The response to my Teamsters at YearlyKos; A Call to Action! diary was phenomenal. Somany of you participated in the thread that we managed to impress the Teamsters.
Today they called me and we started working together with one specific goal in mind; the unionization of school bus workers in the US. So, thank you Kossacks, now the fun starts.
Take a look at this Teamsters website page where my diary is highlighted just bellow the YouTube of the Markos Moulitsas and Jimmy Hoffa’s grand entrance and Jimmy’s speech. I am so honored to have gotten this far with what started as casual conversation at the Teamsters cookout in YearlyKos.
But the finish line is nowhere near. With your help we can work with the Teamsters to fight back a company that is making life miserable for thousands of workers and is placing American kids at risk right now.
First things first.
- Let’s organize a group of volunteers
- Let’s understand what we are up against
I will create a mailing list of volunteers and keep everyone informed of new diaries (we need Recommends to get exposure) and new developments.
I am looking for people who want to help brainstorm strategy (I will create a Yahoo Group for the steering committee), contact local or national media and government, picket if necessary and in general bring other Kossacks up to speed about how to work with unions.
We have us a worthy adversary, First Group of the UK owns First Student in the US which in turn has acquired Laidlaw. These are big guys, a multi billion global transportation conglomerate, but I know we are up to the challenge.
There are some anti-trust issues being discussed in Congress about this Laidlaw acquisition but this is something I have not yet researched. This issue is holding up the acquisition until November. Should we do something about this?
Here are some recent articles about First Group and First Student;
From The Guardian;
No Labour man would ever have leapt on this bus
On Thursday, three days after Campbell's book launch, First Group, who employ him as a 'brand, sports sponsorship and charity consultant', will hold its annual general meeting in Aberdeen. Managers and shareholders will have to pass a picket of low-paid American bus drivers, demanding that the conglomerate respect their human rights.
Alastair Campbell will probably be one of the First Group hired guns we will face. This is a name that shall go down in infamy from even before his new incarnation as a First Group union buster. Alistair, you see, was Director of Communications and Strategy for Tony "The Poodle" Blair and he was responsible for fabricating lies about Iraq WMD in the run up to the war. This guy has ZERO credibility and we know what to expect from him.
This from Wikipedia;
In February 2003 he was a central figure in the alleged "dodgy dossier" controversy. A dossier on Iraqi concealment of Weapons of mass destruction and human rights abuses under Saddam Hussein was published on February 3. The dossier purported to be based on intelligence but a large section had been taken (unacknowledged) from a PhD thesis available on the internet.
A few months later he became embroiled in further controversy after the BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan broadcast claims that the government had included evidence it knew to be false (famously described as "sexed up" by another BBC journalist) in an earlier dossier (about Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction). In a later newspaper article Gilligan said that his source had specifically identified Campbell himself as responsible for the alleged exaggerations. Campbell demanded a retraction and apology from the BBC, but none was forthcoming.
I don’t know about you guys but I am champing at the bit to make his job very difficult for Mr. Campbell, to say the least.
The Teamsters have already taken the fight to the UK. I call on UK based Kossacks to lend a hand.
July 10, 2007
(London) - Teamsters are fighting on many fronts to force a Scottish multinational to treat its U.S. workers with dignity. This week, bus drivers who have been harassed and intimidated by First Student are traveling to London and to Aberdeen to tell all who will listen—including the parent company’s top management—of their mistreatment.
More about First Student from the Teamsters website and from the School Bus Workers United website.
A Teamsters counterpart in the UK, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) has joined the fight too;
In the USA, FirstGroup’s subsidiary, First Student, has come under increasing scrutiny. First Student hires drivers and maintains bus fleets for school systems that have privatised their operations. According to unions, the privatised part of the school transportation industry is characterised by poor working conditions, low wages and rampant casualisation. When drivers in some First Student locations began talking with their coworkers about uniting to improve conditions at First Student depots, some managers reacted with aggressive anti-union campaigns.
I have also found this trade publication that I need help understanding their possible role;
http://www.schoolbusfleet.com/...
So Kossacks, email to volunteer at;
schoolbusworkers(at)yahoo(dot)com
Next year at the 1st Netroots Nation convention (replaces YearlyKos for those who did not hear Gina speak) I want to have a party to celebrate the unionization of the school bus workers of America with our Teamster brothers and sisters.
Today all we have is our keyboards, passion and good will but this can be enough to provide the margin for victory.
Thank you already.