Author: Joint Council 7

Teamsters push to keep Supreme Court’s landmark Dynamex decision

September 24, 2018

Dozens of Teamsters from locals throughout Northern California took part in a lobby day in Sacramento in August to push back on corporate efforts to overturn the state Supreme Court’s landmark Dynamex decision that goes far toward stopping misclassification of workers as “independent contractors.”

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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Union wins wrongful termination grievance

Local 350, Teamster News

On June 6, 2018, after almost a year-long fight, the arbitrator in Jaime Rivera’s grievance ordered San Francisco-based Recology to immediately reinstate him with full seniority and make him whole for any wages and benefits lost as a result of his wrongful termination.

“The business agents were upfront, they said it would take a while. I had never been in a situation like this before, or in a trial or court setting. We’d start at 10:00 am and end at 7:00 pm.

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Contracts and new members

Teamsters District Council 2

District Council 2 has ratified contracts for members in California, Colorado, Nebraska, Oregon and the state of Washington over the last few months.

In Northern California, we recently organized a new company, the San Jose Mailing Group. Congratulations to our new members there who ratified a four-year agreement with a 2% wage increase in each year of the contract. Vacation benefits and contributions to the SIP 401(k) plan were bargained.

Also ratified in Northern California were Pacific Printing Services Corp.

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Members gain four good contracts with Republic Services

Local 315, Teamster News

Teamsters Local 315 members pushed for contracts from Republic Services that guaranteed safety and parity among workers. With good agreements in hand at West County Resource Recovery, West Contra Costa Sanitary Landfill (Golden Bear Transfer Station), and Richmond Sanitary Services’ (RSS) Garbage and Recycling Divisions, members at the four Contra Costa facilities ratified their deals.

With guidance from IBT Solid Waste Representative Carlos Borba, Business Agent David Rodriguez embarked on what would become a 6-month effort,

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500+ Sun Maid workers on strike in Fresno

Local 431

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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Members secure a strong contract in San Francisco

Local 856, Teamster News

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.

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The stages of relapse and what to do about it

TAP/TARP

Alcoholism 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,

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Legislature and Governor help Labor to deal with Janus fallout

Legal Update

The 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,

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Technology and the future of trucking—more reasons Teamsters do politics

Political Director's Report

This 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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