Teamsters Internation Vice President Tom Erickson gave a strong shout-out to the Performance Food Groups workers in Gilroy, California, in support of their unionizing vote. Steve Beck, Ray Torres, and the entire staff at Teamsters Local 853 were also commended for the work they are doing.
It takes this kind of support to make sure our newest Sisters and Brothers have the backing to get in there and fight hard for a great contract.
Let’s go PFG workers, fight hard for your future!!!
Sisters and Brothers, In the battle for labor rights, there are two sides.
On our side, Unions fight to provide workers with good living wages and benefits for the work they do. On the other side are the employers and corporations that tirelessly pursue the exploitation of workers. Reducing wages and benefits so that they can make more profits for their owners.
This week, these two forces went head-to-head at Senator Bernie Sander’s hearing on Union-busting. Millionaire Republican Senator & business owner Markwayne Mullin questions Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. Senator Mullin used his time to air typical union-busting talking points. Implying that Unions are not needed because employers treat their employees so well.
The Players
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, a fourth-generation Teamster, has tirelessly battled for workers and their rights since the age of 18. Sean was present and being questioned by Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, whose reported net worth is between $31.6 million to $75.6 million.
Watch Sean O’Brien call out senator Mullin for being a greedy CEO. Mullin claimed his salary was 50K a year. So how did he become a multi-millionaire?
Senator Mullin refused to engage in any meaningful dialog, instead expressing a laundry list of common Union-busting playbook points. At one point, Sean O’Brien called the Senator on his out-of-line, union-busting rhetoric, and the Senator got so frustrated he told Sean “you need to shut your mouth”. Watch below.
Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, whose reported net worth is between $31.6 million to $75.6 million, claims he only paid himself $50,000 year. Mullin, at the hearing, claimed he started his career with “nothing” or “less than nothing.” His version of “nothing” was to take over his father’s plumbing business which had six employees at the time.
Watch Senator Mullin state that inheriting a six-person company from his dad was starting with “less than nothing.” How many workers would have loved to have senator Mullin’s version of “nothing”? His entitled perspective shows how out of touch he is with the circumstances of everyday workers in America.
Watch Senator Mullin use grossly inaccurate data to justify his anti-Union line of inquiry and watch O’Brien call him on it.
It’s up to all of us to fight back. How? Be an active member & get involved.
Sisters and Brothers, it is important to take the lessons from this incident and always understand that if we don’t remain active and vigilant against employers, they will always have politicians like Senator Mullin and Lobbyists working endlessly to strip you of the good paying jobs and benefits we have fought so hard for.
Self-righteous businessmen like Senator Mullin and other millionaire businessmen will always feel entitled to take what they want from their employees. They don’t want you to unionize because it gives workers the power to fight on equal footing with employers who would otherwise hold all the power.
Be as active as possible in our Union; we need your participation to strengthen us as we continue the fight for Union members everywhere.
Please help our fight and share this post with any Union sisters and brothers or Union-friendly people.
Every year the James R. Hoffa Memorial Scholarship Fund awards scholarships to qualified children and financial dependents of Teamster members.
Academic scholarships range from $1,000 to $10,000 for high school seniors planning to attend a four-year college or university and Training/Vocational program awards of up to $2,000 for use at community colleges and trade schools.
On April 19, Local 853 members who work at UPS joined union members across the state in Sacramento to call on elected leaders to support AB 701, introduced by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego). This bill develops a warehousing policy aimed at decreasing worker injury and making transparent the debilitating quotas set by giant corporations, such as Amazon and Walmart.
The group built an interactive demonstration at the steps of California\’s State Capitol building, where they challenged Assemblymembers to step into the shoes of an Amazon warehouse worker and try to meet their average quota for just three minutes. While many legislators were game to try, after much hustling and running around, not one of them successfully met the quota.
The bill is still wending its way through the legislative process.
Since the pandemic began, paratransit drivers who transport the sick, the elderly, and the disabled in small buses have been at great risk for COVID. After a plea from Teamsters Union and the San Francisco paratransit company TransDev, the City and County of San Francisco agreed that these workers should be considered “first responders” and are now eligible to get the vaccine.
On January 19, Transdev announced that the plea was heard and its 72 Teamster drivers, bus aides, and road supervisors will now be prioritized to receive COVID vaccinations.
“Many paratransit riders are from high-risk communities, such as the elderly and the disabled…who require close physical interaction with their drivers,” said Teamsters Western Region Vice President and principal officer of Teamsters Local 853 Rome Aloise in a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom when seeking a similar designation for paratransit drivers statewide.
“The vast majority of our members have been working in the field since the pandemic started; they work in warehouses and manufacturing, they drive trucks and make deliveries, they work in construction. However, the transportation bus drivers are the hardest hit, as they do all of their work with numerous passengers in the confined space of a bus,” Aloise added. “We are currently working to ensure that school bus drivers be eligible for the vaccine when this opportunity opens to teachers and other school employees.”
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