After rejecting four contract offers from Sun-Maid, nearly 500 members of Local 431 took to the hot Fresno streets on September 10 to start a work stoppage that will last until they get a contract that they can live with.
“The major issue is that the company insists that our folks contribute to their health plan for the first time ever,” says Principal Officer Peter Núñez. “They offered minimal wage increases to offset some of the out-of-pocket health costs.
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Local 856 members in San Francisco recently ratified a new agreement at 23 of the top hotels in San Francisco including the Fairmont, the Palace Hotel, and the Clift Hotel. The new contract builds upon the strength of their previous contract and covers more than 1,000 members who work in reservations, front desk, concierge, and accounting.
“This agreement is one that we all worked hard on and one that I believe is second to none in the hotel industry,” said Local 856 President Mike Lagomarsino who led negotiations along with Local 856 Secretary-Treasurer/Principal Officer Peter Finn.
Keep readingAlcoholism and drug addiction is a chronic condition, much like heart disease or the condition of diabetes. This means that there is no cure for the disease, but it instead is managed or kept in a state of remission. When a person who suffers from alcoholism or drug addiction is sober or not using mood-altering chemicals, they are considered to be in “Recovery.”
It usually requires professional treatment for people to recover from chemical dependency,
Keep readingThe Supreme Court issued its Janus decision, allowing public employees to opt out of paying fair share fees, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time June 27. By early afternoon that same day, right wing anti-union organizations were taking action to encourage employees to stop paying fees and some public employers were already encouraging their employees to do so.
Organized labor, however, was already primed to respond. Within about 24 hours of the Court’s release of the Janus decision,
Keep readingThis month, Working Partnerships USA and the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education released a groundbreaking report entitled “Driverless? Autonomous Trucks and the Future of the American Trucker.” The author is Steve Viscelli, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania who also spent time as a long-haul truck driver. He captured that experience in a book called The Big Rig: Trucking and the Decline of the American Dream. Steve presented his report findings and signed copies of his book at our Joint Council seminar in June.
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2018 ON Teamster color
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The tech workers start lining up before 7 a.m. to get on buses in the Castro district of San Francisco to be driven down to companies like Apple, Google and Tesla in Silicon Valley. On August 16, their routine was scuttled as nearly 100 Teamsters came to the active bus stop to press the shuttle bus companies for a master agreement that includes a pension plan.
Blocking buses for 3-5 minutes each, the Teamsters let the tech passengers know that their drivers were seeking a better deal.
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On August 20. the Teamsters held a victory luncheon with newly-elected San Francisco Mayor London Breed. She shared an inspirational story about how she went through college with support from her Uncle Chuck Davis, a Teamster official and her aunt Linda, his wife, also a Teamster member.
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It’s not unusual for California State Senators and Assemblymembers to encounter Joint Council 7 Teamsters standing shoulder to shoulder along the halls of the State Capitol or having them cram into their tiny legislative offices. In fact, senior legislators and staffers will tell you that JC7 has been a major lobbying force in Sacramento for decades, whether it be introducing new legislation, supporting existing legislation or protesting anti-labor policies.
It is, however, extremely rare when our loud and powerful voice demands that legislators do nothing.
Keep readingCalifornia Teamsters Support Clear Test of Employee Classification
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Dozens of Teamsters from locals throughout Northern California, as well as port drivers from L.A./Long Beach, took part in a lobby day in Sacramento this week to push back on corporate efforts to overturn the state Supreme Court’s landmark Dynamex decision.
The California Chamber of Commerce and companies including Uber, Lyft, Instacart and Postmates, among others, have launched an intense lobbying effort against the Supreme Court of California’s April decision in the case of Dynamex Operations West,
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