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.”