ratified an important contract extension, which guarantees the largest across-the-board wage increase in the history of the contract.
The Teamsters Cannery Council agreement, which covers 10,000 Local 856 and Local 948 Teamsters working at canneries throughout the Central Valley, also ensures no increases to healthcare costs and maintains important contract protections and language.
“Food Processing Teamsters have quite literally risked their own lives throughout the pandemic to make certain we could all put food on our tables,” said Ashley Alvarado,
Keep readingA majority of the 15 drivers, janitors, and maintenance workers at Crothall Healthcare in Gilroy filed cards to show their interest in joining Local 853. They had a laundry list of grievances, including safety, favoritism, mistreatment, and lack of respect. Surprising everyone, including organizer Pablo Barrera, the company recognized the unit.
“We were sure that we’d have a fight on our hands and would have to go to an election,” says Barrera. “But because the Manteca facility is already under contract with Local 386,
Keep readingIn June, the 42-person South Bay Recycling Facility Operations unit in San Carlos voted to approve a historic new five-year deal. These essential workers are responsible for the day-to-day operations at the Shoreway Environmental Center, which encompasses both the Transfer Station and the Material Recovery Facility (MRF), both of which are open to residents, businesses, contractors, and individuals to bring their trash and recyclables for processing and transfer. Members include equipment operators, scale attendants, mechanics,
Keep readingResilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity and maybe even become happier, smarter, and stronger than you were before. In other words, if you are resilient, you are able to move forward and learn from challenging life circumstances like addiction, trauma, or financial problems.
How well do you stand up to adversity? What is your reaction when times are tough and setbacks occur? Some keep going while others may falter and feel ill-prepared to meet the challenges set before them.
Keep readingGovernor Newsom ended California’s stay-at-home order effective June 15, bringing an end to capacity limits and physical distancing requirements for businesses and allowing fully vaccinated people to stop wearing masks in most places.
As of June 15, if you are fully vaccinated (both doses of the vaccine and at least 14 days after the final dose), you have no obligation to wear face masks except,
(1) on public transit and in public transit stations;
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Jose Ramirez has worked for Iron Mountain, a document archiving company, in its Oakland facility for 32 years, but that’s not where the magic is.
He serves as Lead Transportation Coordinator, dispatching drivers each day, and monitoring customer calls to help them solve problems. His territory runs from Eureka at the north, through the Bay Area, and down to Fremont, currently, and San Jose, starting in August, as well as east to Livermore,
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For the past seven years, Thelma Garza has been working as a ready-mix driver for Central Concrete in San Jose.
Currently, she’s working on the Park Project in downtown San Jose. She says that the developer got permission from the airport to go higher than previous height limits, so, at 50 stories, this will be the tallest building in the city. Her work as a ready-mix driver not only includes driving a concrete truck,
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“By nature, I like to help people.” That’s what Renee Wilson says both about why she enjoys working at UPS and why she’s gotten involved in her union, Teamsters Local 431 in Fresno.
Wilson has worked as a UPS package car driver in Fresno for 20 years and has had the same route — a mix of residential and business stops — for the past 15 years. She makes about 135 stops a day.
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Felicisima Horcabas, also known as Emma, has worked at the University of California, Davis Health System for 25-plus years.
Her job title might be administrative assistant, but her work is interesting and diverse. She currently works at the UC Davis Chaplaincy Department, fulfilling requests from people of various faith groups asking for prayers, ceremonial healing, baptisms, blessings, etc. “I get to observe that religion crosses all races, genders, and cultures, and I get to schedule their meetings with their mutual faith group,” she says.
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