Newsletter Archives

 THE LOCAL 174 TEAMSTER RECORD

April-June 2007
Contents:

By the IBT NEWS SERVICE
On April 6, 2007 in a 6-1 vote, the Seattle Public School Board decided to keep Laidlaw and First Student as providers of school bus transportation services for the City’s schools — over a bid by Durham School Services. The decision protects the jobs of the nearly 80 Laidlaw drivers and aides who are represented by Teamsters Union Local 174.

“We are very pleased with the outcome of the vote. Our current and future members deserve to be treated fairly by the School Board and their employer, and that’s why we pushed for them to do the right thing. We are glad they did,” Rick Hicks, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 174, emphasized.

The School Board had considered switching contractors by accepting a bid by Durham School Services. A company with a history of anti-union activity, Durham was the previous contractor for the City of Seattle — but it had lost its contract in 2002, due to multiple safety and service violations.

Mark Green, the Chief Operating Officer for the School District, had recommended awarding the work to Durham. However, the Board took the vote into their own hands and decided to keep First Student and Laidlaw as the Seattle School System’s contractors. About 40 drivers and aides from Local 174 turned out to show their strength and hold the School Board accountable.

Carol Hiatt, a school bus driver with Laidlaw, said, “This is great news. We’re good drivers and love our kids. Now we can keep driving them to and from school safely.”

Recently, about 80 Laidlaw drivers and aides represented by Teamsters Local 174 ratified a contract with the company providing for wage increases and greater employer health insurance contributions. The Seattle School Board’s decision to retain Laidlaw as a contractor protected these Union jobs, ensuring stability and quality service for the Seattle Public Schools.

Local 174 will remain vigilant in protecting worker rights in the Seattle School System by working with the Board to enforce their labor harmony agreement with First Student. More than 330 First Student school bus drivers and aides are currently organizing to join the Laidlaw workers in Seattle as Teamsters.

“Now that the Seattle School Board has acted responsibly with this situation, we will continue to hold them accountable to pressure First Student to allow their employees the right to organize without fear and intimidation,” Secretary-Treasurer Hicks said. “We look forward to supporting these Board members in the future, and we thank them for making this very important and correct decision.”

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Sand & Gravel Demands Meeting Held As Negotiations Take Shape
By BILL McCARTHY, Communications Specialist
Teamsters Local 174 held a Demands Meeting on Sunday, April 29, 2007 for its Sand & Gravel bargaining unit workers. About 280 Local 174 members are involved in the upcoming S&G negotiations.

They work at Salmon Bay Sand & Gravel, Incorporated; Glacier Northwest, Incorporated’s Duwamish, Kenmore and Snoqualmie facilities; Cadman Seattle, Incorporated and Cadman’s Issaquah and Redmond facilities; and the Renton and Seattle locations of Stoneway Concrete, Incorporated, a division of the Gary Merlino Construction Company, Incorporated.

The three-year contracts in effect now between Local 174 and the four S&G companies expire on July 31, 2007. The Demands Meeting was held from 9 a.m. till about 1 p.m. in the main Meeting Hall at Joint Council 28 Headquarters in Tukwila. At the beginning of the Meeting Local 174 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks filled in the S&G members on overall negotiating techniques of the IBT, Joint Council 28 and Local 174. All three entities will help in the S&G bargaining. Hicks brought the group up-to-date on the status of the surveying that has been underway. He then oversaw nominations and elections of the eight members who will serve on the Rank and File S&G Bargaining Committee.

Local 174 Business Agent Tom George, who is assisting in the S&G negotiations, then reported on the impact of the Silverstreak Case/SeaTac Airport, which changes the rules that concern the delivery of materials. Tom reviews this Case in depth in a column on page 8.

The discussion and question-and-answer section of the Demands Meeting then commenced, led by Business Agent Larry Boyd.

Developing news about the unfolding S&G negotiations will be reported in future issues of the Teamster Record, and on the Local 174 Website.

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IBT FINANCIAL AUDIT RESULTS
The International has completed the Audit that was requested by your L-174 Trustees as a result of several inconsistencies uncovered when we assumed office in January of this year. The Audit was reviewed with the Local Union Executive Board and in keeping with my promise to share a complete report of the findings; this is what the Audit revealed:

1. Dan Scott’s Administration improperly transferred $225,000.00 from the General Fund to the Corporate Campaign Fund. The purpose of the improper transfer(s) was a result of his Administration bankrupting the Corporate Campaign Fund.

2. Dan Scott illegally and improperly sold himself a Local 174 Laptop Computer for $500.00 without approval of the Executive Board, the Membership or the Secretary-Treasurer-Elect. (The Laptop was about 1-1/2 years old, total purchase price for all accessories was $2,280.46 and it was still under warranty.) There is no evidence he determined fair market value and more importantly there are questions as to what members’ personal and private information was stored on the Laptop when he left office with it.

3. Dan Scott’s Administration improperly authorized and paid out severance packages without approval of the Membership, Secretary-Treasurer-Elect or the incoming Executive Board. The Audit revealed Dan Scott obtained a written statement from an Attorney (not with the IBT) at a cost of $1,706.00 to say he could do this. The IBT Audit reports this to be a violation of “Past Practice” as well as the Local Union By-Laws.

4. Dan Scott has claimed since the minute he signed the legal document providing for former 741 Strike Fund monies to be deposited into the General Fund of Local 174 that this was wrong and he didn’t know what he was signing. He held to this position as Secretary-Treasurer for the next three years. Dan Scott and his Administration took over on January 1, 2004. On March 11, 2004 Dan Scott and his Executive Board approved a repayment plan of the Local 741 Strike Fund from the Local 174 General Fund at a rate of 1% per month. Then, on April 26, 2004 Dan Scott, in a memo to Bookkeeper Debra Rockafellow, one month after his March motion to repay the Local 741 Strike Fund, instructed her to transfer the last Local 741 Strike Fund CD in the amount of $133,314.71 into Local 174’s General Fund. This shell game Dan Scott’s Administration played with our Local’s finances for political purposes is not only a breach of elected office but also a breach of our members trust that whoever is in power will use the members’ dues money appropriately.

Although the IBT Auditor has ordered the monies to be placed from the General Fund to the Strike Fund we are seeking further legal advice on this matter. We are also seeking legal advice on all of the violations I have reported to you in above paragraphs. I promise you my Administration will do everything we can to make sure everyone who was involved in these deceptions will be held accountable. We will report the decisions as they are made.

There were several other findings by the Auditor but too many to go into in this edition. Each and every one of the 37 different infractions will be addressed and corrected by this Administration and audited to ensure they do not occur in the future.

SEVERAL FRONT OFFICE CHANGES
You may notice when you call the Local these days you are greeted with a live body, someone who recognizes you pay our salaries. The voice on the receiving end of your call is Kat Yonkman. She is the newest member of our family and will be a great asset to our members.
On the other end of the spectrum I am truly saddened to announce the retirement of longtime Dispatcher Virginia Shockey. Former Executive Secretary Laurie Wood has taken on the role of Dispatcher and Cindy Ravenhill has assumed the duties as Executive Secretary. Another sad note — we are losing a tremendous asset for many years in the Local’s Dues Office and that is Bookkeeper Debra Rockafellow. She has been a great representative of everything this Local stands for and will be sorely missed. We wish her the best of luck.

CONTRACT UPDATES
We have newly ratified agreements at American Steel, K&L Distribution, Univar, Limback Lumber, Eastside Masonry and Laidlaw. We have ongoing negotiations with UPS, AGC, Patent Scaffolding, Seattle Times, ChemCentral, United Warehouse, Herche Transfer, EMJ, and we are beginning negotiations with Oak Harbor, Sand & Gravel, Xpedx, and the balance of the Construction Companies. By the end of July we will have already negotiated contracts that affect 55% of the members of Local 174.

CURRENT FINANCIAL SITUATION
To leave you with positive thoughts regarding the financial difficulties we were all left with, I am pleased to report the budget safeguards we installed upon taking office are paying huge dividends thus far. I am happy to report that to date we have turned around the negative $45,188.63 monthly average under the former Administration throughout all of 2006, to a positive averaging $56,580.65 per month each month to date for 2007. That is a $101,769.28 per month turnaround.

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Local 174 Never Gives Up!
Finally The Infrastructures Case Has Been Settled Favorably For 174 Member Hooker Hailstone
By TOM GEORGE, Business Agent
We have all heard the saying, “The wheels of justice turn slowly.” But have you heard the second part that says, “But they turn inevitably?” Let me explain.

In June 2005, Local 174 member and construction driver Hooker Hailstone was dispatched by our Hiring Hall to work for Northwest Infrastructures Inc. on the Sound Transit Light Rail Project. This project is covered by a Project Labor Agreement that requires the contractor to pay Teamster Wages, Pension, and Health & Welfare benefits for the Teamsters on the project. Before these payments can be made, though, contracts have to be signed with both the H&W and Pension Trusts.

THE UNSEEMLY SCENARIO
Northwest Infrastructures (NWI) was willing to make the required payments — but refused to sign these two documents unless they were able to make changes to the wording. Neither Trust could accept the altered documents and the problems began.

First, without the signed documents, the H&W Trust couldn’t accept the money for Hooker’s Medical coverage, which left his family without any. He paid COBRA payments totaling over $5,800.00 to keep his coverage current.

A grievance was filed, but NWI still wouldn’t sign the unaltered documents. Eventually the grievance was taken to arbitration. But now NWI was tired of this whole thing and told us that they wouldn’t arbitrate, and to go away and quit bothering them.

It was then decided that we would file Unfair Labor Practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). But because of the national political atmosphere the NLRB “found no problem” and refused to force NWI to arbitrate. So we filed an appeal to the NLRB in Washington, DC asking that they overturn the regional NLRB’s decision. They would not, saying they didn’t see any violations either.

THE EXPENSES MOUNT
Remember — all this time Local 174 was burning up attorneys’ fees and Hooker was paying his own COBRA payments. We decided to go to arbitration without NWI. We figured that we would win by default — but the Arbitrator said he couldn’t hear the case if the opposing party wouldn’t participate. They had told him in writing that they wouldn’t. So we filed suit in Federal Court to compel NWI to arbitrate the case and to pay us for all our attorneys’ fees. By this time they were so fed up with us and this whole thing that they wouldn’t even respond to the suit.

In February 2007, we asked the Court for a Summary Judgment and NWI was ordered to arbitrate with us and pay our attorneys’ fees and costs. In the Judge’s Order she told the owner of NWI that he had “quite literally made a Federal Case out of a minor labor dispute” by refusing to sign the two documents.

But again he wouldn’t respond, wouldn’t give us a date for arbitration and wouldn’t write us the appropriate check. Finally we told him that if he didn’t respond by April 24, 2007 we would file Contempt of Court charges and that he would be arrested.

SETTLEMENT FINALLY REACHED
On April 23 we finally settled the case with the agreement that NWI would pay us almost $16,000.00 in legal fees plus any additional fees that may be required in the future, sign the two Trust Documents (unaltered), and pay the Trusts over $7,400.00 in payments for Hooker’s Pension and Medical benefits.

As soon as these payments are processed and accounted for Hooker will be credited with his Pension contributions and his Medical benefits and the entire amount that he paid in COBRA payments will be returned to him.

Yes, the wheels of justice do turn slowly —  but they turn inevitably for those who persevere.

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General Membership Meetings Informative And Interesting
By BILL McCARTHY, Communications Specialist
The attendance at Local 174’s five regular January through May 2007 General Membership Meetings has been very good. And it should be. The GMM’s are vital to every member of the Local, as those who go to them are aware. These Meetings give the elected officers the chance to report face-to-face to the members on the daily “business” of running their Local Union.

The agenda at each GMM is very predictable, but what is talked about at them varies dramatically as the issues and political battles of the Local Union, Joint Council 28 and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters change.

s Always the GMM’s begin with official signing-in at the door — new members are sworn-in by the 174 President — minutes of the past month’s GMM and Executive Board Meeting are read aloud by the Recording Secretary — and then reports follow from the 174 Secretary-Treasurer, other elected officers, and Office Staff members.

s Each month the Organizers report on ongoing campaigns, such as the hard-fought victory at Laidlaw.

s Business Agents report on progress and plans in their jurisdictions, centering on negotiations. Currently, intense bargaining is underway in varying degrees of development at Laidlaw-First Student, the Seattle Times, K & L Distributing, Associated General Contracting, United Parcel Service, Sand & Gravel, and in the Food and Beverage area. Progress on these, and other negotiations, too, are reviewed in depth at each GMM.

s Also at the GMM’s, individual members are singled out for praise. All members with messages to impart to the Local’s leadership or their fellow members get the chance to speak out. Daily operations in the 174 Office are talked about. Also, major and minor 174 financial developments are reviewed and discussed in depth.

If you haven’t attended many, or any, of the GMM’s, please reconsider and become a regular attendee. You won’t regret doing so.

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Teamster University: Hours Q’s & A’s
By BILL McCARTHY, Communications Specialist
Periodically Local 174 hosts educational “Teamster University” (TU) Seminars for its Stewards and Activists, featuring discussion and training in various important areas. A TU Seminar took place Sunday, March 25, 2007, in the Main Meeting Hall at JC-28 Headquarters in Tukwila, from 9 a.m. till 1 p.m.

About 100 participants considered two chief issues. The first, “Guarding Against Unsafe Sleepy Driving At The Nationwide Level” — featured many official answers to routine questions. The second, “Washington State Level Wage And Hour Laws In Overtime Situations” — featured many complicated but clear and concise legal answers to various workers’ timing considerations.

TOPIC ONE: Federal Hours Of Service And Sleepy Driving
The first subject considered at the TU event was the effects of the new U.S. Department of Transportation Hours of Service Regulations on truckdrivers, including some Local 174 members, who happen to be driving trucks for companies under the domain of these new rules.  
Overseen by DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the new Regulations became effective October 1, 2005. They replaced similar previous rules written in 2003, and have been being “implemented” throughout 2006-2007 — in a manner confusing Drivers, Labor, Management and Government alike.

Two guest speakers were on hand from the Olympia-based FMCSA Office, Safety Investigators William Wiley and Mark Strazzinski, to shed light on the darkness. They brought FMCSA documentation saying the new Regulations “provide an increased opportunity for drivers to obtain necessary rest and restorative sleep, while recognizing the business needs of drivers and motor carriers” and that they “systematically and extensively researched both United States and international health and fatigue studies and consulted with Federal safety and health experts.”

The 2005 Regulations only apply to “property carriers and commercial motor vehicle drivers. Passenger carriers and their drivers will continue operating under the pre-2003 rules while fatigue issues specific to the passenger carrier industry are assessed.”

It became obvious that the FMCSA has a lot of smoothing-up to do on the usage of the new language, which leaves a lot of room for employer “loose interpretation” of the DOT’s intent. TU participants asked many pertinent, precise, vital questions — only to get complex bureaucratic answers from several verbal standpoints on the same issues.

There will be many future developments regarding sleepy driving and ways to limit drivers’ hours on the road to avoid it. Time will tell how the 2005 Regulations go over with the Management and the Labor sides of upcoming “sleepy” debates. But according to the FMCSA’s main handout passed out at the seminar, it’s not difficult to determine basic legal guidelines that apply. The handout notes, in fact, that the new Regulations can be “simply stated” as following:

21. “Drivers may drive up to 11 hours in the 14-hour on-duty window after they come on duty following 10 or more consecutive hours off duty.”

22. “The 14-hour on-duty window may not be extended with off-duty time for meal and fuel stops, etc.”

23. “The prohibition on driving after being on duty 60 hours in 7 consecutive days, or 70 hours in 8 consecutive days, remains the same, but drivers can ‘restart’ the 7/8-day period anytime a driver has 34 consecutive hours off duty.”

2And 4. “CMV drivers using the sleeper berth provision must take at least 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth, plus 2 consecutive hours either in the sleeper berth, off duty, or any combination of the two.”

Time will tell how the feathers fly as 2007 unwinds. In the meantime, you can consult the FMCSA Website for more details from the DOT’s legal eagles at www.fmcsa.dot.gov.

TOPIC TWO: Washington State OT Wages & Hours Law
The second subject considered was Washington State’s Overtime Law 49.46.130, and how it applies to scenarios involving drivers like those in Local 174.

The guest speaker was Seattle Attorney Todd Lyon from the firm of Reid, Pedersen, McCarthy & Ballew. He lectured assisted by an excellent PowerPoint slide show presentation, imparting much legal information. The OT Law is itself clear, saying:

Employees are entitled to OT compensation for hours worked in excess of 40 per 7-day workweek. And also, OT must be paid at a rate “not less than 1.5 times the regular rate,” with that regular rate including nondis-cretionary bonuses, non-OT premiums, and on-call pay — and not daily OT, premium pay for Saturday/Sunday work, or discretionary bonuses.

Lyon said, though, that again, interpretation is the bugaboo. There is lots of wiggleroom in OT situations. What exactly is OT? What constitutes a worked hour? When is a driver on duty as opposed to waiting, resting, commuting, being on-call, traveling, training, on-clock, off-clock, sick, meeting, eating or whatever?

Lyon advised the participants to keep records of everything, and if there are any beefs with the State about definitions of terms, to consult the Local Office for assistance.

Lyon’s final slide ironically sum-med up the legal quagmire facing dri-vers with OT disputes. It was a pic-ture of persecuted former IBT General President James R. Hoffa, next to a quote from him: “In the old days all you needed was a handshake. Nowadays you need forty lawyers.”

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Broken Wheel
These Local 174 members passed away recently. They will be missed greatly. We offer our most sincere condolences to their families and friends.

CHARLES KAMERAS, Oak Harbor Freightlines
ROBERT “SARGE” McLAY, Horizon
LARRY STEINER, Pacific Delivery
RICHARD McGOWEN, Pacific Fruit & Produce
GREG STRIKER, Nelson Trucking
JOHN EDWARDS, L & J’s Construction
GEORGE “PETE” JACOBSON, Rabanco

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Local 174 Member John Erland Is A Hero Among Us
By DAVE JACOBSEN, Business Agent
We all start off the day in a usual manner. Karl Schultz, a Local 174 member and forklift driver for BMC West in Issaquah, Washington, got up on February 1, 2007, and got ready for work. He grabbed a quick bite to eat, a cup of coffee, and headed out the door.

This wasn’t going to be a normal day for Karl. While at work, Karl suffered a massive heart attack and passed out, hitting his head on the cement. Just then, his fellow 174 member at BMC John Erland was driving into the yard and noticed Karl lying on the ground. John jumped out of his truck and quickly noted that Karl had a laceration on his head, was bleeding and had no pulse. Karl was completely unresponsive. John told a co-worker to call an emergency unit. John started to perform CPR, and continued for approximately four minutes until Eastside Fire and Rescue arrived and took over. Eastside medics were successful in their efforts to revive Karl.

Karl spent several weeks in the hospital. John was also transferred to the hospital in a second aid car, due to exposure of bodily fluids. When tests came back negative, a manager from BMC West came to the hospital to pick him up.

John’s background is impressive. He served in the U.S Navy Reserves for 25 years. He is a Veteran from Vietnam where he served two years. His specialty was as a Navy diver, performing salvage diving and as a Diving Supervisor. “Not in a million years would I expect to see a person lying on the ground needing CPR,” said a surprised John. John can now add saving the life of a Brother Teamster to his accomplishments.

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Local 174’s John Hamilton, Passionate Reservist & Steward
By MICHAEL GONZALES, Organizer
[Local 174 honored Member John Hamilton as its “Member of the Month” for April 2007. He was presented a 174 Coat by the Local as a thank-you for his humanitarianism at the April General Membership Meeting. ]

John Hamilton is a Steward and mixer driver at Salmon Bay. He has been a Teamster for five years and is one of our most active members. Not only is John part of our Political Action Committee, but he also has other causes he is passionate about. One of these is the Helmets to Hardhats program. This program was set up to help our Nation's Veterans' transition into good family wage jobs in the building trades.

As a Reservist himself John knows the majority of Vets who have served our Country understand teamwork, unity and self sacrifice. John has used his knowledge of this program to help out under-employed Vets and Reservists he meets on jobsites who are not working "Union." Still, this program is not perfect and on his own time John is encouraging more individual Unions and Councils to step up and make a great program even better. Local 174 would like to commend John for all his hard work on behalf of the members and Veterans alike.

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Local 174’s Kandy Paulson Attends Oregon LERC Seminar
By KANDY PAULSON, Local 174 Member
[Local 174 sponsored Kandy Paulson, Hos Brothers driver, at a recent two-day seminar in Oregon. She thanked the membership at the April GMM, and wrote this review.]
The seminar I went to was called the “Tradeswomen Leadership Institute.” It is a yearly event, co-sponsored this year by Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. & the Labor Education & Research Center of Oregon. There were 47 women in attendance from over 14 different Building Trade Locals. I was the only Teamster present.

On the first day, we registered throughout the day, got checked in, and had a special dinner at which the participants got to know each other, and all the women wrote down “timelines” about when and where they started their careers in the trades. On day two we had a working breakfast with networking. We brought our “timelines” from the night before back, and placed them on a “Master Timeline Sheet” that spread down one whole wall in the hall.

We attended two classes during day two. I had to choose from these offerings for the first session: l. Lobbying Skills; 2. Parliamentary Procedure; and 3. How Do Unions Work? I chose the third. Quickly I realized in this class how lucky I am to have 174 as my Local Union and how great it is to be a Teamster. Not all Unions are as diplomatic as ours.

The second set of classes provided featured this choice: 1. Public Speaking (Effective Public Testimony); 2. Finding Your Power on the Job; and 3. Effective Leadership through Self-Knowledge (Personal Styles of Communication). I chose the third. We learned about dealing with different and sometimes negative personality types, and how to communicate with everyone better. I also sat in on a third special session during the luncheon break, on Prevailing Wage Problems, Questions and Answers. This was a great weekend. I learned a lot and hope to return again next year. I encourage all Teamsters — men and women — to go to classes and meetings like this one,  and to remember, there is always something new to learn!

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Local 174 News & Views
By TIM ALLEN, Senior Business Agent
One of the “joys” of any new Administration is the training — often by trial and error — that takes place with the new Agent staff immediately after taking office. Ours is no exception. There have been the inevitable, minor “rookie mistakes” as new Agents learn the hard way, the agenting job isn’t quite as easy as it looked from “behind the wheel.” Even with these inevitable “bumps in the road” the fact is, Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks and President Ted Bunstine have put together an outstanding team, whose hard work and dedication has been paying off for you, the Membership, of this great Local! Read on and we will highlight some of the ongoing areas of Agent work...

ORGANIZING, POLITICAL ACTION, AND OTHERS
Michael Gonzales held the first official Local 174 PAC Meeting on April 22, 2007. The members in attendance discussed a wide range of issues from how to build a political action committee to who we will be supporting in some of our local upcoming elections. The PAC would like to announce the Local is endorsing Calvin Goines for Pierce County Executive. This will be the first time the State will be using an automatic runoff format to elect the candidate of choice. The Local is also endorsing Sally Soriano for the Seattle School Board and Dave Lovell, former longtime S-T of Local 599, who is running for Tacoma Port Commissioner. Thanks to all the members who have volunteered their time to be on the PAC! If you would like to get involved with the PAC please contact Michael.

K&L Distributors members ratified their contract. Due to the efforts of Rick and Michael, along with a great job by Bargaining Committee members Jim Cramer and Jim Griffus, this agreement not only represents the first time in the last 20 years that K&L and the Local have reached agreement without going past the expiration date — it also guarantees Local 174 will still have the best beer contract not only in the State, but also on the West Coast!

On the Organizing front, Michael reports we have secured our first organizing victory of the New Year! We would like to welcome the employees of OMA Construction into our Local. We have already started the process of negotiating a contract for them and continue to focus on the Construction, Freight and Beer Industries in order to consolidate our Local work.

FREIGHT DIVISION
Agent Brian Davis reports that the Freight Division has been very busy over the last four months. There have been frequent Shop Visits as promised during the Officers Election and also sweeping Shop Steward Elections across the Industry. In some locations the members have retained experienced Shop Floor Leaders and in others the members have elected all new Shop Stewards. We would like to congratulate all of the Stewards at Peninsula Truck Lines: Dan D’Andrea, Russ Burr, Tony Bartlotti and Dale Barnes. All of these Stewards have represented their members previously and will continue to do so in the future. A whole new list of Shop Stewards has been elected at USF Reddaway in Kent. The new Stewards are Mike Wilcox, Blaine Inman, Chris Porter and Greg Bamford. Easley Hauling also has a new Shop Steward in Jim Snead. Oak Harbor in Mount Lake Terrace has elected Mike Kedrowski as their Shop Steward. Oak Harbor in Auburn has a whole list of new Stewards as well: Jose “Chico” Gasca, Jr., Tom Arena, John Perrin and Robert Buelter. Brian held a Demands Meeting with the mem-bers from Oak Harbor Freight March 31; thanks, everyone who turned out for that! We know it will be a tough negotiation. We will be bargaining with several other Teamster Locals throughout the Northwest and we will do our best to make sure the concerns of our members are addressed. Congratulations to Jeff Wallace and Dustin Hustad, who were elected to the Bargaining Committee.

HEAVY CONSTRUCTION
Agent Tom George has been busy with the Heavy Construction negotiations. This is also a Multi-Local negotiation. I can’t report on the details, but Tom says things are progressing well and we remain confident that this contract will bring about important improvements in the Industry. Be prepared to stand firm in your resolve. Heavy Construction T-shirts are available for those of you who want to show support. Please read Tom’s article on page 8 of this paper about the Silverstreak decision and how it will affect the Heavy Construction Industry — another important improvement. If you are going to work for ICON please call the Hiring Hall to let us know so we can take you off the list — 206-441-0223.

BOEING, SOFT DRINK, FOOD SERVICE & OTHERS
Senior Agent Erv Lemon is seeing the membership grow at Boeing, which has hired several new truck drivers. He reports the Company is training them on all the jobs that they do down there at Boeing. When Rick Hicks was looking for an experienced Agent for the Soft Drink Industry, he turned to Erv, who started his Teamster career working for Shasta Beverage. Erv reports Coke has several issues that we are dealing with and wanted to congratulate Chris Pringle and Kelly Baldwin for all their efforts in making sure that the Company complies with our labor agreement. Food Service has held Steward Elections. Congratulations to Chris Davis, Patrick Dean, Tim Finch and Mark Shoemaker. Erv met with the Company on two occasions to resolve disputes. He wanted to make sure that the Shop Stewards get recognized for doing a great job in representing their fellow employees at those meetings. Erv has also been very busy with negotiations. At Univar, the Shop Steward David Throop and the Bargaining Committee member Eric Zanassi did a wonderful job keeping their fellow employees informed during the long and tedious six months that it took to get an agreement that their co-workers would accept. I want to congratulate all the drivers at Univar for their patience and standing together. They are a great group of drivers!

DHL & OTHERS
It may just be my imagination, but since rejoining the staff here at Local 174 there doesn’t seem to be as many hours in the day as there once was! In addition to my Agent representational duties, I have been involved with Staff Training, Steward Training, revamping the Initiates Meetings, and helping Secretary-Treasurer Hicks and President Bunstine with some of the Office Administration duties.

Due to some of the inclement weather issues at Bloch Steel, we have been attempting to come up with some sort of notification process so drivers aren’t braving the elements only to be told, to go home due to the bad weather. This is also a big year for negotiations in my jurisdiction. Agent Tom Mann and I negotiated the American Steel contract that had been open since November. Steward Mike Bender told us this was one of the best contracts he had seen in his 20-year tenure. Tom is helping me out again with the Patent Construction negotiations. Progress at the table has been extremely slow. Our next session is scheduled for later in June. DHL has been absolutely crazy. Since January, we have processed nearly 70 grievances there. I met with the Stewards on May 20th to lay the groundwork for next year’s negotiations. Speaking of loose ends that needed to be tied when we took over, Unisource finally has a signed contract! Thanks to the members there for their patience during the ordeal of finalizing that contract. EMJ bargaining begins as we go to press. Thanks to all the drivers who showed up for the Demands Meeting. I am working with 117 BA Ken Pinney preparing for XPEDX negotiations. Contract surveys should be out soon. Planning is underway for our next Steward Training; if you have any subjects you would like to see covered, give me a call or drop me a line.

SERVICE
This was a great weekend. I learned a lot and hope to return again next year. I encourage all Teamsters — men and women — to go to classes and meetings like this one,  and to remember, there is always something new to learn!

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United Parcel Service Report
By TED BUNSTINE, President
As the Teamster Record goes to press, the Teamster/UPS National Negotiating Committee will have finished three weeks of negotiations in Washington, DC. The top issues identified by the Rank and File members through their contract surveys are Pension, and Health & Welfare. Secretary-Treasurer Rick Hicks was in attendance for these negotiating sessions representing the members of Local 174 and JC-28.

Locally, the JC-28 Negotiating Committee met with UPS on May 2, and 3, 2007. May 3, 2007 was the sixth session our Committee had with the Company, and it was expected that a Tentative Agreement was to have been reached for JC-28. It became clear early in the day that UPS was not interested in coming to any agreement.  UPS was more than willing to agree to adding words like “use” and “in the Rider” to the contract, things that are housekeeping in nature. When it came to the real issues, UPS connected a monetary value to many important proposals and told us they “are not interested.” It seems that UPS is interested only in bargaining a cost neutral contract. They don’t understand that the huge profits made by this Company are directly related to the long days and high expectation they put on every employee.

In the end it’ll be you — UPS Employee, hardworking Teamster Member — who’ll decide if this contract will pass or fail. My suggestion to you all: Save your money, and as the Boy Scout Motto says, “Be Prepared.”

OTHER NEWS: Hicks Recovers Approximately $38,000.00
S-T Hicks was able to recover approximately $38,000.00 in arbitration costs by submitting Local 174’s attorney fees to the Joint Council 28 UPS Division. Local 174 pays a per capita fee for each UPS member on a monthly basis into a Joint Council 28 fund that is used to pay for certain costs associated with the representation of all the UPS members in JC-28. Recently there were two big arbitrations that affected all UPS part-time employees in the Joint Council. Those arbitrations concerned the coverage of Article 22.3 jobs by part-timers, and when a part-time UPS employee becomes eligible for health care benefits. Local 174 processed these grievances and paid the attorney cost on our own. 

The previous Administration failed to make a request to the Joint Council 28 UPS Division for reimbursement of the attorney fees. By knowing and understanding the system in place, S-T Hicks has saved our Local Union approximately $38,000.00. 

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The longevity of Local 174 is remarkable, given the short lives of many other Local Unions over the decades. As all Teamster veterans know, there are about 500 Teamster Locals in the United States now, affiliated with regional Joint Councils. Currently, 174 is the second biggest Local in JC-28, behind only Local 117 which has about 12,000 members. There are now 12 JC-28 Locals — 38, 117, 174, 231, 252, 313, 589, 690, 760, 763 and 839 in Washington and 959 in Alaska.

Times have changed, with many dying Locals’ demises and ultimate mergers into more healthy Locals. Let’s go back in 174 history, to see what things were like in JC-28 — to 1969 when 174 had just celebrated its 60th birthday. All the present affiliates except 959 were in JC-28 then. But consider these Locals, which have long since disappeared but were also affiliates of the Council in 1969: 44, 66, 130, 148, 154, 227, 309, 334, 342, 353, 378, 411, 461, 472, 524, 551, 556, 566, 567, 582, 599, 672, 699, 741, 788, 882, 910 and 951.

LOCAL 174 IN THE RING AND SWINGING A LONG TIME
There are several reasons behind the impressive longevity of Local 174. Perhaps its toughness as a group has been the foremost of them. It has long been characterized by friends and enemies alike as one of the most “militant” International Brotherhood of Teamsters Locals. That is definitely the case, in that the members and elected leaders of this Local have never taken much guff from anyone — including even JC-28 officers and IBT brass through the years when tempers and policies clashed. This “militancy,” or in other words “unwillingness to be pushed around by anybody,” has kept 174 in the forefront of the battle for worker dignity since 1909.

Another significant reason for 174’s success is that through the years it has had excellent leaders who were loyal to the IBT and JC-28 — but at the same time kept 174 separate and distinct, with an independent political and social stature all its own.

Local 174 has had an innate advantage over many other Locals. Though it is a “general” Local with many diverse parts, it is chiefly a group of and for truckers and those who work with them.

Having a vivid, tried and true image within both Organized Labor and the Teamsters Union is also a factor in keeping the Local 174 ship afloat despite occasionally stormy seas. Every member of 174 should be familiar with the early days and the hard work of their Teamster forefathers and foremothers.

THE TEAMSTER APPROACH FROM HORSEPOWER TO MOTORPOWER
It was obvious to the early horse and coach goods deliverers in and around Seattle in the 1890’s that they had to band together against their monied employers, or lives of poverty and desperation would be their personal and family fates.

After a few courageous but doomed efforts at forming bargaining units, they finally were able to latch on to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters soon after it got its official charter in 1903.

By 1909, the IBT had been hard at work organizing delivery workers of all kinds for six formative years. Local 174’s core group foundation was created, and remains intact though modified and enhanced nearly a century later.

In an IBT handout passed out at all Local 174’s Initiates Meetings for new members, the importance of the Teamsters Union’s strength is noted. It says:

“Since colonial times, the men who drove the horsedrawn wagons formed the backbone of America’s wealth and prosperity. Despite their essential role as the guardians of trade, they remained unorganized and exploited.

“In a teamster’s life, work was scarce and jobs insecure. Poverty was commonplace. In 1900, the typical teamster worked 12-18 hours a day, 7 days a week for an average wage of $2 per day. A teamster was expected not only to haul his load, but to assume liability for bad accounts and for lost or damaged merchandise. The work left teamsters assuming all of the risks with little chance for reward.”

The Business Agents who run 174’s Initiates Meetings note that the old unorganized teamsters were responsible on their own for feeding, washing, grooming, providing drink and equipment for, and mucking up after their noble but untidy steeds. The Agents also point out IBT-organized employers take care of that kind of “upkeep” today — and review for the soon-to-be-sworn-in new members the great wages & benefits members of 174 receive in 2007 thanks to the resolute Teamsters Union.

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HISTORY BEHIND THE CASE
In 1998 City Transfer Inc. (CTI) was the prime contractor on the Third Runway Project at SeaTac Airport. In addition to using their own trucks they contracted with five other companies — Silverstreak, T-Max, Gary McCann, Stowe, and Buckley’s Hauling — to help transport fill dirt to the site of the new runway. Before they began doing the work they contacted Labor & Industries (L&I) to find out if the drivers doing this work would need to be paid Prevailing Wage (PW). L&I told them that the belly dumps should get PW but the truck and trailer (T&T) drivers shouldn’t because they weren’t moving when they dumped out and therefore weren’t “participating in any incorporation of materials into the project.”

According to WAC 296-127-018 Prevailing Wage needs to be paid to all dump truck drivers in Washington when they work on a project that is paid for with public (Federal, State, County or Municipal) funds and one or more of the following conditions are met:

When L&I told CTI that the T&T drivers shouldn’t get PW the companies bid the project accordingly and eventually work was begun. Soon the word got out that some of the drivers on the project were getting PW, which was at that time over $25.00 per hour and some of them were only getting their regular scale which was somewhere around $16.00 per hour. Our Local was contacted and a complaint was filed with L&I. L&I by then had changed Directors and now said the T&T drivers should be paid PW after all. The companies filed for the issue to be heard by an Administrative Law Judge. After several levels of legal battles the case finally got to the Washington State Supreme Court — and it has made its determination.

THE GOOD NEWS.
The Supreme Court has decided that the T&T drivers DID PARTICIPATE IN THE INCORPORATION OF MATERIALS into the project and that they should have been paid Prevailing Wage.

THE BAD NEWS
They also found that because Silverstreak and the other subcontractors had legitimately relied on L&I’s inaccurate information, the companies do not have to pay their drivers who worked on that project the difference between what they were paid and PW which is approximately $500,000.00 in total.

MORE GOOD NEWS
The Court also denied these companies their attorneys’ fees.

SO WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?
From now on drivers who import material into a public works project and deliver it to the spot where it will be used, and in the process help to eliminate the need for someone else to move that material another time, must be paid Prevailing Wage

Now the Industry has a standard that respects the hard work our construction drivers have done and will continue to do safely moving millions of cubic yards of crushed rock, sand, gravel, fill dirt, asphalt, concrete and various types of debris every year in support of the Construction Industry in the State of Washington.

We’ve sent this information to every Local in the State who has a Construction Jurisdiction and asked that they get it out to their members. We are in the process of posting the news at all of our barns. And through announcements at meetings and news releases like this we are working to get the message out to everyone in our Industry, Union and non-Union alike.

If you see a public works project with a non-union company doing PW work let your Union know so we can notify the proper authorities. Working together we can help stop unfair competition and the exploitation of workers by enforcing this ruling.

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