In memory of our fallen brother, Gilberto Soto

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUruAwxKvtyomTqp2J6rxUvr4eFLx9SuNUJTeLbmLDOeqF5csm8dpY1oCfYSF8cA9owyg2gy8OUHQQBiaPxCLXC2B-O85Obz-M2ICoTqLhxA0V9QWPnzkoMV4H6MgMbi3JKQ2EYzMFF6IZ/s1600/soto_hoffa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUruAwxKvtyomTqp2J6rxUvr4eFLx9SuNUJTeLbmLDOeqF5csm8dpY1oCfYSF8cA9owyg2gy8OUHQQBiaPxCLXC2B-O85Obz-M2ICoTqLhxA0V9QWPnzkoMV4H6MgMbi3JKQ2EYzMFF6IZ/s400/soto_hoffa.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gilberto Soto and Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa.</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="http://teamster.org/" rel="nofollow">Teamster </a>Gilberto Soto, the former president of Teamsters Local 11, stepped out of the house during a visit to his mother and was instantly assassinated by a trio of hitmen who were never caught. It is no coincidence that he was in the middle of an intense organizing campaign,<br /><br />He died in 2004.<br /><br />Not 1904 or 1934, he was murdered in 2004. This isn't ancient history.<br /><br />Soto's death wasn't the result of a robbery and he wasn't some random target. He was organizing an international campaign uniting port workers across the Americas when he was shot in the back the day before his 50th birthday.<br /><br />Gilberto was a good, hardworking man who believed strongly in the power of solidarity. The <a href="http://prospect.org/article/who-murdered-gilberto-soto" rel="nofollow">American Prospect</a> tells us about his life:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">When Soto arrived in the United States in 1975, he got work as a garbage collector, a waiter, a cook, and a factory worker -- nothing like his career as a bank teller in El Salvador. Finally he landed a job in a factory in which the Teamsters had a contract. He became a shop steward and then president of Local 11; he was the first Latino to head a Teamster local in New Jersey. He put himself through community college, earned a bachelor's degree, and finally became a Teamsters organizer. Soto worked with port drivers around the country as they began to organize a national network, despite enormous legal obstacles.</blockquote>Gilberto Soto died because he believed workers should have the chance to be paid fairly for a day's work. He's yet another casualty of the war on workers. We want to dedicate this day, the anniversary of his death, to his memory and the memory of others who died in the pursuit of justice for workers.<br /><br />

Gilberto Soto ports In memory of our fallen brother, Gilberto Soto

Gilberto Soto and Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa. Teamster Gilberto Soto, the former president of Teamsters Local 11, stepped out of ...

Read more »

Oakland gives sweetheart deal to anti-worker creep

<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Take a look at this: A Teamster-hating, worker-screwing California business owner, who swindled port truck drivers out of nearly $1 million, is </span><a href="http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/oakland-to-spend-15-million-to-help-influential-contractor/Content?oid=3713472" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">getting a $1.5 million handout</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> from the city of Oakland. And to top it off, the city doesn’t have the money to cover the deal with the influence-wielding contractor -- Bill Aboudi.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQTzwKEGtnelIvRMfZUMNy7reLsKbG7l-9iOso93Tqo5xgu9ZzFlp8FK6rw_pYliweDmTwSNRexCUOixvWjbXQTJb_fBCH9FRlkv-7hV8WVGIDtAaOusVK6KqaY5dqe6OzuPWUPpCB_M71/s1600/aboudi.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQTzwKEGtnelIvRMfZUMNy7reLsKbG7l-9iOso93Tqo5xgu9ZzFlp8FK6rw_pYliweDmTwSNRexCUOixvWjbXQTJb_fBCH9FRlkv-7hV8WVGIDtAaOusVK6KqaY5dqe6OzuPWUPpCB_M71/s320/aboudi.jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Aboudi, who </span><a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/06/judge-says-greedy-oakland-hustler-owes.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">an Alameda County Superior Court judge determined in June had stolen $965,000 in wages</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> from 73 current and former employees, just doesn’t like to follow the rules. And in addition to screwing his workers, his company, Oakland Maritime Support Services, has also been discharging storm water pollution into the San Francisco Bay in violation of state and federal environmental laws, court documents show.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> That, however, seems of little concern to Oakland officials, who gave him the money to offset his move from a former Army base being redeveloped by the city. By the way, did we mention Aboudi has also repeatedly missed rent payments in excess of $235,000 and that his business has been effectively exempted from having to pay parking taxes?<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Doug Bloch of </span><a href="http://www.teamstersjc7.org/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Teamsters Joint Council 7</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> said he is befuddled by the turn of events:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’m speechless. It’s a gift of public funds.</span></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What’s really going on here? </span><a href="http://www.eastbayexpress.com/" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The East Bay Express</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> explains:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So why has the city been assisting a contractor who fails to pay his workers and has polluted the environment? And why does it continue to do financial favors for him? Aboudi has strong defenders on the city council: namely, Councilmembers Larry Reid, Desley Brooks, and Rebecca Kaplan.</span></blockquote></div><div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Aboudi also has exploited citizen fears of trucks parking in West Oakland neighborhoods by telling folks that if the city does not provide him with another truck-parking location, then truckers will park their big rigs in front of people's homes — even though such long-term parking is illegal. And Aboudi's threats are hollow because the port also operates a thirty-acre truck-parking facility, and thus provides plenty of truck parking in the area.</span></blockquote></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Port officials also have been less accommodating toward Aboudi than the city has. The port balked at agreeing to a multi-year lease with the city because of Aboudi's many legal troubles and the $1 million court judgment against him. As a result, city officials ordered the Army Base development team, led by Oakland developer Phil Tagami, to move part of its construction-staging area to the port property so that Aboudi could move his business onto the land that Tagami's team had planned to use.<o:p></o:p></span></blockquote></div><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> See the switch-a-roo they pulled?<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But there’s a snag. The switch will cost an extra $1.465 million, Tagami said late last week, because the port property has to be readied for use as a construction-staging site. That's $1.465 million that the city doesn't have -- and wouldn't otherwise have to spend were the city weren’t making accommodations for Aboudi. "The city wrote a letter accepting responsibility," Tagami said of the extra costs, "but doesn't have the money to pay for it."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p>So to recap, powerful city contractor with lots of connections is getting something for nothing while he screws drivers who work for him, taxpayers and the environment. Got it!</o:p></span></div>

California ports wage theft Oakland gives sweetheart deal to anti-worker creep

Take a look at this: A Teamster-hating, worker-screwing California business owner, who swindled port truck drivers out of nearly $1 million,...

Read more »

Port drivers doing worse now than during 1963 March on Washington

<div class="MsoNormal"><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/AVvXsEgP6hWc51vx5hKkwB35jloAWOOjTTcIv9EPCcQ5R3cqTQrdMITFJDLbx6PEJTeER7bVX6-adRJxh8SL4QSpT56RnXxE5aj0ump-TkjadicmeIHsOP0UK6bb-UAyCmnySQFn12AbI9gU4KSJ/s1600/GFS+practice+picketing.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/AVvXsEgP6hWc51vx5hKkwB35jloAWOOjTTcIv9EPCcQ5R3cqTQrdMITFJDLbx6PEJTeER7bVX6-adRJxh8SL4QSpT56RnXxE5aj0ump-TkjadicmeIHsOP0UK6bb-UAyCmnySQFn12AbI9gU4KSJ/s320/GFS+practice+picketing.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">LA port workers, still seeking justice</td></tr></tbody></table><i>Next week is the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Marchers, including Teamsters from across the country, gathered in Washington, D.C., to demand good jobs for all people. This series focuses on how well (or not) our society has met the 50-year-old demands of the marchers. Yesterday’s piece discussed the marchers’ demand <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/08/minimum-wage-lower-today.html">to raise the minimum wage</a>.</i><br /><br />A half-million people came to the 1963 March on Washington with a list of demands. One of those demands was “a broadened Fair Labor Standards Act to include all areas of employment which are presently excluded.” Since then, expanded federal employment regulations have improved the standard of living for some groups of workers, while deregulation in 1980 has hit port workers hard.<br /><br />The Fair Labor Standards Act, originally passed in 1938, establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, and child labor regulations for workers in America.<br /><br />In 1963 as well as today, some categories of workers are exempted from minimum wage laws and overtime, which has a dramatic impact on low-income families.<br /><br />Domestic workers, a significant number of whom were African-American women, were often exploited because they were not guaranteed minimum wage or overtime pay.<br /><br />Farm workers, government employees and workers at small retail stores were also exempt from the law.<br /><br />Today all of these workers are subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act regulations -- an important achievement of the Civil Rights movement. However, many other groups of workers are still not covered. Many workers in computers services and transportation industries are exempt from overtime regulations. Tipped employees do get overtime protection, but have a reduced federal minimum wage that has not been adjusted for inflation in more than 20 years. The actual real wage of $2.13 per hour workers get from their employers <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/166328/week-poverty-obamas-budget-your-servers-budget">has almost halved</a>.<br /><br />In 1963, most of the port truckers were members of the Teamsters. Their <a href="http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/Port%20Trucking%20Down%20the%20Low%20Road.pdf" rel="nofollow">wages and benefits were comparable to those of autoworkers, steelworkers and over-the-road drivers</a>. That's because trucking companies had to get a license from the Interstate Commerce Commission to haul freight. The ICC limited the number of trucks to keep the industry stable, which gave companies steady profits and their workers with decent wages and benefits. Then in 1980, port trucking was deregulated.<br /><br />A<a href="http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/Port%20Trucking%20Down%20the%20Low%20Road.pdf" rel="nofollow"> 2009 Demos study</a> reported:</div><blockquote class="tr_bq">New companies entered the industry, hiring their drivers non-union. Established companies faltered. Some went non-union; others went out of business. The firms that triumphed adopted a new business model. They sold all or most of their trucks to the drivers, then contracted with them on a per-load basis. The emerging independent contracting model meant trucking companies had few fixed costs, had no responsibility for workers’ compensation, social security, and unemployment insurance taxes, and were able to obtain drivers’ services without paying for health care costs or pension plans...</blockquote>In many, many cases these "contracted" workers are actually employees who were misclassified as independent contractors. Although drivers require great skill to transport goods from the docks to warehouses, <a href="http://cleanandsafeports.org/blog/2011/12/12/an-open-letter-from-america%E2%80%99s-port-truck-drivers-on-occupy-the-ports/">most drivers live in poverty and work on average over 60 hours a week in terrible working conditions</a>. Since independent contractors are not technically employees, companies have no incentive to reduce the amount of hours they work -- or even improve safety standards for the people who work for them, as workers are often required to supply their own trucks.<br /><br />This abuse has become so rampant that the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor have joined forces with 14 states to stamp out employer abuse through the <a href="http://www.dol.gov/whd/workers/misclassification/">Misclassification Initiative</a>. Through this project, millions of dollars in back wages have been reclaimed for workers.<br /><br />The nation's most active port is at Los Angeles/Long Beach. On Tuesday, port workers will hold a rally for justice, almost 50 years to the day after the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Justice. Find out more about the rally <a href="http://www.calaborfed.org/index.php/site/page/los_angeles_port_drivers_step_up_their_fight_for_justice">here</a>.

deregulation March on Washington ports Port drivers doing worse now than during 1963 March on Washington

LA port workers, still seeking justice Next week is the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Marchers, in...

Read more »