Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Safeway Stocker Reinstated with Back Pay After Wrongful Suspension
“They threw me under the bus.”
Fortunately for Local 400 member Eric Jarrett, that wasn’t the end of the story.
Eric works as an overnight stocker at Safeway #1019 in Alexandria, Virginia. His store is one of the few locations that is supposed to be open 24 hours.
But one night, Eric was instructed to close the store when there was no cashier on duty. Even though he was following instructions, Eric’s manager suspended him and one of his coworkers.
“You have to have at least one checker in the store for it to stay open,” Eric said. “But the guy who normally does the job had hurt his shoulder and was home for two weeks. So the store had to be closed occasionally because we had no checker or because the floors had to be waxed. The store manager knew all about it. When customers started complaining, instead of accepting responsibility, they blamed it another stocker and me. But I am in no position to close the store. I wasn’t the one who decided to do it.”
Eric didn’t take this sitting down. He worked with his union representative and immediately filed a grievance and pursued it aggressively.
“I was out of work for three and a half weeks,” Eric said. “Tom [Rogers, his Local 400 representative] spoke on my behalf and did a marvelous job of getting me reinstated as fast as he could. I was impatient and apprehensive, but Tom calmed me down. He knew what he was doing and reached a good settlement.”
Eric was reinstated and awarded full back pay for the time of his suspension and justice was served.
“I’m good where I’m at right now, but as far as I’m concerned, Safeway owes me [and my coworker] an apology for throwing us under the bus,” Eric said. “Safeway used to be a good company, but they don’t care about their employees, only the bottom line. They’re making lots of money in my store, but they keep cutting back hours and running on a skeleton crew. This company can’t run by itself — they need us. I’m just thankful our union’s got our backs.”
Friday, August 17, 2018
The Meaning of Labor's Win in Missouri
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
A sign against Proposition A in Kansas City, Missouri, on August 1, 2018
Union supporters were able to rest easy on the primary night of Tuesday, August 7. Early in the evening, news outlets reported that the “right to work” initiative on the ballot was trailing badly, and many counties where it was expected to fail hadn’t yet tallied their votes.
Yet something extraordinary awaited those who put off sleep. As the night crept on, and the precinct results poured in, what looked initially like a solid labor victory turned into an absolute rout. In the end, two-thirds of Missouri voters rejected Proposition A, the state’s “right to work” bill, sinking it by a 67 percent to 33 percent margin.
The last time a “right to work” measure was on the ballot in Missouri was 40 years ago. Union supporters beat back that initiative in 1978 by a decisive 20 points.
The 1978 result might not have surprised many at the time. Back in the late 1970s, nearly one out of every four workers in Missouri belonged to a labor union, and union members and their leaders are always the core constituency opposing “right to work” campaigns.
With roughly a fourth of the workforce organized, another large fraction of the state’s electorate was married to, otherwise related to, or neighbors with a union member. They likely heard from members what researchers have found in studies of “right to work”: that the passage of these laws leads to declines in union memberships—an outcome, of course, that is a core motivation for “right to work” backers.
Declining union memberships, meanwhile, have their own set of consequences, none of them positive from the perspective of average workers.
Declining union memberships, meanwhile, have their own set of consequences, none of them positive from the perspective of average workers.A growing body of scholarshipfinds that membership declines are associated with lower pay and worse benefits, not only for formerly organized workers but also for non-union workers who benefit from a strong union presence.
That matters, because even at the peak of labor movement membership in both the United States and Missouri, the majority of workers weren’t unionized.
Patrick Denice and I have some forthcoming research which finds that non-union, private-sector workers—that is, the majority of the workforce—would earn substantially more if unions were as strong today as they were in the late 1970s. Among non-union men working full-time in the private sector, we find that annual pay would be approximately $3,170 higher had unionization rates not tumbled from the 1970s on. Among non-union, full-time women workers in the private sector, annual wages would be $935 higher absent union decline.
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These positive “spillover” effects are especially large in occupations where organized labor still retains a sizable presence in Missouri, like construction. A typical construction worker in the state earns $24 an hour, $7 more than the state’s median hourly wage. Had Proposition A passed, a predictable consequence would have been a reduction in the number of unionized construction workers, and with that, lower pay for union and non-union construction workers alike.
Outside of construction and a handful of other industries, the story for unions in Missouri has been bleak. Today, fewer than one in ten workers belongs to a union; the private-sector rate is 7.5 percent, just one point higher than the national average.
The decimation of organized labor in Missouri since the last time “right to work” was on the ballot makes the defeat of Proposition A all the more surprising—and, perhaps, important. It is one thing to vote down an anti-union measure when a sizable fraction of the electorate belongs to or is closely related to someone in a union. It is another thing altogether to do so when few workers have any direct or indirect experience with organized labor. In the end, four times as many Missourians voted against the measure as there are union members in the entire state. Opposition to the measure crossed party lines as well. Early calculations suggest as many as half of the Republican voters rejected Proposition A.
The hundreds of thousands of non-union voters who voted against Proposition A provide the real story of labor’s large win in Missouri. Contrary to conventional wisdom, unions are increasingly popular, surprisingly so given all the negative press and political hits they have taken over recent years. According to a 2017 Gallup poll, more than 60 percent of U.S. adults approve of labor unions. Far more Americans say unions should have more influence in this country rather than less. Younger Americans, in particular, approve of what unions do: Two-thirds of those aged 18 to 34 support them.
A recent survey by a team of researchers at MIT provides union leaders and union supporters even more grounds for optimism. The researchers asked non-union, non-managerial workers whether they would support a unionization drive at their workplace. Half of the respondents replied yes, revealing a huge pent-up demand for workplace representation.
Yet the exception to this growing body of encouraging public opinion on unions had been the data on “right to work.” Polls consistently find majority support for these measures. Union opponents’ effective branding of the issue likely explains much of its popularity. If you’re unfamiliar with unions and what they do, why wouldn’t you support your so-called “right to work”?
What the win in Missouri has taught the broader labor movement is that a sustained, well-financed campaign can educate a largely non-union electorate about “right to work” laws, successfully, and truthfully, recasting them as anti-worker.
What the win in Missouri has taught the broader labor movement is that a sustained, well-financed campaign can educate a largely non-union electorate about “right to work” laws, successfully, and truthfully, recasting them as anti-worker.Labor’s victory in the state also provides the wider movement with more evidence that, despite a series of setbacks in the courts and state legislatures, the public stands with it on key issues.
That public support is needed now more than ever. While the defeat of Proposition A is rightly being celebrated among union supporters, the win is largely symbolic. All it does is restore the status quo to collective bargaining in the state, a status quo that has been anything but friendly to unions over recent decades.
Nonetheless, the victory reveals growing recognition on the part of union and non-union workers of what a weakened labor movement leads to: lower wage growth, higher poverty, and, in general, a two-tiered economy decisively tilted toward the interests of the richest among us. The next step for unions and their allies is to harness this widespread support for their cause and translate it to policy victories that go beyond the symbolic. Missouri has shown the labor movement that the public is ready to join the fight.
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Safeway.com Home Delivery Drivers Ratify Teamster Contract
New Agreement Guarantees Better Wages and Working Conditions for Teamsters in Locals 174 and 313
After nearly a year of negotiations that led to a strike authorization vote, a group of 90 grocery home delivery drivers working for Safeway.com voted overwhelmingly to ratify their first-ever Teamster contract last night. These drivers, of whom 60 are Local 174 members and 30 are Local 313 members, are now full-fledged Teamsters for the first time in their careers as Safeway drivers.
The new agreement will bring many improvements to the working conditions and lives of these drivers. Wages will increase across the board, with some of the lowest-paid drivers seeing double-digit percentage increases. The group will also finally receive affordable health care, which most did not previously have access to as they were held to part-time hours and the costs were prohibitive. For many, this will be life changing as they can now qualify and afford health care for not only themselves, but for their families as well.
Another exciting benefit for the group, and one that is unusual for a group ratifying a first contract, is that they will be joining the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Plan. This will begin the process of building a secure retirement with a defined benefit pension plan – which is also nearly unheard-of for “part-time” workers.
As for improvements to working conditions, they are numerous and include better scheduling rules, daily guarantees, hard limits on the length of unpaid breaks between shifts in a given day, and dramatic improvements to safety. Safety and vehicle maintenance issues had previously been at the forefront of drivers’ minds.
“I can’t wait to work under this new contract,” said Safeway.com driver and Bargaining Committee member Michael Fanning. “There are so many improvements … the difference in our day-to-day life on the job is going to be like night and day. I’m psyched.”
Jeff Frazer, a 12-year driver and Bargaining Committee member, was equally excited. “This contract means security. We finally have some security in our schedules, in our jobs, and in our retirement. We’ve never had that before. This is huge.”
Now that the agreement is ratified, these drivers are ready to head to work and enjoy their new lives as Union members.
“This is a great day for the Teamsters and an even better day for these Safeway.com drivers, who were the first in the country to organize and are now the first in the country to work under a Teamster contract,” said Teamsters Local 174 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks. “I am proud of these drivers for their courage – courage to vote ‘yes’ to join the Teamsters, courage to vote ‘yes’ to authorize a strike, and now the sweetest part: to vote ‘yes’ on a contract that will improve their lives.”
Founded in 1909, Teamsters Local 174 represents 7,200 working men and women in the Seattle area. “Like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TeamstersLocal174.
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