About Local 853 Archives - Teamsters Local 853

Our celebration wish for the holidays as we look to achieve monumental things in 2026.– Steve Beck

2025 was an incredible year

Teamsters Local 853 Sisters and Brothers. Because of all your efforts, we are closing out 2025 stronger than ever. Over the past three years, my administration’s priorities have focused on unity and transparency. These priorities have reinvigorated us all and brought many more members into active service of our Union. Reinvigorated unity that drove more courageous and record-breaking contracts than at any time in our recent past.

So with these in-house priorities now in place, and our positive momentum surging, 2026 will be a time to turn outward and take the fight to the corporations and politicians who seek to take away our security. If we are going to maintain and build on our success, we must keep pushing.

Our pursuit of justice

We are living in a time of unprecedented wealth inequality in America. The widening canyon between workers and corporate elites is now politically turbocharged. At the same time, AI, robotics, and autonomous vehicles are enriching corporations as they seek every possible way to replace workers in the name of greed and profit.

So as long as I hold this position, to help us seek justice, I will be asking the same thing. Be active in your Union. Talk with your fellow members, stewards, and Business Agents. Take an interest. Speak up about what’s happening on the job. Share your experiences to improve your workplace. Be ready to step up and show up when Teamsters Local 853 needs to demonstrate our strength in public. Support politicians who support unions. This is how we become a real and intimidating force against corporate greed.

Happy holidays, and thank you

So with 2026 in mind, and 2025 in the rear view mirror, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for stepping up for your Local. Congratulations on your significant achievements: every contract, every grievance won, every wrong that you have made right. The Executive Board and I, along with all the Business Agents, are here to support you in every way we can. As members of Teamsters Local 853, we’ve built lives with the pay, benefits, and protections that give our families breathing room and peace of mind. The Teamsters Local 853 badge is an honor—wear it proudly.

I also want to acknowledge the members we are working to lift up who still do not have the security of a contract. Especially my RNDC sisters and brothers, who, through no fault of their own, were hurt by market forces and a sudden corporate decision, and our 260 members at Westlake. The Westlake members are now in their sixth month on strike, holding firm for their fair share. Their fight is our fight, and they deserve our full support and respect.

On behalf of me, President Steven Lua, our Executive Board, and all of our Business Agents and staff: Happy Holidays—let’s crush it again in 2026. There is nothing we can’t do when we are unified and moving together.

In solidarity,
Steve Beck
Secretary-Treasurer and Principal Officer
Teamsters Local 853

Our celebration wish for the holidays as we look to achieve monumental things in 2026.– Steve Beck Read More »

Member Appreciation Days to be Held Novermber 1st and 2nd

Sisters and Brothers,

Don’t miss a chance to make our Local stronger by coming out and meeting other members from our 300 Teamster 853 companies.

We are all tied together through our membership. The more unified we become as a family, the more strength we have to enforce our rights and work with dignity and pride.

See you there!!!

Member Appreciation Days to be Held Novermber 1st and 2nd Read More »

Teamsters Local 912, now 853, was the center of the Universe in the 1980s during the Watsonville Strike – watch the Movie, March 8th

Sisters and Brothers,

During a time when Ronald Reagan broke the back of the Air Traffic Controllers, Union work and protections was heavily debated. It was during this time that these Teamsters went on Strike for eighteen(18) months as a beacon of solidarity and justice for the workers who make all the money for the frozen foods corporations in Watsonville.

On March 8th, there will be a screening of a documentary that highlights their struggle. This is a significant part of the history of the Parajo Valley. Don’t miss the opportunity to understand what the workers before you had to do to establish the rights, wages, and benefits you now enjoy. And the legacy they have left you.

Be sure to get tickets in advance here at this link 👉 Watsonville on Strike.

Get tickets

Also showing after is a follow-up documentary: Daughters of the Strike / Hijas de la huelga. (This short film features sisters Blanca and Wendy, and their mother Sylvia, a former cannery worker and one of the striking workers during the historic Watsonville Cannery Strike of the mid-1980s. )

CineLux Green Valley Cinema
Movie Theater
1125 South Green Valley Road Watsonville, CA 95076
March 8, 2025, 6:30 - 8:30 PM PST

Watsonville On Strike is an intimate portrait of the 18-month cannery workers’ strike which virtually paralyzed this rural California town

This superb documentary showing the unvarnished facts of long, hard-fought labor battle–workers united, workers divided, the high and low points–may be the best introduction yet available to the realities of class struggle as it exists today.

–Jessica Mitford, Author

Update: March 20th

Teamsters 853 Business Agents Santos Lerma, Gloria Segura, and Ralph Campos were in attendance for this film. Below are some of the women who participated in the strike and attended the showing. 18 Months was the strike of all strikes. These members are amazing.

Teamsters Local 912, now 853, was the center of the Universe in the 1980s during the Watsonville Strike – watch the Movie, March 8th Read More »

853 members elect new leadership

In December, Local 853 held its first contested election of officers in thirty years after ten “white ballots” (elections by acclamation).

At the nominations meeting on November 7, two slates of candidates for office were nominated. From that moment, through to the final vote tally a month later, the two groups traversed the local and visited dozens of shops, meeting members and promoting their vision for the union. When the nearly than 2,700 votes were sorted and counted on December 5, the choice was clear.

Congratulations to the Members Rising Slate and many thanks for the hard work and dedication of the Members First Slate.

The new officers begin their three-year term on January 1. You’ll hear more from them in the new year. Here’s the roster: