Merger of Joint Councils 7 and 38 builds
Teamster strength and efficiencies

Merger map

 

On January 1, Joint Council 38 - which stretches from Bakersfield to the south up to the two northern counties of California, and east to include Reno and northern Nevada - and Joint Council 7 - which encompasses the Greater Bay Area, from Santa Rosa to King City - merged, making ours the third largest council in the nation.

In 1907, Joint Council 7 was the first council chartered by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Recognizing the historic value of the Joint Council 7 designation, the Executive Board of Joint Council 38 unanimously voted to maintain the Joint Council 7 name.

“We’re doing this to consolidate our assets and to achieve greater efficiency,” explains Joint Council 7 President Rome Aloise. “Ultimately, we combine our strengths and that’s better for our members.”

Joint Council 38 had been founded in 1927, primarily to represent cannery workers up and down the Central Valley. The council currently has 10 local unions, with a total of about 35- 40,000 members—the large variance comes from the peak numbers in August of cannery workers. Like all Teamster units, the council represents workers in numerous job titles and industries; its largest industries are dairy, food processing, construction, UPS, and canneries.

With 12 local unions and about 50,000 members in those industries and more, Joint Council 7 celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2007.

According to the Teamster constitution, the job of the joint council is to oversee jurisdictional disputes among the locals. However, over the years, joint councils have expanded their duties to include supporting organizing, conducting contract negotiations, particularly those that impact multiple local unions, and dealing with legislation and politicians in the geographic region.

“This merger has been in discussion over the last few years,” explains Joint Council 38 President John Souza, who has been a Local 386 member and leader for 41 years, and has headed the council for four years. “Our Executive Board felt it would be in the best interest of our members to merge with Joint Council 7; we see it as a mutual benefit because a larger joint council brings greater strength and the ability to better represent our members in many areas, like organizing.”

The merger means that both councils will have representatives on the new Executive Board. Rome Aloise will continue in his role as President. Serving with him from the current Joint Council 7 board will be Robert Morales (Local 350), Ernie Yates (Local 665) and Carlos Borba (Local 315); and coming from the current Joint Council 38 board will be Dave Hawley (Local 137), Darrell Pratt (Local 431) and Lucio Reyes (Local 601). Moving to the Advisory Board will be Bill Hoyt (Local 287), Joe Lanthier (Local 856), Steve Mack (Local 853), Vic Shada (Local 150), Scott Lupo (Local 517) and Jim Tobin (Local 150).

Delegate meetings will likely alternate between the Bay Area and the Central Valley.

“The foundation for the new Joint Council is set,” says Aloise. “But we still have a lot of details to work out. We’ll be starting with a fresh slate on how we handle organizing and political activities and how we restructure to better assist our membership across this large and diverse region. I believe this is the right decision to enable us to move with strength and cohesion into the future.”