Local 287

San Jose Convention Center Workers are pleased to have a contract after four-year struggle
San Jose Convention Center Workers are pleased to have a contract after four-year struggle

Justice for trade show workers

Teamsters Local 287 has just reached agreement on a three-year contract with Team San Jose management who run the San Jose Convention Center. “This new agreement will cover all work performed at the San Jose Convention Center as far as loading, unloading, forklift and marshaling yard work,” says President/Business Agent Bob Blanchet. Starting pay will be over $30 per hour with $7.80 going to the Western Conference pension, plus many other benefits. Blanchet says that the union has been working on this contract for more than four years.

“This agreement with the Center is the first of its type in California and will provide a long-term relationship for our members. Its great that our members who live in the community will finally have good paying jobs.”

New MV Transport workers get contract

The dispatchers at the Outreach Paratransit facility in San Jose who work for MV Transportation just joined Teamsters Local 287. “This new group of 16 dispatchers will have the protection of a Teamster contract and the benefits that go with it, including the Western Conference pension,” says Blanchet. Now, Local 287 represents 365 members who work at MV Transportation sites.

Class action victory for 500 members

On June 12, the Santa Clara County Superior Court granted preliminary approval to a $1.75 million class action settlement on behalf of about 500 employees across the state who had worked for Univar, the nation's leading distributor of industrial and manufacturing chemicals, since 2004.

The lawsuit had its start at Local 287, which represents a unit of warehouse, tank farm, and drivers at Univar's San Jose facility.

When the company terminated a Local 287 member in 2007, Secretary- Treasurer Bill Hoyt and Business Agent George Netto backed the member and took the case to arbitration. During that process, it came to light that Univar’s employees were not receiving rest and meal periods required by California law.

In July 2008, Local 287 attorney Michael Nelson, of the Law Office of Michael D. Nelson in San Francisco, filed suit against Univar on behalf of 13 Local 287 members. Nelson was then joined by employment class action attorneys Miles Locker and Rachel Folberg, of Locker Folberg in San Francisco, and the case was litigated as a state-wide class action on behalf of the approximately 500 employees who had worked for Univar since 2004.

In April, 2009, the workers and company reached a settlement. They are now working together to gain final court approval of the settlement this fall.

Local 912

Members at Americold get union and contract

The 16 employees who work at Americold, a freezer storage group in Watsonville, worked to get union representation and now have a contract with Local 912.

The campaign started after the IBT negotiated “card check neutrality” with Americold on a national basis, which means that the company will recognize the union once a majority of workers sign union cards.

International organizer John Hernandez came to town in October, 2008, brought the group together and got them to sign cards. “It took a remarkably short period of time,” says Local 912 Secretary-Treasurer Brad Sebring. “We started negotiating a contract with the company and reached agreement in June. We used the national contract as a starting template and improved upon it. It’s a pretty good contract—especially for first time agreement.”

Sebring says he is hopeful that the company will grow, and he welcomes these first 16 members to the Teamsters union.

Local 853

Member donates kidney to neighbor

Jim McEvoy has worked at Right- Away Redi Mix for 20 years. A strong union supporter, he was instrumental in the Teamsters Local 853 organizing drive at that company 10 years ago and has been an active member ever since. In February, he did something else above the call of duty; he donated a kidney to his neighbor, Kim Mendes.

Due to the side effects of Type 1 diabetes, Mendes needed a kidney transplant. Once McEvoy learned she was going on the donor list and beginning dialysis, he offered to help. “I’m not Lance Armstrong, and you don’t have to be,” McEvoy told the San Leandro Times. “I’m just a normal healthy guy with two kids and a mortgage.”

The tests came back and McEvoy and Mendes were a match. The surgery was originally scheduled for last October, but at the last minute, Mendes’ doctors discovered that she needed a triple bypass. A few months later, she was ready to go and the surgery took place on December 19. They were both home by Christmas.

“Jim saved me when none of my own family members were eligible to donate,” Mendes said. McEvoy is back to work while Mendes faces more recovery but the pair check up on one another on their daily walks with their dogs.

“I’m aware that I donated my kidney,” says McEvoy. “But I’m unaware that I’m missing anything.”

Local 890

Local 890 members Manuel Ramirez and Esther Lujan distributed handbills at the Olive Garden in San Jose
Local 890 members Manuel Ramirez and Esther Lujan distributed
handbills at the Olive Garden in San Jose

Olive Garden’s food supplier is unfair to workers

Neil Jones Food Company, doing business as San Benito Foods in Hollister, CA, has implemented its “final offer” to 500 Local 890 members. The “final offer” includes the elimination of all benefits for all but 70 of the employees. The company is eliminating the health insurance, pension and holidays of these workers. The union has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

One of San Benito Foods’ key customers is the Olive Garden chain of restaurants. San Benito workers and their supporters will be distributing flyers every weekend at Olive Garden restaurants in Fremont, Hayward, San Jose, Palo Alto, and Sacramento. If you can help with the handbilling, please contact Local 890 at 1-800-300-5743.

Local 315

Members to Sanitary Board: Don’t contract out work

Teamsters Local 315 members expressed strong opposition to the Novato Sanitary District Board’s proposal to outsource jobs at the wastewater treatment plant. The union and its members claim that this move negatively impacts current district employees and places critical municipal services in the hands of an entity whose primary loyalty is to its owners, rather than to the community.

“There is a misconception that our union approves of the board’s plan to hire an outside contractor to run the plant,” said Dale Robbins, Secretary- Treasurer of Teamsters Local 315. “This could not be further from the truth. The union’s position is that the board’s first priority should be to keep these jobs within the district. However, if the board decides to proceed with its ill-advised plan to hire an outside contractor, we have negotiated an agreement to ensure that the jobs at the wastewater treatment plant remain union, thus providing some guarantee that wages and benefits will not be needlessly slashed.

“Furthermore, the hiring of a private contractor to operate the plant means that the displaced public employee workforce will be unable to continue making contributions to their current public sector pension and retiree healthcare plans. This is unfair to the current employees who are just a few years from retirement, and may now be forced to start over with a new fund and a new employer. In this job market, is it really fair or essential for the NSD Board to take these positions and place them in the hands of an outside contractor who has no loyalty to the community?” Robbins asked.

Local 70

New building celebrated with open house

On Saturday, June 13, Local 70 invited members and their families to celebrate their new building with an open house, barbecue and building tour. This was also an opportunity for members to thank former Secretary-Treasurer Chuck Mack for his years of service to the Local, and to welcome incoming Secretary-Treasurer Marty Frates.