The Construction Trades Workforce Initiative(CTWI) held a fundraiser and mixer at Local 853 last week. CTWI is an important organization that works to ensure the long-term sustainability of the construction industry by bridging the gap between union construction labor and key stakeholders.
Teamsters Local 853 is part and parcel of the inner workings of many organizations like CTWI that keep Unions front and center when work is being done in the Bay Area.
“These functions are very important to members at Local 853”, Said Teamsters 853 Secretary-Treasurer Steve Beck, “we as an organization have to continually advocate for our members and make sure Union workers are used in as many projects as possible.”
Teamsters Local 853 represents a large unit of truck drivers (Class 7355’s) and track maintenance supervisors (7251’s) employed by the City and County of SF. Bargaining for a new contract for these members began in January.
From the onset of bargaining in the new year 853 members at the city made it clear that they were going to demand their worth in negotiations. They were backed up 100% by their stewards and that position was reiterated in every single bargaining session with the city. This along with the restoration of the right to strike by the public employees relations board got the city’s attention and led to a fully recommended settlement.
On April 29 the members votes were tallied, 80% of the unit voted and 91% voted yes. Given the uncertainty surrounding San Francisco’s budget this new contract will give Teamsters economic security through the next three years. If the solidarity evidenced at the table this round is present in future years that security will last for contracts to come.
San Francisco City Teamsters worked side by side Teamster Local 856 members, members of the consolidated crafts, SEIU, IFPTE, Machinists and Transport Workers and some seventeen other unions to bring this contract home. Rudy Gonzalez from the building Trades, Larry Mazolla from UA Local 38 and members of the general wage increase committee should be commended for their unflagging support. This contract is a perfect example of how working together creates wins.
Roughly 125 Teamster drivers and warehouse workers at Golden Brands in Sacramento ratified their new four-year contract at 92% approval this week. Wages and Medical Benefits took center stage at the negotiating table as this was a multi-vote effort. The members rejected the company’s first proposal outright. The committee took the second set of negotiated changes back to our members, and the second vote was spot on. The members really unified behind this new proposal and were overwhelmingly satisfied.
We would like to recognize the hard work of the negotiating committee, whose members put in the extra time and effort to accurately represent our members’ interests in this contract. Without whom, this contract would not have come together.
Thank you, Zach Glorioso, Kao Saechao, Finau Peini, and Sonny Chanthavilaychit.
We also want to recognize the efforts of Teamster 853 Secretary-Treasure Steve Beck, who lent his negotiating expertise to the committee by sitting in on the final round of negotiations. Steve was successful in getting our members a significant raise, especially in year 4 of the contract.
Congratulations to Golden Brands for sticking together and securing such a good contract.
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!
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.
