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There’s an old saying in the union world: 10% of the members take up 90% of the time of business reps. It’s always the squeaky wheel who gets the attention and not often does the union hear from members about the good job their doing.

So, when Business Rep Stu Helfer opened his email and got a thank you letter from Steve Townsend, it put a big smile on his face. Here’s the note:

“I know you don’t hear it much but I just wanted to say thank you! Thank you for being so tenacious about establishing our 401k back in the 90s. That commitment changed the future for me and for many, many men and women who took advantage of this program. I can start collecting some of that money in about 11 months (if needed) and it will make my retirement a breeze! Thank you, Stu, for your representation during your time in office and even before you got there as a shop steward!”

Your intrepid Connections reporter decided to get Townsend’s back story to see what inspired this note. Here it is:

Townsend started his career as a mixer driver for Pacific Ready Mix and became a member of Teamsters Local 315 in the early 1980s. When that company got bought, work slowed down. In 1994, he moved to Berkeley Ready mix and became a member of Local 291, which later merged with Local 853. After taking a “train the trainer” course, he started teaching Basic Hazardous Materials classes at the College of Alameda and at large corporations, which he continued to do while working as a mixer driver. When Hanson bought Berkeley in 2011, all the drivers were let go. “There’s nothing like the feeling of knowing that all is not lost, that the Teamsters have your back, and you will have another good Union job as soon as possible.”

In August of 2012, he got on with Cemex. “I drove a mixer, ran the yard, learned to batch, and even taught Safe Driving classes to drivers and management. I was able to retire in June of 2017 with a full pension at only 53 years old, due again to the forethought of our Teamster officials in implementing the PEER 80 program!”

Townsend says he’s been blessed by being a Union man throughout his life and the benefits just keep coming. “I have a monthly pension, lifetime medical (again, due to the forward-thinking of our union officials), and a fat 401k account.”

Thanks, Steve. Stu and the rest of us appreciated getting your thanks and your story. Continue to enjoy your retirement!

When Hallcon, a contractor that runs commuter shuttle buses for the tech industry, terminated a driver for falsification of records, the union fought back—and won!

Hallcon had fired a member for not showing up for work one day, but the union disputed that very fact. The company had stopped having members use the electronic timeclock during the pandemic, replacing that process with someone at the gate checking people in. The employee claimed they had arrived earlier than the gate person, which is why their presence was not recorded. While the company claims they phoned the driver twice, they never asked for the driver to come to see management.

“We fought this because the company claimed the driver falsified records, but there was literally nothing to falsify,” says Business Rep Tracy Kelley. “The contract says there should be a clear process of clocking in and out and it should be done by the employee, not by another person.”

The arbitration panel agreed with the union, and with that, the driver received a check for $33,000 to restore the wages, benefits, and 401K contributions they should have gotten all along. “The member took a job elsewhere, but this remains a good lesson for the employer,” says Kelley.

On June 30, the Supreme Court refused to hear a case. As a result, AB5 is the law of the land. Huh???

By setting out a clear definition of who should be an “employee” and who can be an “independent contractor,” AB5 is the law written to rein in the growing “gig” economy.

Local 853 Business Rep and Chair of the Nor Cal Construction Committee Stu Helfer played a part in writing the construction trucking language for AB5. “It’s always funny to me when someone on a construction pre-job meeting will chime in and say, ‘This is what the author of the law meant’ and I just smile, knowing that I was the part of the group that authored the construction trucking language in the bill,” says Helfer.

As soon as the law was passed in 2019, the California Trucking Association sued, alleging that they should be able to continue to misclassify truck drivers as independent contractors even though those drivers work at the beck and call of the companies. Over the next three years, the trucking association lost at the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, but they pursued the case all the way up to the Supreme Court. “I believe we would have prevailed on the merits of the case at the Supreme Court, given the argument that the opposition was making,” said Helfer, “Many were skeptical, given the current make-up of the court.”

The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case means the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stands. And that means that all of the trucking companies that claim that their truck drivers are independent contractors must now treat most of them as employees, enabling the drivers to enjoy the benefits of sick leave, workers comp, and the right to organize. The presumption now is that an individual is an employee – it must be proven that the worker is truly independent…free from the control of and being in a different core business the hiring party.

This has been a 3-plus-year project but goes back long before the California Supreme Court’s “Dynamex” decision that led to this result. Helfer wanted to recognize former Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, who now heads the California Labor Federation, for doing such a great job on creating the law and pushing it to passage. He also recognized lawyer Scott Kronland, from the law firm of Altshuler Berzon, who shepherded the case from the beginning and California Attorney General Rob Bonta who took the case to the 9th Circuit Court.

Helfer says he plans to talk with the trucking companies that have worked with the union on project labor agreements and bring them all in to try to arrange for a master contract. “We’re potentially talking tens of thousands of new members if we can get that done.”

Helfer recollects: “In 2012, I played a part in rewriting Labor Code Section 1720.3, which fixed the law to make sure that the off-haul work from construction sites was covered under prevailing wage law. In 2015, I did AB219 which is now codified as Labor Code Section 1720.9; this one covers prevailing wage requirements for ready-mix drivers. My work on AB-5 is now Labor Code Section 2781(h)(2). I’ve been working on this matter for around twenty years, so it feels great to be at this point now.” he adds, with a slight smile. “Who knows what might be next….”

Business Rep Steven Lua reports that in December, Watsonville Community Hospital filed for bankruptcy. If this, the only hospital in Watsonville, were to close, it would be devastating not only for the 55 Teamsters who work in the business department, but for the entire community.

Lua and the Teamsters sprang into action. Working with Joint Council 7 Political Director Doug Bloch and with the Matt Broad, advocate for the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council, they worked with community leaders to help establish the Pajaro Valley Health Care District and raise $25 million from the State to use toward the $60 million purchase price of the bankrupt hospital. As of September 1, the new health district will own the hospital, and every Teamster member will be able to keep their job and their benefits.

Lua wanted to also thank the Beeson and Rosenfeld law firms for playing a huge part with ensuring fairness out of the bankruptcy. “Specifically, Catherine Holzhauser with Beeson did a great job on filing claims for all of our members.”

The hospital is home to 600 employees and four different unions. “This was a win for all unions involved and it was great working alongside the other unions to make it happen,” Lua adds. “It really shows how coming together in Union can have such an incredible impact on an entire community.”

Congratulations to everyone who made this decisive victory happen!

Sadly, the big Anheuser Busch (AB) distribution facility in Oakland got sold and suddenly closed in July with minimal notice. Local 853 represented 113 drivers, warehouse workers, draft technicians, merchandisers, and salesmen at that facility. “We only had about two weeks\’ notice, which, besides being terrible for our members, didn’t even meet legal requirements,” says Business Agent Efren Alarcon.

As soon as the union was notified, Alarcon and Secretary-Treasurer Dennis Hart swung into action. They were able to get 27 members new jobs at Matagrano, in South San Francisco, which is a union facility. Another 20 went to Markstein in Antioch, which is currently non-union, but Hart says, “we now have 20 ins to work on organizing over there.” Other business agents and Local Unions also helped identify job openings at similar facilities; a few members were able to get union positions at the Fairfield Budweiser plant and at Coca-Cola in San Leandro.

Most important, Alarcon negotiated a great severance package that includes more than one week of wages for every year of service for most members, six months of medical coverage that will carry them through the end of March 2023, and cashing out not only their vacation time, which is legally required, but also their sick time, which for many was about 30 days. In a very smart move, in order to reduce the tax hit on these large payouts, the union negotiated that the different sources of funds would be paid over a six-week period, instead of in one lump sum. Finally, the company agreed to a $7500 retention/training bonus to help members attain training so they could get Class A License training or other re-training.

“A closure is a closure and it’s never nice,” said Alarcon, recognizing that only about half of the members seamlessly went into new jobs. “But I thank all of our Business Reps and sister Locals for working to help these members, and that effort will continue until we get as many of them jobs as we possibly can.”

Teamsters Local 665 has been working to organize the workers of Amy’s Kitchen in Santa Rosa for many months. Unite HERE was working on an organizing drive with the San Jose group. Suddenly, on July 18, with no warning, the company closed the manufacturing operations at its San Jose facility effective immediately.

Upon hearing the news, Business Rep Ray Torres contacted two union employers that he knew were looking for employees. Within two days, T Marzetti, the salad dressing maker in Milpitas, organized a hiring event. They invited Amy’s Kitchen employees to tour the facility and interview, and by the end of that day, they hired about 30-35 workers. A few weeks later, Kellogg’s did the same thing and brought in 25-30 new workers.

“People’s lives were turned upside down. Even though 300 lost their jobs, we were immediately able to help about 50 of them get good jobs. And though we weren’t actually conducting any of the union drives at Amy’s Kitchen, now those 50 people are Local 853 members,” Torres says with pride. “This is what we do!”

On June 8 and July 6, Local 853 brought its barbeque to Watsonville and Santa Cruz literally to serve the members! The Local held BBQs at Watsonville Hospital, where about 24 members came out; the HA Rider bottling plant, where they fed 50 members, and at Driscoll’s (Fruit & Vegetable Growers, Packers & Shippers), which had the largest turnout, with about 100 members.
The three groups of workers had been in Local 912, which merged with Local 853 in 2021.

“We wanted to acclimate our members to Local 853,” said Business Rep Steven Lua. “When we merged last year, with the pandemic still raging, we really didn’t get a chance to do membership appreciation for the companies in Santa Cruz and Watsonville.” Lua says his goal was to introduce the members to Local 853 and to let them know what the local is about. “This Local puts members first. We wanted to show the members our appreciation for their first year in Local 853.”

Lua also wanted to thank the Business Reps who attended the events and fired up the barbecue. This includes Steve Beck, Ray Torres, Ralph Campos, Santos Lerma, Mike Henneberry, Cesar Martinez, and Trustee Reggie Knighten.