Iron Mountain workers defy threats, join Teamsters

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBc3y-9sBte1juXch_Yso-XhViDpMbPg3TqGj1zpE0s6arAbzFFr11lsmJPTCGGpRT1ATLl1nA_XKnwDG8KuFaWa1LTR2D5f5h2SePLfZMMqyOVKf7k78gKVOkg5NOFvoj6dfFZp4beemP/s1600/Victory.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBc3y-9sBte1juXch_Yso-XhViDpMbPg3TqGj1zpE0s6arAbzFFr11lsmJPTCGGpRT1ATLl1nA_XKnwDG8KuFaWa1LTR2D5f5h2SePLfZMMqyOVKf7k78gKVOkg5NOFvoj6dfFZp4beemP/s200/Victory.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>Welcome to our 24 new <a href="http://teamster.org/" rel="nofollow">Teamster</a> brothers and sisters from who drive shredder trucks for Iron Mountain. They overcame <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/11/surveillance-retaliation-and-antiunion-lectures.html" rel="nofollow">threats and intimidation</a> to join <a href="http://www.teamsterslocal728.org/" rel="nofollow">Teamsters Local 728</a>.<br /><br />The drivers voted today because they want a share in the billions of dollars of profit the company is making. One worker said they are choosing to go union because the company is making changes and all the workers see is more work, with new deadlines and quotes.<br /><br />Teamsters Local 728 organizer Ben Speight tweeted:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">...these brothers stood strong and united today! Proud to be a TEAMSTER!</blockquote>The new Iron Mountain Teamsters stood up to anti-union lectures, intimidation, threats and the firing of a pro-union worker. A worker recorded one anti-union lecture and shared it with <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.890625px;">Josh Eidelson at </span><a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/11/04/we_have_the_right_to_educate_you_workplace_indoctrination_caught_on_tape/" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #336699; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.890625px;">Salon</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.890625px;">. </span><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.890625px; margin: 1em 20px;">One recording captures a manager telling an activist worker one-on-one, “There’s nothing I don’t know,” “There’s no secrets anymore,” and “I am upset with you personally” for pursuing unionization without telling him. The other captures the same manager telling a group of employees in an Oct. 24 meeting,"We have the right to educate you, and we’re gonna exercise that right.”...</blockquote><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.890625px;">Workers told Eidelson the company's managers are constantly harassing them not to unionize.</span><br /><br />Well, they did and we're proud to call them brother and sister. Welcome to the Teamsters!

728 GA organizing victory Iron Mountain workers defy threats, join Teamsters

Welcome to our 24 new Teamster brothers and sisters from who drive shredder trucks for Iron Mountain. They overcame threats and intimidatio...

Read more »

Another ALEC rep could be in trouble -- in Texas!

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnNGrWT-3G0Mjq9REmBEZOsiDH2Q9wJa4ga24WpHJSTgNPJCHLedIUYinE1PCtHbyl3wZ_GGgSfgKbEE0yfDVjnlDvQZFruyseifa80SDEBd9MesVtcLRqrkuZ68T4f8K0USn6OuRHqGM9/s1600/Klick-Stephanie_jpg_800x1000_q100.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnNGrWT-3G0Mjq9REmBEZOsiDH2Q9wJa4ga24WpHJSTgNPJCHLedIUYinE1PCtHbyl3wZ_GGgSfgKbEE0yfDVjnlDvQZFruyseifa80SDEBd9MesVtcLRqrkuZ68T4f8K0USn6OuRHqGM9/s320/Klick-Stephanie_jpg_800x1000_q100.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ALEC rep. Stephanie Klick</td></tr></tbody></table>Stephanie Klick, a Texas state representative, doesn't think she needs to obey state open records laws when it comes to her dealings with <a href="http://alecexposed.org/" rel="nofollow">ALEC</a>. Unfortunately for Rep. Klick, Texas' attorney general thinks she needs to obey the law.<br /><br />The <a href="http://foift.org/2013/09/30/ags-office-says-legislative-documents-must-released/" rel="nofollow">Center for Media and Democracy asked Rep. Klick</a> for records of her communications with ALEC, the corporate dating service for state lawmakers. That apparently unnerved Klick, because she asked the attorney general if she could keep her records secret. She argued that her dealings with corporate lobbyists could be withheld from the public because of her right to freedom of association and something called "deliberative privilege."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/09/12259/texas-attorney-general-rebuffs-alecs-effort-declare-itself-immune-open-records-la" rel="nofollow">Attorney General Greg Abbott didn't buy it</a>. Neither did the <a href="http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/08/26/5110399/klicks-ties-to-group-should-be.html?rh=1" rel="nofollow">Fort Worth Star-Telegram</a>, which editorialized:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">...she shouldn’t keep her correspondence a secret. As the preamble to the Texas Public Information Act says, the people delegate authority to make laws, but they “do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know.”</blockquote>Klick isn't the first state lawmaker to stonewall requests for information about ties to ALEC. The <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/09/12259/texas-attorney-general-rebuffs-alecs-effort-declare-itself-immune-open-records-la" rel="nofollow">Center for Media and Democracy is suing Wisconsin state Sen. Leah Vukmir</a>, ALEC's treasurer, for hiding documents sent from ALEC to legislators.<br /><br />Another ALEC front, <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/09/alec-front-man-indicted.html" rel="nofollow">Georgia state Sen. Don Balfour</a>, was indicted recently on 18 counts of corruption.<br /><br />(No one, by the way, should be surprised at corruption charges against state lawmakers who take money from ALEC to travel to posh resorts where they meet corporate donors.)<br /><br />Lisa Graves, executive director of the <a href="http://prwatch.org/" rel="nofollow">Center for Media and Democracy</a>, came up with the best description of why Rep. Klick couldn't get away with hiding her dealings with ALEC.<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">You cannot just create a special private club between lobbyists and lawmakers and then claim your communications with legislators cannot be disclosed to the public under state sunshine laws.</blockquote>Exactly.

ALEC GA open meetings Texas WI Another ALEC rep could be in trouble -- in Texas!

ALEC rep. Stephanie Klick Stephanie Klick, a Texas state representative, doesn't think she needs to obey state open records laws when it...

Read more »