We give you the fine gentleman from Douglas Parking at Stanford Hospital. These Teamster 853 members are critical in making sure people have a safe way to travel around the campus and hospital.
“I have the pleasure of getting to know these members on a personal level,” said Business Agent David Crawford, “knowing and understanding our members this way is the best way we can effectively address their issues. We are building a community based on trust and mutual understanding, so when we need each other to stick together, we are already most of the way there.”
At the meeting we discussed a variety of topics, including sick pay, vacation entitlements, and how to build better relationships and communication between the union and the company so that we all may benefit.
Thank you, Brothers, for putting the time in to make things better.
The success of the Labor movement depends on many variables. Two of the most important are the solidarity of our members and our leaders’ ability to work with politicians and government organizations to create partnerships and laws that support workers in our communities. If done well, the results are our members’ good contracts.
Member-Company Partnership and Showcase
This year, GILLIG has been a focal point of many high-level political visits because Teamsters Local 853 members and the company have forged a strong worker-company bond that showcases what can be done when the company and their employees work well together. Last week, they hosted a meeting with California Workforce Development Board Executive Director Kaina Pereira, Secretary Stewart Knox, and Asst. Deputy Secretary of Climate, Derek Kirk.
What Got Done
At this meeting, Teamsters Local 853 Secretary-Treasurer Steve Beck, President Steven Lua, and GILLIG Shop Stewards had meaningful discussions with these politicians along with executives from GILLIG. The meeting focused on the continuing need for partnerships at all levels of government to have the support of labor and the companies they represent. These partnerships help secure industry-leading contracts at Teamsters Local 853, which includes important retirement benefits for hundreds of members and their families.
Obligation to Our Members
“The battle between greedy corporations and working families is never-ending,” said Steve Beck, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 853. “As the ones chosen by our membership to lead our Local, we owe them our vigilance and hard work to continue to come out on top, and these meetings and negotiations are one of the ways we fulfill that obligation to our members.”
Yellow Freight Teamsters Members, here is the latest update published by the IBT regarding the bankruptcy. Please download the original document to review here.
The Teamsters Joint Council 7 awards annual scholarships for Teamsters 853 members’ children and wards.
Scholarships are available to all children or wards of any active Teamster 853 member. This scholarship can be used for any scholastic or vocational field or school. If you are interested in applying, you can download the instructions and application below.
The deadline to have your application mailed is May 20th, 2024.
Teamster Local 853 would like to recognize five Business Agents, Gloria Segura, James Long, David Crawford, Ralph Campos, and Jonathan Pinney, for being sworn in as Alameda Labor Council delegates. These Business Agents will be responsible for advocating for the betterment of our members in the general Alameda Labor community. They take the concerns of our members and support political agendas in Alameda County.
Most of the time, we highlight our members, but let’s all take a moment to thank these business agents who put in the time, nights, and weekends for their members. Day in and day out. Bravo!
In a visit to GILLIG this week, Labor Secretary Julie Su’s organization tweeted, “Our clean energy transition needs strong partnerships, including between workers and management. Happy to meet with GILLIG to see their facility creating zero-emission buses, talk about their labor-management partnership, and see the benefits of employing unionized workers.”
The Biden Administration is focused on furthering its commitment to Unions across America as a pathway to worker success. This visit, and many others like it, further solidifies their commitment.
It was a rare opportunity for members of Teamsters Local 853 to meet with a high-level government official from the Department of Labor. Stewards Robert Terry, Erik Vancil, Lyle Funderburk, and Lupe Pinedo put their best foot forward as they represented our Teamster family and the strong partnership between GILLIG management and their Union workforce.
Teamsters 853 members at GILLIG are coming off a stunningly good contract in their recent negotiations, which is a testament to forward-looking companies like GILLIG, who are leading the future in the zero emissions American Built busses. They recognize the true value of a Unionized workforce.
“We are so proud of these members who are being singled out as an example to the country and unions everywhere of what a union workforce can contribute on a national level. They earned this with their consistent commitment to their work,” said Steve Beck, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 853. “We are also aware that regardless of political affiliation, Teamsters Local 853 is willing to work with whoever is in office if they are expanding and strengthening unions across our State and the country.”
Also present for the meeting were Teamsters Local 853 Vice President Ray Torres and Recording Secretary Mike Henneberry.
People march in the middle of East Pine Street during the “Fight Starbucks’ Union Busting” rally and march in Seattle, Washington on April 23, 2022. Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images
A new paper looks at the impact of being in a union throughout your entire career.
The authors found that being in a union means a $1.3 million bump to lifetime earnings.
Being a career-long union member can have the same value as a college degree.
If you want to make a million more dollars over your lifetime, there’s one solution: Join a union.
That’s according to a new paper in Cornell University’s ILR Review. Researchers Zachary Parolin of Bocconi University and Tom VanHeuvelen of University of Minnesota Twin Cities examined the advantages of being part of a union throughout your entire career.
“We find that a person who spent the entirety of their career in a labor union were predicted to earn about a million dollars more over the course of their career compared to somebody who was never in a labor union,” VanHeuvelen told Insider.
To quantify the impact of unionization on lifetime earnings, they used the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which tracks some Americans every several years. The researchers zoomed in on men who would’ve been in their late 20s in the 1960s and 1970s, and tracked their earnings through retirement as well as whether or not they were union members.
The result was the $1.3 million premium for workers who spent their whole careers in unions, even though those workers were more likely to retire earlier. Workers who are never in a union were projected to earn around $2.1 million their whole careers, while those who were in unions for their whole careers were estimated to make $3.4 million.
It’s long been clear that union members make more than their non-unionized peers. In 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, non-unionized workers made just 83% of unionized workers’ wages — but the study shows the long-term effects of a career spent as a union member. The data also comes after decades of American wealth becoming more and more concentrated at the top, as union membership tumbled and continues to drop.
“All this research that has been done shows that unions are really important for inequality, and that the demise of unions is a really important contributor to this growth of economic inequality and economic polarization,” VanHeuvelen said.
Workers without college degrees particularly benefit from career-long union membership. In fact, a worker without a college degree who has been in a union for 100% of his career is actually expected to make more than a non-union worker with a college degree.
That’s significant, especially with the “college premium” that higher education affords for lifetime earnings. Going to college is still one of the most reliable ways to boost how much money you’ll make, although many borrowers then come up against thousands — and sometimes hundreds of thousands — of dollars in student loan debt. But unionization rates have declined over time, and that spells bad news for workers without a college degree.
“If suddenly the United States lost the college premium, that would be a disaster,” VanHeuvelen said. “A lot of newspaper articles would be written about that. But it seems like we’ve lost something equivalent for America’s working class.”
There are some signs of life in the previously small labor movement. Union approval is at its highest since 1965, according to Gallup survey results. Workers have been pushing back for over a year, sparking a crop of unions in places like Starbucks, Amazon, and Chipotle. The number of union representation petitions filed in fiscal year 2022 increased by 53%, according to the National Labor Relations Board. But all of that is still coming up against low union membership rates and other organizing challenges.
“The process of de unionization that’s occurred over the last half century or so has really undermined an important second channel through which people could find a path of upward economic attainment,” VanHeuvelen said.
Bimbo bakery drivers showed up in force for their proposal meeting this past Saturday. It was a good meeting that covered a wide range of topics, including Health and welfare, pension, pay, increases in sick days, company discipline, and the company not paying employees on time.
Special thank you to Stewards Carlos from San Leandro and Eddy from Concord for helping run the meeting and making sure that every voice was heard! Stay tuned as this negotiation plays out.
Today is your day. Your ballot should have arrived by now at your house.
There is a reason why so many truck drivers in our Country are in a union, because they know its life changing for the better.
So no matter how much attention, and begging. and insincere letters they send you now that you have them scared, the fact is that if you vote UNION YES, you have just secured a better life for you and your family.
Corporations are beholden to their shareholders and are required to maximize profits. That is what you are up against. They see you as a source of profit so they want to cut your pay and benefits. Without a Union contract, you are against the shareholder without any way to push back.
So VOTE YES and mail your ballot back today, right now.
Look at our website and see what we do day in and day out. On the home page are stories of what we do and the victories we win EVERY SINGLE DAY!
Let’s do this together, and knock it out of the park, and let those shareholders and management know you are worth more than they will ever give you willingly.
Ray Torres and the entire Teamster Local 853 staff and the 13,000 members we represent.
