Your Weingarten Rights 

The boss wants to talk to you in the office for a minute.  You've been late a few times this week, and you figure this is just another routine dose of harassment.

But when you go in there, he's got the warehouse manager with him.  And they do want to talk about lateness, but also about a few other things you weren't expecting.  Out of the nowhere the boss asking you if Tommy's been taking long breaks again, and if Anthony's still showing up drunk after lunch.

Now it's two against one, and guess what--you should've used your Weingarten Rights and brought the steward with you.

Workers still have a few rights left in this country, and we should use them when we can.  If the boss want to talk to you, you've got the right to say:

"If this discussion could in any way lead to my being disciplined or terminated, or affect my personal working conditions, I respectfully request that my union representative, officer, or steward be present at this meeting. Without representation present, then...

I choose not to participate in this discussion."

 Even if you think you know everything about Weingarten, Take this Quiz on Weingarten Rights provided by the Teamsters.  You might be surprised what you learn.

Wow, things are even worse at Lehman than everyone thought. Today a New York Times article reported losses for the quarter totaling $2.8 billion.

The issue came up tonight at the union meeting when a member asked Daniello how the union was responding to the crisis at Lehman Brothers.  George said that the trustees are scheduled to meet with Lehman Brothers later this week to discuss the situation.

But it’s easy to see that Lehman’s just doing damage control.  Talking to them won’t do any good.  At this point we don’t need another sales job—we need professional advice from a neutral analyst.  Hopefully the trustees will see this and take some action.

Striking Workers to Receive Unemployment

For once New York state legislators have changed labor law in our favor.  Now striking and locked-out workers will receive unemployment insurance starting from the day their companies hire scabs to replace them.

Previously, workers in New York had to wait seven weeks on the picket line before receiving unemployment checks.  Now many will get it immediately.

For Local 814 members, this is particularly significant.  Members at Sotheby’s are heading into contract negotiations, and they may have to strike to get a fair deal.  Now each member will receive $405 per week that he or she is out on the street.

Movers will also benefit from the new law.  In 2005 Local 814 movers went on strike for three weeks.  Next year they may have to do so again, and this law will ensure every member will have some money coming in while they’re out on strike.

Members Press Daniello At Stewards Meeting

UPDATE: Union Says Moving Contracts on Their Way

At the March 10th quarterly meeting, Daniello stated that the contract books are being printed.  He also said that any additional changes would be mailed to the members.  

We are coming up on our third year without a contract book.  Hopefully we'll get those contracts soon.  

Union, Members Defeat Hanover “Delivery” Scheme  

After a two-year fight, members have finally forced Hanover Moving and Storage to cancel its “delivery service.”  The twenty-four members who worked for the “service” have been added to the seniority list and will now receive full union wages and benefits.

This was great news for Local 814.  The delivery service set a bad precedent and was a danger to every mover in our union. 

The problem was that the company was paying the delivery guys much less than union scale.  Though the delivery service was only supposed to make small deliveries, Hanover was using them to do full commercial moving jobs.  By using this “service”, the company was saving thousands of dollars on wages and benefits. 

And the more Hanover used the delivery service, the less they needed their list.  It was a great scheme for the company, but a bad deal for both the seniority list and the low-paid delivery workers.

The victory over this scheme did not happen over night.  Two years ago Teamsters For Change published a newsletter about“Hanover’s Dirty Secret” that talked about the "delivery service" sham.  The newsletter raised awareness of the issue and put pressure on the union to take some action.

Members at Hanover were getting fed up as well.  They held a shop steward’s election and elected Jim M., a guy with some guts who was willing to stand up to the company. 

But standing up wasn’t easy.  When the union took the delivery service case to arbitration, they lost.  It wasn’t until the members and the union teamed up on the company that Hanover gave in and added the guys to the list.  

Now the delivery service is no more and the Hanover list is working again.  Congrats—this win shows what can happen when members get involved, get organized, and the union gets behind them.  

How Strong is 814?   

How strong is Teamsters Local 814? Not as strong as it could be. At the moment we’re losing members faster than we’re gaining them. But we don’t have to give up and just fade away. The union could step up to the plate and take some action.

Non-union movers want to join 814—they want benefits, pensions and rights on the job.  And there’s certainly no shortage companies to target.  We’ve all seen their trucks: Sher/Del, American, Time, Liberty, BRS.

The union leadership could take a few easy steps that would put us on track to organize the non-union competition. First, they should hire a fulltime organizer. Since we have limited resources, this person would have to be a real utility player. They would have to check jobs, coordinate an organizing strategy, do stewards trainings, run the volunteer organizing committee and maybe even handle a few grievances.

Hiring an organizer would be an investment, because nothing builds the treasury like organizing new dues-paying members. But an organizer will not be enough. Successful organizing campaigns involve members, and the local must aggressively recruit and train volunteers to talk to non-union movers about joining the union.

In the end, the decision is simple: we have to organize or die. Daniello could take a few steps that would put us on the path toward prosperity. Will he do it?

Riches to Rags: 

What Happened to the Welfare Fund?

In 2005 members of Teamsters Local 814 got some bad news: the Pension Fund was way down.  It turns out the Fund had lost more than $40 million in just a few years.  But there was no need to panic, our union officials reminded us--at least the Welfare Fund was okay.

That would soon change.  A year later the Welfare Fund was in trouble too, and members suffered two rounds of health care cuts.  Now we have deductibles, high co-pays, and a lifetime maximum $500,000.  So the question remains, what happened?  Was the Welfare Fund in trouble from the start, or did the trustees mismanage the money?

According to the Annual Welfare Fund Report, on January 1, 2005, the Fund had a reserve of nearly $14 million—a comfortable amount of savings.

Had the trustees simply left the Welfare Fund alone, odds are there would never have been any medical cuts.  We would still be paying five or ten dollars to see a doctor, and there would be no deductibles, co-payments or lifetime maximums.  But unfortunately, our officials had other plans...

[click "Read more..." below]