TEAMSTERS Local Union 767 Members at Allied Waste Services, Fort Worth, Texas have been on strike since December 18th 2006.
They have taken action against the company.
Contract negotiations have stalled since Mr Jim Lattimore, Chief Negotiator for Allied Waste, decided that he will not be available because he suddenly had to go on vacation until January 3rd, 2007.
As the trash in the Fort Worth vicinity continues to pile up on the ground, this is a precise example of the company’s blatant lack of a good faith effort in negotiations; little or no regard for their customers or your fellow union members.
This is part of the grand scheme to bust the union at any cost.
Allied Waste has retained Attorney Mark G Kisicki from the union-busting law firm of Steptoe and Johnson for direction.
Local 767 officials say: ‘We welcome you to visit their website at http://www.steptoe.com/professionals-113.html and take a glance of how proud they are for wrecking the lives of the employees and the great residents and businesses that they service.’
The residential and/or commercial services in the following cities have been affected immediately: Azle, Bedford, Benbrook, Blue Mound, Edgecliff Village, Euless, Grapevine, Haslet, Hurst, Keller, Lakeside, Newark, North Richland Hills, Pelican Bay, Richland Hills, River Oaks, Roanoke, Saginaw, Sanctuary, Southlake, Trophy Club, Watauga, Westlake and Westover Hills.
The Local 767 primary picket line and office of Trinity Waste Services is located at 6100 Elliott Reeder Road, Fort Worth, Texas 76117.
The members voted unanimously to approve strike action at the strike authorization meeting requesting all Teamsters Local Union 767 members to support them in this attack on organized labor.
In reading the website of the union busters, you will see that the union-busting business is growing and at sometime in the very near future it may affect you personally.
In 2005, Local 767 was in negotiations with Weber Aircraft in Gainesville and for the first time in our historywith them, they utilized the services of the union-busting law firm of Jackson Lewis.
The proud Local 767 members taking action at Trinity Waste thank the over 4,500 Local 767 union members working in the North Texas area.
Fort Worth residents do not blame the Teamsters when no one picked up their trash before or after the holidays.
The drivers, helpers or mechanics are not the ones who left the bargaining table to take a vacation through New Years Day and leave trash piling up in residential neighborhoods.
It was Allied’s lead negotiator who has stalled talks and walked away from negotiations.
But what could you expect from a company that is trying to bust the union and deny its workers their right to collective bargaining?
Allied workers have been under a Teamster contract since 1998, but in the months leading up to the December 10 contract deadline, the company has done everything it can to stall the talks while pressuring workers to leave the union.
Cesar Lira, an Allied worker and Local 767 steward said: ‘They want to take away our right to have a union.
‘Supervisors have been pressuring us and trying to intimidate us into saying we don’t want the union anymore.
‘Right now we are fighting for better things for us and all the families.’
So while Allied’s executives are relaxing in front of the fireplace sipping wine and unwrapping expensive gifts, the citizens of Fort Worth are up to their stockings in garbage.
And Allied’s workers – the men and women who do the thankless and dirty job of picking up everyone’s trash – are fighting for their right to belong to a union.
This just shows how little this company cares about its community and its workers. The union doesn’t take time off representing our members.
It’s out there every single day because we believe all people, no matter if they work in an office or a garbage truck, deserve to be treated like human beings, not machines or numbers at the bottom of a profit and loss statement.
And the members wouldn’t be standing on a picket line in the rain and wind and cold if they didn’t believe these issues were worth fighting for.
Plain and simple: Allied wants the union to go away so it can force wages down and widen its profit margins.
The company has already stuck it to customers and now they want to rid themselves of having to pay union wages. And it’s not like this company isn’t making money. According to Allied’s latest quarterly report:
• Revenue grew 7.2 per cent, driven by average price increases of 6.6 per cent and average volume increases of 0.6per cent.
• Operating income increased 10 per cent to $252 million compared to $229 million for the third quarter 2005.
• Net income, or profit, climbed more than 30 per cent, from $43.6 million in the third quarter of 2005 go $62.9 million for the third quarter of 2006.
And after only one year on the job, Allied CEO John Zillmer, will bring home a very merry salary of close to $2 million.
So once again, the executives will have a happy Christmas but the rest of the workforce struggle to provide for their families.
Tell Allied (800-333-7301) that its irresponsibility is unfair to workers and unhealthy for the citizens of Fort Worth.
Tell them that you support working Americans. That you believe unions are important to the middle class, and that any assault on workers is an attack on us all.