It’s been a whirlwind of a couple months to start the year, and we’ve been working hard on ensuring we invest in our Union’s future. We have a package of bills introduced in both California and Nevada that focus on job protections and benefits.

In California, I want to highlight four bills we are sponsoring, starting with AB 33 introduced by Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry. The fight against autonomous vehicles is far from over: AB 33 would require a human operator for all commercial deliveries to any residence or business in California.

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November 5 came with a mixed bag of results and a lot of mixed emotions. But no matter how anyone feels about the results of the election, we should take a moment to applaud ourselves for electing some very Teamster-friendly candidates in Joint Council 7’s jurisdiction. We elected Teamster Local 856 members who ran for city council seats in Alameda County, we won tax measures to support our public sector members, and we flipped a Congressional seat in the Central Valley. 

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Teamwork makes the dream work. The past few months have shown us how much working together and supporting each other is our true source of power as Teamsters. Our Joint Council has shown up on a political and legislative level to promote our California Automotive Regulatory Standards (CARS) Package of legislation, which would provide safeguards and regulation for autonomous vehicles (AV).

Our CARS package consists of AB 2286, which is our reintroduction of AB 316 that would require a safety operator for any vehicles over 10,000 lbs;

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As we watched the election results come in, we were reminded just how much every vote counts. The March Presidential Primary had incredibly low turnout. That means there will be races won by very narrow margins. That also means every Teamster vote counts in a much bigger way.

This past election cycle, we endorsed candidates running for county Board of Supervisors, City Council, State Assembly, State Senate, and Congressional seats. Each of our Locals in their respective territories interviewed hundreds of candidates and chose those who we felt best aligned with our Teamster priorities.

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After 17 years with Joint Council 7, this is my last column as your political director. It has been an immense honor to work with our union.

Starting as an organizer

I was first hired into the Teamsters in 2006. Under the direction of our then Joint Council President, I ran the organizing campaign with misclassified truck drivers at the Port of Oakland. At the campaign’s peak, we put 5,000 people on the streets of downtown Oakland.

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Every year, local, state, and federal government agencies give out billions of dollars to corporations through procurement contracts, tax credits, subsidies, grants, and more. These are our tax dollars “at work.” This raises two questions: does it work for us? And if not, what can we do?

Sadly, the answer to the first question is “not enough.”  However, the answer to the second question is “we can do a lot.”

For decades,

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