Union Solutions

Why join a Union?

There seems to be no shortage of worries about joining a Union.  No shortage of nay sayers giving their reasons not to join a Union.  So what are some reasons to join a Union.

Some are easy: people want better pay or better benefits.  After all, Unions can bargain for wages, benefits and working conditions.  If you pay attention, most company responses to Union organizing attempts focus primarily on economic issues: wages and benefits.  You can expect to hear: We run a thin profit margin, we can't afford to pay you more; you can't squeeze blood from a turnip; it's Obama's fault your insurance is so expensive.  Maybe the company even tells you that if you choose to organize, we'll just close up shop?

But what conversation is there about working conditions?  Most companies do not want to talk about that.  Why would that be?  What would they say?  We don't value your opinions regarding dispatching you out for four hours, unpaid, waiting on trash at a transfer station?  We don't think your concerns about pulling double 45's in the snow are valid?  We don't respect your judgement as a professional driver?  It is not our concern that your spouse is facing serious illness and you need time off?  They don't have to say that, because their actions say it for them.  Everyday.  Despite promising to have "an open door" to help "build the right relationship" for a "brighter future for everyone"?

We talk about Union Solutions, but really they are your solutions.
Solutions like seniority, which may not be perfect, but it is very hard to cheat seniority for personal gain.
Solutions like guaranteed scheduled time off so you can schedule and go to a doctor's appointment without burning a week's vacation, or begging your boss.
Solutions like disciplinary language to ensure you have access to due process and are given the opportunity to correct a behavior or plead your case before losing your job.
Solutions like the grievance procedure which allow you to respectfully address concerns you may have with your employer and expect a response.
Solutions like requirements to bargain which means they must engage in good faith attempts to address issues, they can't just "close the door to the office" and "not deal with you as individuals anymore."
Solutions like the Contract itself, which puts the company's word in stone, and forces them to keep it.  So if they tell you you're getting a third week of vacation at 9 years, you get it at 9 years.  Or if the law requires that you can drop that second trailer in the snow, you know you can do so without any fear of retaliation.

And perhaps the biggest solution of all, you have a collective bargaining agent, or an advocate, who works for you to see that your interests are being looked after and that you are getting a fair shake.  Where else in your life do you have someone you can call when there is a problem at work?  Someone whose job it is to protect your job, which in turn protects your family and your life?  Nowhere.

Union Solutions not only give you a voice at work, but also consistency over time.  You know what the rules are because you and your fellow drivers agreed to them.  You know that these rules will not change because they have a contractually binding lifetime, as outlined in the agreement.  You know that they won't change if a new boss comes in.  And most importantly, you know you will be taken seriously because you have chosen one of America's strongest Unions to represent you as your bargaining agent.  You've chosen the Teamsters.

These are but a few of the many examples of solutions other Teamsters have negotiated into their contracts over time.  It is illegal for either Union or the Company to make any promises during the organizing process.  But it is important for workers to understand what is not generally talked about, and is really very valuable: when it comes to a Labor Contract, you'll show up to see the economics, but you'll stay because of the conditions.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Teamsters Local Union 222 at 801.972.1898 and ask for Britt, ext. 17.

STRIKE!!!!

Have I got your attention?

Strikes are serious business.  They are serious for companies, they are serious for workers, and they are serious for Unions.  But not all strikes are the same.  And that is a very important issue.

But don't worry, I'm not trying to scare you, I just want to provide you with some facts about strikes.  And you don't have to take my word for it, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will tell you the same things right HERE.

ECONOMIC STRIKE:  If the object of a strike is to obtain from the employer some economic concession such as higher wages, shorter hours, or better working conditions, the striking employees are called economic strikers. They retain their status as employees and cannot be discharged, but they can be replaced by their employer. If the employer has hired bona fide permanent replacements who are filling the jobs of the economic strikers when the strikers apply unconditionally to go back to work, the strikers are not entitled to reinstatement at that time. However, if the strikers do not obtain regular and substantially equivalent employment, they are entitled to be recalled to jobs for which they are qualified when openings in such jobs occur if they, or their bargaining representative, have made an unconditional request for their reinstatement. 

UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICE (ULP) STRIKE: Employees who strike to protest an unfair labor practice committed by their employer are called unfair labor practice strikers. Such strikers can be neither discharged nor permanently replaced. When the strike ends, unfair labor practice strikers, absent serious misconduct on their part, are entitled to have their jobs back even if employees hired to do their work have to be discharged. 

THE UNION CALLING A STRIKE:  It sounds awfully sketchy, why would a worker choose to put that level of authority in the hands of someone with no skin in the game?  Calling strikes to save face, potentially forcing you to honor the picket line, subjecting you to all manner of 

TRIALS,  DISCIPLINE, and FEES!!!! 

This Local Union does NOT call strikes.  We, as individual members, engage in the democratic process at all times.  This includes strikes.  If the decision is made to go out on strike, that decision will be made by you and your fellow MBI Drivers.  Nobody else.  That means a majority (and we are talking about a vast majority) of drivers have chosen to strike. If the majority of drivers do not vote to go out on strike, there is no strike.  Do not believe for a moment that this decision is made by somebody else.  It is made by you.

Now wait a moment: did your employer just send you a letter that starts out saying "the Union or its supporters" may tell you "that the Company will try to 'scare' you with strike talk" and then try to scare you with strike talk?  Why did they not mention the ULP Strike IF the Company wasn't trying to scare you?  Why would the company represent strikes as something you have no voice in determining IF the Company wasn't trying to scare you? Why would the Company suggest there are no protections for striking workers, when there are many, IF the Company wasn't trying to scare you? 

Of course the Union is going to tell you that the Company will try and scare you with talks of strikes. That is what companies do during organizing campaigns and this campaign is no different: they try and scare you into submission.  And it works.  Talk of closing the doors next Monday if the workers vote to organize on Wednesday, that is trying to scare you.  Saying they'll sell off the trucks and close down is trying to scare you.  Suggesting you will lose independence, or job security, or your hard earned wages are all attempts to scare you.  Suggesting that this Local does not follow through on grievances, or has no concern about timely negotiations are attempts to undermine our character, make us look shady.  If we are discredited, then our solutions are suspect.  Perhaps some of you recall a lively discussion wherein we predicted precisely what would be said about Local 222 and Unions? 

We want you to enjoy your rights.  And we are willing to tell you the truth to get you there.

Union Solutions, rooted in a democratic setting, protecting your due process, may seem to good to be true, but it is true.  And over 3,500 Utah Teamsters enjoy these rights, and their voice, both at work, and in their Union, everyday.  

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Teamsters Local Union 222 at 801.972.1898 and ask for Britt, ext. 17.

What An Authorization Card Looks Like.

This is what an Authorization Card from Local 222 looks like.  If you take the time to read it, you will find that your legal rights to Organize, as granted by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), are listed.  Then you will find a list of tactics your employer is prohibited from engaging in.  The  actual authorization part is at the bottom of the card; this is what an employee interested in organizing signs.  This card has the necessary information to verify whether the person signing it is a legitimate employee.  The cards, once collected, are sent to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal body of oversight, who then receives a list of eligible employees.  The names and information on the cards are compared to the list of employees to verify they are, in fact, employees.  At the end of the campaign, the cards are returned to the Local Union.  The Company will never see these cards.  Unless you, as a card signer, choose to tell your employer that you signed a card, your employer will never know who signed a card.
What you will not find on this card is any financial commitments.  No binding contract to cause the signer to pay dues, nor pay initiation fees, nor be in anyway liable for costs incurred by the Local Union in the organizing effort.  There is no legal mumbo jumbo that could ever be used to sue anyone who signs the card.  All the cards does is authorize Local 222 to represent the signer in collective bargaining.
Here are a few links to the NLRB website:
For the organizing process.  (Check the bottom of this page for Representation Election Process)

For your rights.




We are comfortable sending you to where you can find facts regarding these Authorization Cards because we have no interest in misleading people.  The card does nothing more that fulfill the first pre-petition step of obtaining an initial showing of interest.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Teamsters Local Union 222 at 801.972.1898 and ask for Britt, ext. 17.

Taking the Pain out of Hertz

 Solidarity Overcomes Greed and Racism at Hertz in 1941

If we could do it then, we can do it now.

Wielding His Wrench: Joe Nero's story personifies the Spirit of the Teamsters. He is immortalized in the bronze panel in the lobby of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Headquarters. 

Joe Nero and Friend

In 1941, Hertz Rent-A-Car purchased a Teamster service garage whose lead mechanic was Joe Nero, a black man in a mixed race garage.  The company plan was to replace Joe; they had no interest in him remaining the top mechanic.  As a campaign unfolded to divide Joe from the white mechanics, one of whom was a very close friend of Joe, the other mechanics pulled together to support the friendship, and they fought to protect Joe's job.

The Teamsters stood with the mechanics, and as the fight escalated, the mechanics stood with Joe.  The company repeatedly tested Joe, but being a talented mechanic, his knowledge was great and he beat each trial handily.  Joe was constantly proving why he was the top mechanic, but the company wanted him gone all the same.

If it is happening to a fellow worker at your work, it is your fight, too.
From slideshare.net

Joe Nero

As is often the case, when fair and honest methods fail to achieve cowardly goals, shameful strategies are employed.  A plan was devised, and the company sent Joe out on what was to be his final test: one designed to fail.  Joe was to deliver a car to a very important account, across town, and in a tight time frame.  Unbeknownst to Joe, this car had been given a few extra mechanical problems.  The sheer number of issues, the tight time frame, and the fact the car would be on the road and not in the garage, were all part of this dastardly plan.

But word got out.  The other mechanics discovered that Joe was being set up to fail.  This group of Teamster mechanics fought back.  They took to the road and supported their brother.

As Joe was driving across town the car started to fall apart.  Joe's fellow mechanics started appearing out of nowhere to assist in the road side repairs.  Multiple sets of hands went to work at each stop, fixing what had been sabotaged and good number of other problems.  As the clock ticked, the car and its escort of mechanics crawled across town, making its unstoppable way towards its goal.  By the time that car reached its destination, Joe and crew had repaired all the problems the company had engineered, and several they had not.  After this defeat, Hertz abandoned its attempt to dump Joe, and many years later, in 1971, he retired on his own terms.  Joe Nero lived another 33 years.

Think about this: in 1941, despite facing a concerted effort to divide and conquer across racial lines, and being subjected to rigged tests designed to guarantee failure, solidarity carried the day.  This is the spirit of the Teamsters, the soul of the Labor Movement, and why Joe Nero's story is immortalized in the Bronze Panel at the IBT Headquarters.


Joe Nero: 1900 - 2004
"Being in the union was the difference between a good life and a tough one. Still is.”