The flight back to DC from Austin was pleasant, if not, relaxing. I am sitting at home with my coffee thinking of the incredible conversations I was fortunate enough to have with folks; and how elated I am that people are genuinely interested in the union movement.
On Sunday afternoons I like to look at union victories. Usually I just post them to my site http://www.unionreview.com without a great deal of explanation as to why I am celebrating and sharing the news of the victories; this afternoon I thought to try something a little different in light of the many discussions held in Austin.
My goal [today] is to tell of an organizing victory and one excellent move by the Iowa Governor and then share why we celebrate this stuff.
I hope you enjoy.
While I was in Austin I got the news that another First Transit yard voted to join the Teamsters, where I work. The first thing I did was look at the voting numbers because my online organizing rarely brings me face-to-face with the business unit (the business unit are the workforce organizing for the union). When I learn that a vote just squeaks by, I often look into that closer and further behind the scenes to help raise awareness, but when the vote is overwhelming -- I want the world to know, right away.
By an overwhelming vote of 18-2, drivers with First Transit in Newark, Ohio voted to join Local 637 in Zanesville; and that's a huge margin. It means to me that these drivers were fairly well pissed off with their company and learned, in their organizing drive, how and why the union would help them with their life planning. In this particular yard a lot of the workers possessed prior knowledge, meaning they were either Teamsters once before or they are spouses of Teamsters; that helped this drive... a lot.
"The workers sought out representation from our local because they are looking to make improvements in their job, including fair wages, better health care insurance and fair treatment," said John Sheriff, Secretary-Treasurer and Business Agent with Local 637.
The workers provide transportation services for Licking County Transit; and a contract proposal meeting for the bargaining unit has already been scheduled for early August.
You see there is a process with this stuff. First the workers mobilize. Then they organize (they discuss what they need and why), then they push forward to vote in the union. Not an easy process -- especially without the Employee Free Choice Actin place. If the business unit wins the election (they are voting for union representation), a strong union usually then pushes right away for a contract negotiation meeting - the Teamsters are strong and knew it had to get to the table right away to help these workers, that's why we announce the scheduled meeting for August at the same time as the victory (it doesn't always happen this way).
The Newark First Transit workers join their coworkers across the nation in choosing the Teamsters. In the past two years, more than 9,600 private school bus and transit workers have joined the Teamsters, with nearly 5,000 voting to become Teamsters since January 2008. You can learn about our School Bus and Transit Campaign by visiting http://www.schoolbusworkersunited.org. You should feel free to get a user name and password at the blog and let our newest members know you are proud of their accomplishment in unionizing, commend their bravery in doing this at a time when our economy is beyond brutal and anti-union ads run on television.
Last week another piece of great news surfaced in Iowa.
Governor Chet Culver signed an executive order to explore employee misclassification among Iowa companies attempting to cut employee and state benefits to illegally save millions of dollars each year.
Culver’s signing of Executive Order 8 would create a five-member Independent Contractor Reform Task Force to study employers’ attempts to exploit workers and avoid paying millions in taxes to the state. By classifying employees as "independent contractors," employers avoid paying into Iowa’s unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation insurance, and temporary disability insurance while limiting employee rights at the workplace.
If anyone bumped into me while in Austin I might have mentioned something about misclassification. We were talking a lot about FedEx and how it misclassified almost all of its ground drivers. We handed out green colored booklets that go into that disaster and what we are doing to fight it for the workers that need it, and that said, "Governor Culver took a step in the right direction toward ensuring that hardworking families and law-abiding employers will once again be protected from tax cheats throughout Iowa," said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. "Employers intentionally misclassifying workers illegally funnel tax dollars into their own pockets, forcing the majority of Iowans to pick up the tab on this illegal underground economy."
In other words, when workers are misclassified a whole lot of money is being made off their hard work and sweat but, as you guessed, the workers aren't getting a great deal of that money flow. Weird, huh?
It is almost impossible to organize an independent contractor because, as the term goes, they are supposedly independent by choice. But that is clearly not always the case. More often than not there is a company, like FedEx that hires independent contractors but treats them like employees without employee benefits. So, we celebrate the Governor of Iowa for doing the right thing ... Not all news is bad news.
There are union victories every day of the week -- but rarely do they make it into the news stream. They make it to Changetowin.org, unionreview.com, teamster.org and many other labor-related sites, but never on CNN. This is for a few reasons. For one, we are in an anti-union environment and a pro-business environment. The separation of the two, workers and management, is manifest to larger degree than ever by groups like Chambers of Commerce and others. Another reason is that there is no labor beat in the daily news publications. Anything labor now appears in the business section and most often it is not in favor of the workers. Another reason, and one which I want to combat with everyone reading this, is because people simply don't understand what the hell labor is about and why it so concerned with the Employee Free Choice Act, Misclassification of Workers, and against so called free trade agreements with Colombia and other countries.
Last month I wrote a round up piece after doing a bit of traveling for union business. I wrote how so few of us know who labor really is ... and how we are just everyday people with families who watch a little TV now and then, or whatever. The round-up was to shed light on a few workers I talked with to share another face of labor. That post is here.
I welcome you all to become user name and password-members of UnionReview.com -- please use the site as though it were your own. Share your stories with us!
Please take the time to visit the other sites mentioned also. Please comment about this stuff and write about it in your own diaries and UR. I ask for this help because now, more than ever, we need to continue to have victories to report on Sundays ...