Joint Council 38’s John Souza retires

 

After a 45-year career with the Teamsters that started in the Hershey Chocolate plant in Oakdale and grew to leadership positions in Local 386 and Joint Council 38, John Souza retired in January.

In 1965, Souza took a job at Hersheys and quickly became active in getting the plant organized into the Teamsters Union. Three years later, he was hired as a business rep for Local 386 and served in that position for the next 25 years until he became principal officer of the local in 1993. In 2006, he was elected President of Joint Council 38 and served in both positions until January, 2010.

In the course of his Teamster career, Souza was a trustee on the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust and is currently chair of the Northern California Teamsters Security Fund, with Delta Health Systems. He also served as a regional director of the food processing division for the IBT from 2003-2006.

“The thing I’m most proud of in my career is the ability to work for and to serve our members,” Souza said. “We do, without a doubt, have the best labor union in the country. It was an honor to help our members make a decent living, earn a good livelihood, and get a fair shake at work. Representing them at the workplace was the best way to help our members and their families.”

When asking Souza about his most memorable moments as a Teamster, two events came to mind. The first was the successful seven and a half week strike at Hershey back in 1972. “That was important because this was an eastcoast outfit that tried to act like they were still in Pennsylvania. But we stood up for ourselves and made them do things the California way.” Unfortunately, Hershey closed the plant a few years ago and moved all of its U.S. operations to Mexico, putting about 700 union members out of jobs.

The other important milestone was organizing the Modesto City Bus System drivers. “The process took five years and included numerous legal hurdles because the drivers were not covered by either the state or the NLRB. Ultimately, we were able to make it happen and those 100 drivers are still members of Local 386.”

One of Souza’s last acts as President of Joint Council 38 was to marshall the merger with Joint Council 7. “The merger makes sense. For many years, the two Joint Councils have had joint contracts with various employers enabling us to negotiate some of the best contracts in the nation,” Souza explained. “Having one Joint Council will strengthen our ability to meet that standard. We not only become one of the largest Joint Councils in the nation, we also gain efficiency through better coordination of communications and direction. We’ve got a lot to gain.”

“John spent more than 40 years representing Teamsters Local 386 members. He was a tireless leader fighting for workers’ rights in and out of the Teamsters union,” said Gaylord Phillips, who has taken over for Souza at Local 386. “All trade unionists owe John Souza a debt of gratitude for his commitment to the labor movement.”

"In just six months, we have lost to retirement the two longest serving officers in our state—John Souza and Chuck Mack. John was proof that a soft spoken, considerate, straight forward and non-political person can rise to the top of our union,” says Joint Council 7 President Rome Aloise. “John's word was his bond. I always enjoyed working with him as he was inventive and always looked for a solution. He came off as a gentle soul, but could be tough as nails when he needed to be. John leaves our union and his members better off for his many years of service. We wish him many years of health and happiness in retirement.”

Reflecting on the oath Teamster officers take every time they’re reelected, Souza said, “We have to remember that the members come first. That’s the foundation of our organization we can never lose sight of.”