The War on Workers Comes to San Jose

Our Union’s 28th Annual International Convention featured reports from General President James P. Hoffa and local unions from around the country about efforts to fight the War on Workers in Wisconsin, Indiana, New Hampshire, and other states. In all of these places, politicians are trying to erase the rights of workers to collectively bargain. They are trying to destroy unions.

A high point for Conventiongoers was President Hoffa’s announcement that in Ohio we helped deliver more than 1.2 million signatures for a ballot initiative to overturn their anticollective bargaining law, when only 230,000 signatures were needed! Polls in Ohio show overwhelming support for our side.

If you think you can remain comfortable here in California, think again. In San Jose, the Mayor and some of the City Council are trying to rob City employees of their right to collectively bargain, just like in Wisconsin. And now they are going after Teamster jobs at the San Jose Airport.

Teamsters Locals 665 and 856 proudly represent employees in the parking, shuttle bus, and rental car operations at the Airport. Our members work for different employers who have contracts with the Airport.

Under these contracts, our members are guaranteed a prevailing wage rate regardless of which employer has the contract. Members who work in the construction industry will understand this. For Teamsters who work in the Airport parking lots, the average wage is about $18 per hour.

Now the Airport says when the contracts go out to bid that the employers only need to guarantee our members the Airport’s Living Wage, which is $12.94 per hour. That means our members will take a $5 per hour wage cut, on top of no raises for over two years. How can a person raise a family on $13 per hour in one of the most expensive areas in the country? It can’t be done.

When the City of San Jose adopted a Living Wage Ordinance, they intended to raise the wages of working families in San Jose. Now they are using it to lower wages. Shame on them.

Even worse, low-wage companies will undercut our union employers when these contracts go out to bid. San Jose is on a path to wipe out public and private sector unions and hundreds of Teamster jobs at the Airport. Even worse, if we don’t stop them, it could spread to contracts covering solid waste and recycling, the Convention Center, and other parking lots in the City. Those include Teamsters Locals 287 and 350. And if San Jose can do it, how many other places will follow suit?

We are Teamsters. We fight back.

Joint Council 7 President Rome Aloise is calling on the Teamsters Airline Division for help with Southwest Airlines, the Airport’s biggest customer. We are meeting with politicians to get support. And before this is over, labor unrest may come to the Airport. That’s where we show what we are made of. As we like to say, “I don’t want to strike, but I will if I have to!”

For more information on how we are fighting the War on Workers, see: http://www.teamster.org/content/stopthewaronworkers