Teamsters to stand with UAW - won't deliver vehicles

[Coexist]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-24-2007/0004668810&EDATE=

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a
statement of Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa:

The Teamsters, the largest transportation union in North America, will
stand with our 73,000 UAW brothers and sisters in their fight with General
Motors. Teamsters will not cross a UAW picket line and our 10,000
automotive transport members will not deliver GM cars.

It is time to put a stop to corporate America's attack on the security
of hardworking men and women in the United States.
Workers should not solely bear the brunt of decades of bad business
decisions by GM management. By outsourcing good jobs and creating a growing
environment of economic and job insecurity, GM has failed its workers and
its customers.
This struggle highlights the ever-growing crisis in our nation's health
care system and corporate America's continued pursuit of unfair trade
deals. This approach has failed the American worker and is destroying the
middle class.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4
million workers in North America and nearly 10,000 drivers in the
automobile transport industry.

[Marrah_G]

1. WOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! GO TEAMSTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Fantastic! K&R

Labor needs to stand together if they're to push back the Predator Class.

I only hope that they have the good sense to not vote for a candidate that was a cheerleader for job-obliterating permanent "free" trade status for China.

[shaniqua6392]

3. My husband is a teamster here in Michigan

and we stand in solidarity with the UAW!! :patriot:

[Coexist]

4. Rock on!

:patriot:

[shaniqua6392]

6. Today should be interesting for my husband's employer....

They deliver food to all of the auto plants and corporate locations. None of the drivers will make any of those deliveries. We just know that all of the product will still be on the trucks today and they will have to work around it all. I have a feeling hubby will have a very long day today!!

[Coexist]

41. I am sorry for the troubles his is going to face

but glad they are holding the line!

[satya]

20. Please tell your husband THANKS for helping us take our country back! We must stand united. nt

[Buns_of_Fire]

5. Should any Teamsters be reading this, please note the following...

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[rateyes]

7. Kicking this to the greatest page with rec 5 for the Teamsters...

my father is a retired Teamster Union member, and if it wasn't for the Teamsters, I wouldn't have a college education.

GO TEAMSTERS!!!!

[Subdivisions]

8. I love it when other unions join the picket! Stand strong

UAW brothers and sisters!

[Sanity Claws]

9. Finally -- labor must stand together!!!

Go Teamsters go.

[druidity33]

10. K&R for Unions! nt

[ellie]

11. Solidarity!

I especially like this line, "Workers should not solely bear the brunt of decades of bad business decisions by GM management." No shit.

[Canuckistanian]

12. Whoa. I'd like to see this as a trend

Maybe even ultimately a resurgence for unions in general.

At least it'll get people talking.

[Coexist]

37. I know!

[ananda]

13. You know, I'm amazed that anyone..

.. still buys GM or Ford vehicles. Every one
of their cars that I ever owned were lemons.

I did fine with Toyota and now I have a nine
year old Honda CR-V that loves to run.

[LiberalFighter]

14. I bet you did a better job of maintaining your Toyota and Honda

then you did with GM or Ford.

By the way I bought my present GM vehicle in 1998. The previous vehicle was a also GM and had it about 10 years. Both assemble in American plants.

Were all of your GM and Ford vehicles assembled in American plants?

[Virginia Dare]

15. K&R for an important and historic fight...n/t

[driver8]

16. That is great news!! Way to go, Teamsters!

As a proud union member, I am kicking and recommending!!

[myrna minx]

17. All Right!

:thumbsup:

[spoony]

18. Thank you, Teamsters!

[blondeatlast]

19. Union--YES! Let labor rise again; it's long past time. nt

[JNelson6563]

21. K&R for sollidarity!

Standing with our hardworking brothers and sisters in organized labor. :toast:

Julie

[Romulox]

22. >50% of the cars sold in this country are foreign makes...

Solidarity my ass.

I wish the UAW well, but the American people demonstrably do not stand with American labor. :(

[Bluebear]

24. 'the American people demonstrably do not stand with American labor.'

Well, they will have to stand instead of ride in a new GM vehicle for a while.

[JDPriestly]

53. We stand with American labor, but we want American management

to produce good products. It isn't the labor that is bad. It is the management. They are overpaid and under-competent. Labor can never produce a better product than the management allows them to produce.

[Purveyor]

23. Just read this on the wires. Thanks for posting this... K&R eom

[RubyDuby in GA]

25. Wow! My husband is a Teamster. I'm finally proud of something Hoffa did.

Usually standing with the Republicans most of the time gets Jr. nothing but contempt in our house, but this is a fine move.

Finally, something we are proud to support coming from the top!

[teamster633]

48. I've voted against Hoffa every time he's been up for election...

...but once in awhile he does the right thing.

[OhioChick]

26. Nice to Hear!

K&R
:kick:

[CrispyQ]

27. Yes!

Worker solidarity is our strength.

[BlooInBloo]

28. We must all hang together, else we shall assuredly all hang separately

[NaturalHigh]

29. My compliments to the Teamsters.

Way to go!

[Iris]

30. United We Stand! n/t

[me b zola]

31. Solidarity

:kick:

[phantom power]

32. It seems that BushCo's crappy economy has awoken a sleeping giant.

[davsand]

33. Has anyone heard if there are picket lines at GM dealerships?

Seems to me that maybe union folks need to wait for this strike to settle before anybody buys a car--don't ya think? I have no GM plants locally anymore, but I sure could get out to the local GM dealership.


:shrug:


Laura

[IndyOp]

56. Damn good question... Especially good idea in a town with a decent media -

particularly if you can attract TV cameras.

:thumbsup:

[AnneD]

34. One thing I will never ever do...

is cross a picket line.

Nurses don't strike...they just hate to because they don't want to interrupt care. So when they do strike-you know things have to be bad. Unsafe for the patients and dangerous for the Nurses. Remember-Nurses are responsible to their patients-their license depends on it. The CEO's are responsible to the Corporate office-usually in another city or state. They buy strike insurance and use it to hire scab Nurses. These Travel Nurse Agencies give you 1/2 to double what you make (which is kept artificially low to begin with), asks you to sign a 13 week contract and your off. You can bet the Agency charges the Hospital 2X what they pay you. There are actually temp agencies that specialize in hospital strikes just as there are companies that specialize in Union Busting. These folks are your real scum and scabs.

Since I am a school Nurse and freelance in the summer, I am always approached to work a contract. I have to tell them specifically that I don't cross picket lines.

When Nurses go on strike they give plenty of warning so the hospital won't schedule elective surgeries and care can be arranged at other facilities. I have also know of instances where a Nurse on a picket line, seeing a pedi pt that she cared for come in to the ER, and. with the blessing of her fellow picketers, went into the ER to help.

So what were these 'selfish union agitators striking for......

1)an end to mandatory overtime. Why would anyone say no to OT you think. Well just to remind you, most Nurses have 12 hr shifts and it can take an hour more to do paperwork and report off. They try to stick you with 4-6 hours of OT and when you say no they threatened to charge you with patient abandonment-a serious no no. Well most daycare charges by the minute if you are late and if you are a single mom with out family support-you are screwed (and can have CPS called on you).
2)lower Nurse to patient ratios. I have had as many as 8-11 (this includes fresh post ops that require q 15 min vital signs)to as many as 32-36 in a Nursing home (crushing pill for 2 med passes, premeal blood sugars and insulin, breathing treatments, and wound care, and the odd IV antibiotic). Oh, did I forget to add the state mandated paperwork. The good new about the Nursing Homes was that even though you had 32-36 patients-the shifts were 8 hours-10 if you did the paperwork.

Generally, the public supported the Nurses-and heaven knows we are capable of walking for hours on a picket line. We have an occasional rude person, but we love the teamsters that refuse to deliver. And we support them in their dealings with Nafta.

So next time you see someone on the picket line, give 'em a :thumbsup: and support them.

[Touchdown]

35. Teamsters helped CWA when we struck AT&T years ago.

They parked their trucks in the alleys behind the buildings so that the managers couldn't sneak in the back doors. They had to go around to the front doors and cross the picket lines. They also refused to carry copper, fiber, poles, etc. for AT&T until the strike was over!

Teamsters rock! :yourock:

[MrCoffee]

36. 26 years too late...woo hoo.

[tsuki]

38. No surprise there. Go, Teamsters!

[Coexist]

39. this thread was sinking fast when I left for work

and I thought that was sad, because I was so excited about it.

Glad to see y'all are as happy as I am about it!

[PDenton]

40. YAY!

That's all I have to say. Woohoo!

[Joanne98]

42. OOOH! That's soooooo cool! God bless the Teamsters!

[Triana]

43. K & Friggin R!!! :) (n/t)

[mark414]

44. great news....go UAW, go Teamsters! solidarity!

:toast: :yourock: :headbang:

[madmom]

45. this UAW/GM family says THANK YOU TEAMSTERS!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lugnut]

46. All right!

:applause:

[sasquatch]

47. Thank you Teamsters!

:thumbsup:

[billyoc]

49. I believe this means that they won't deliver spare parts to dealerships, either. n/t

[the808]

50. born and raised in a union home.. Thank You Teamsters!

when my dad died, we put together a photo album of pictures that showed his life, his loves and what his passions were. one of my favorite pictures was the one of him on the picket line. his old union buddies got a kick out of it and shared great memories of him with us. and how many 4 year olds knew what a scab was? and i'm not talking scraped knees! fight the good fight!

[Blue_Tires]

51. ttt

[NastyRiffraff]

52. To all the Teamsters..

and especially those here on DU:

:toast: :thumbsup: :loveya:

:yourock:

[Rainscents]

54. Go UNION!!!

Stand up and fight the good fight!

[Colorado Progressive]

55. k & r whooohooooo! nt

[HooptieWagon]

57. KnR for the Teamsters! n/t

[provis99]

58. lets hope GM doesn't bust up the union the way Caterpillar did

My heavy duty mechanic brother is so pissed off at Caterpillar, he refuses to fix any of their machines that come into the shop. If GM wins, the last few automotive worker jobs will be shipped off to China and Malaysia. Marx is looking more prophetic year by year. I wonder what the automotive manufacturers will do once American workers can't afford to buy cars anymore...

[LaPera]

59. SUPPORT UNION WORKERS! The workers only voice against the hateful republicans,

the well financed business & corporate lobbyist, constantly seeking passage to break unions (almost outlawing them)while cutting workers wages, reducing health benefits for workers & their families, lowering work place safety standards, stealing of workers pensions & retirement, reducing over-time pay as well as sick & vacation pay....All for even more corporate profit.

Who does the worker have looking out for them? Certainly not the republicans, not the profit mined corporations, and NOT the government....So who?

Only the unions look out for the workers...not management that's for damn sure...management would rather ship the jobs overseas, fuck the workers - hire illegal undocumented workers for less, fuck the American worker....and still get tax breaks and government subsidies, profit is ALL that matters to management.

Unions are all the workers have, standing together for better conditions...but republicans have allowed business and management to fire people for even trying to start a union at a work place, workers who need to protect themselves, workers have no rights....

And it all started with republican union-buster Ronald Reagan, even workers voted for him and his slick bullshit... believing the lies & hype that a republican would actually help workers... by offering a tax cut, same old republican bullshit....tax cuts are to help the wealthy and the corporations....republican ideology dictates corporations over people.

We must always support union workers....what little are left....republicans and business have always wanted to destroy all unions and make us into the slaves they see us as....working for what they want to give us while reaping in huge profits off the workers minds and backs....:patriot:


:headbang:

[comtec]

60. I REALLY hate to be a wet blanket on this...

REALLY I do...
But the teamster's strike might not matter as much, since Mexican drivers were allowed in the country, at least in the short term.
They can still use those Mexicans to move the stock on hand around, and this administration is unlikely to do anything about that. *co will only interfere if they can prove whip up some BS about the teamsters interfering or something, and call the national guard..oops, we don't HAVE a National guard anymore, they're in Iraq....

You know it occurs to me this is a good time for all labor to strike, there's no national guard troops to be called in! and even what few there are, I don't think they are going to be too enthusiastic about putting down labor anymore.

[tkmorris]

61. Umm, I don't think so

As I understand it, the rules under which any Mexican truckers are on our highways do not permit this.

[comtec]

62. Logically (and legally) I tend to agree

but with Corp-co running the country, I don't know what laws to trust in anymore.

[B Calm]

63. The whole country needs to go on strike! and the time is perfect!

[riverdeep]

64. This is big.

First walk-out in thirty years by GM workers. Teamsters following suit. This is going to be a barometer for the labor movement. What has NAFTA and globalization wrought? We're about to find out.