September 28, 2010: These Teamster bus workers make less than the minimum wage!

Now they’re uniting with TDU to enforce their rights and win the pay they deserve.

The Department of Labor is investigating outrageous wage and hour violations at a Brooklyn-based bus company represented by Teamsters Local 854.

Under their Teamster contract at Outstanding Transportation, bus aides, called matrons, make as little as $175 a week to monitor the safety of the physically and mentally disabled adults they transport every day to programs around the city.

The contract defines the work week as 40 hours in five days. The company claims that matrons work only five hours a day. The matrons, who are tracking their working hours, say they work much more.

“It’s Not Fair”

“It’s not fair, and we’re coming together to enforce our rights,” said Kim Session, a shop steward at Outstanding. “If we don’t stand up for ourselves, we can’t get what we deserve. TDU has opened our eyes and we’re more united than ever before.”

Members from other Local 854 bus companies and other concerned TDU members reached out to the workers at Outstanding with leaflets.

More than 90 members attended an organizing meeting. Workers formed a committee to keep members informed and mobilized to enforce their rights.

Dozens of workers have testified as part of the DOL investigation. And more than 100 drivers and matrons have signed group grievances demanding minimum wage, overtime, and extra pay for field trips which is guaranteed in the contract.

The Daily News, one of New York’s biggest papers, has run a series of exposes on the scandal.

Under state wage and hour laws, the Teamster bus matrons at Outstanding are entitled to weekly pay of $315 for a 40-hour week—$140 more than the starting pay of $175 a week in the union contract. Teamster drivers at Outstanding make as little as $360 a week.

Some drivers and matrons work more than 40 hours a week—with no overtime pay. In addition to doing morning and afternoon runs, they do field trips in the middle of their work day.

“Sometimes I work four field trips a week, plus Saturdays,” said bus aide Elaine Mallard. Even when she works six days, Mallard is paid less than minimum wage and gets no overtime pay. She has been a Teamster for nearly three years.

Denials and Excuses

The company, of course, denies it is doing anything wrong. They have even denied that the DOL is investigating. The DOL has publicly confirmed the investigation.

More incredibly, Local 854 officials have defended the situation in the press. They told the Daily News that the contract, which pays less than minimum wage, “improves a bad situation.”

“It’s the same kind of treatment that we’re getting from 854,” Pierre Jerome, a school bus driver and 854 member at Empire Bus Transit, told the Daily News. “The union is in bed with company.”

Jerome, a TDU member, helped workers at Outstanding start organizing. His boss at Empire, John Curcio, is the father of Charles Curcio, who owns Outstanding.

Local 854 has always been a family affair. A third Curcio—Joseph Curcio—was able to organize into Local 854 because of his relationships with organized crime family members. This is according to a report put together by former federal prosecutor and Teamster anti-corruption watchdog Ed Stier.

Today, the mobsters who controlled Local 854 are dead. But the Curcio family continues to dominate Local 854—employing many of the local’s 2,500 members under substandard contracts.

With the help of TDU, workers at all of the companies owned by the Curcios are uniting for change.

“The companies and our own union have treated us like second-class citizens for too long,” said Angel Garces, a TDU member at Consolidated Bus Transit. “It’s time for change.”

September 28, 2010: They used to make $8 to $10 an hour with no benefits. Now after a five-week strike, they’re celebrating big raises and union benefits.

Strikers followed scab trucks with mobile pickets and showed up at job sites with a giant inflatable rat. Building managers were not amused.Workers at ATM Enterprises had no union and were making $8 to $10 an hour with no benefits.

Now they’re Teamsters and celebrating big raises and union benefits—thanks to a five-week strike, a giant rat, a committed crew of Teamsters, and a joint organizing drive by New York locals 814 and 805.

The fight started when Local 814 discovered that commercial movers at TOPS, a Local 814 shop, were working side-by-side with nonunion workers making poverty wages.

Management claimed the nonunion workers were working for an entirely different company—ATM Enterprises. They just happened to work out of the same building and had all the same customers.

The workers at ATM came together, voted to join the union, and demanded better pay and health benefits. The company said no deal, so the workers dropped their dollies and picked up picket signs.

“If we had let these nonunion conditions keep spreading, eventually it would have brought all of us down,” said Keith Temple, a Teamster at TOPS who went on strike for a new contract at the same time as the ATM workers hit the streets.

Strikers reached out to customers and told them about the disruption in the company’s business. They followed scab trucks with mobile pickets and showed up at job sites with a giant inflatable rat.

Building managers on Wall Street and in New York’s financial district were not amused.

“We stopped enough jobs that the boss started losing money,” Temple said. “It was a lot of fun chasing trucks. I hope I never have to do it again. But if someone else needs help, we’re ready.”

UPDATED September 24, 2010: The New York Daily News continues to follow the story of bus workers organizing with TDU against a sub-minimum wage contract.

Click here to read the latest article from the Daily News.

Click here to read the original exclusive story in the New York Daily News.

August 18, 2010: In an unexpected role reversal, the leaders of Teamsters Local 377 are facing accusations of unfair- labor practices from the local union hall’s two employees.

The conflict has resurrected political tensions at the union, which has been plagued by infighting for several years.

Click here to read more at Vindy.

August 11, 2010: Standing up is paying off for Juan Carlos Rodriguez and other school bus drivers.

Standing up is paying off for Juan Carlos Rodriguez and other school bus drivers.

Consolidated Bus Transit (CBT) was recently forced to pay Rodriguez $140,000 in back pay and benefits for illegally firing him.

When Teamster drivers at CBT got together to enforce their contract, they faced threats and retaliation from their employer and Local 854 officials.

TDU helped Rodriguez and other members take legal action—and win. After returning to work, Rodriguez was elected to the contract negotiating committee.

“I’m glad to have the money. But respect—and the right to stand up for change—those are things you can’t put a price on,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez generously donated several thousand dollars of his back pay award to TDU to help other Teamsters fight back and win.

Can’t Put a Price On Respect

“I’m glad to have the money. But respect—and the right to stand up for change—those are things you can’t put a price on.”

Juan Carlos Rodriguez Consolidated Bus Transit Local 854, New York

August 11, 2010: Teamster school bus drivers in New York City demand an end to a substandard union contract.

For years, Teamster school bus drivers and escorts in New York City have received substandard wages and overtime pay compared to ATU Local 1181 members who do the same work for the same owners.

Now, Local 854 members at Consolidated Bus Transit are uniting to put an end to their substandard union contract.

“We’re tired of being treated like second-class citizens,” said Local 854 driver Angel Garces.

Members put forward proposals demanding that Teamsters make the same wages as ATU drivers. They’re also demanding the same overtime rules as the ATU contract, with overtime pay after 10 hours. Teamsters at CBT only get overtime if their split shift spans 10½ hours.

The two-tier structure of New York’s school bus industry is a legacy of union corruption. The Genovese crime family historically controlled ATU Local 1181. The rival Gambino crime family controlled Local 854 and negotiated a substandard contract with friendly employers so they could bid on lucrative school board contracts.

CBT boss Joseph Curcio owns multiple companies that operate out of the same yard performing the same work for the Department of Education—but Teamsters get substandard pay.

The Teamsters Union has made the school bus industry a major organizing target.

Putting an end to second-class treatment for Teamster school bus drivers in New York City will send a message to our members—and to unorganized school bus workers—that our union won’t let employers keep Teamsters at the back of the bus.

“We’re tired of being treated like second-class citizens.”

Angel Garces Consolidated Bus Transit Local 854, New York

August 11, 2010: They work side-by-side with Teamster movers who make a living wage and get decent benefits. But some workers at ATM Enterprises are making $8 an hour with no healthcare.

On July 19, more than 40 workers at ATM Enterprises and a related company, Trucking Office Products System, dropped their dollies and picked up picket signs—to transform these poverty-wage jobs into decent jobs with a living wage.

ATM workers voted to join Teamsters Local 814 in June. Their strike has been supported by area locals and New York Joint Council 16.

“They work at the same location. They help move the same furniture,” said Frank Rotundo, a mover at Trucking Office Products System who’s been on strike since July 19. “But ATM apparently wants to keep some workers at poverty pay and pocket the difference for itself. That’s not America.”

August 11, 2010: Local 901 strikers and reformers are fighting for their rights—and they’ve won each legal battle.

But officials and management are working together to delay justice.

Rank and file reformers and strikers in Puerto Rico Local 901 continue to fight for their rights. They’ve won each legal battle, but Local 901 officials and management at Coca-Cola are working together to delay justice.

To speed up the process, workers have now filed suit in federal court, and hope to have a hearing for an injunction by late September.

Reformers, Strikers Ordered Reinstated

That suit demands the immediate reinstatement to membership and to their elected steward positions of Migdalia Magriz, Silvia Rivera, and Mara Quiara, who were illegally expelled from the union in March 2009 after they ran for local union office.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has already held an extensive hearing and ordered the union officials to reinstate them, which would make Magriz and Rivera eligible to run for union office. (Quiara has since retired.)

The NLRB also ordered Coca-Cola to reinstate about 40 Teamsters who were fired or suspended for going on a lawful strike.

A separate suit has been filed by the Department of Labor against Local 901 officials over numerous irregularities in the last union election; a supervised rerun election is very likely to be the outcome.

Workers Fight Illegal Dues Hike

On another front, workers are standing up for their rights at Pepsi Cola, where the Local 901 union officials illegally imposed a big dues hike without a vote.

They have asked the International Union to order the local to correct the injustice, and if that fails, they will take further action.

The members are represented by TDU attorney Barbara Harvey of Detroit, and by Linda Backiel of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

July 28, 2010: The former treasurer of Local 533 Teamster's Union is accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from his fellow members.

Local 533 represents about 30 industries. From UPS to Waste Management, there are about 2,000 local members who pay their dues. And now, one of their own, is charged with stealing about $125,000 of their money.

On Tuesday, Mark Tracy made a brief appearance in U.S. District Court. Tracy is charged with embezzlement, filing false financial reports, and destructing financial records.

Click here to read more at My 4 News.

July 9, 2010: Teamsters who work the movies, commercials, TV and other productions in the Philly area, that includes Atlantic City work, are getting rolled by the IBT and their own local leadership led by International Vice President Bill Hamilton.

An investigation by the Independent Review Board found that movie jobs in Philadelphia Local 107 were doled out to friends and relatives of Hamilton and other union officials. Now rank-and-file Teamsters, not Hamilton, are paying the price for the nepotism scandal.

Members Pay the Price

More than 100 of 161 Local 107 movie Teamsters will be banned from doing movie work. The few Teamsters who get to continue working in the movies will have to resign their membership in Local 107.

All this is according to a plan put forward by Ron Schwab, the International Representative appointed by Hoffa to supposedly clean up the scandal. But is this a clean-up or a cover up?

Schwab told a meeting of Local 107 members that Hamilton could not run the hiring fairly so the work will be taken out of Local 107’s jurisdiction and handed over to Local 817 to run out of New York.

“They say that Local 817 will run things the right way,” Tony Sgrillo, a Local 107 member told the Philly Inquirer. “My question is: Why can’t we run it right?”

Stuck on the Lowest Tier

Under a Local 817 takeover, not a single Local 107 member would qualify to work a captain (tier one work) in their own city. Eight Philly Teamsters would qualify for “tier two” work and 19 would qualify for “tier three” work.

Forty would qualify for the lowest rung “tier four” work which is an on-call, casual type assignment. In all, only 59 Teamsters get on the Local 817 list of the 160 Local 107 Teamsters who submitted for the process.

“We’re getting penalized . . . because they didn’t run things the right way,” another Local 107 member, Louis Cintron, told the press. Cintron testified before the IRB and helped blow the whistle on the nepotism scheme.

Hamilton himself faces no penalties for the scandal that will shrink the Local 107 membership and put rank-and-file Teamsters out of work. He continues to make $278,150 in total compensation from three Teamster salaries.

If Hamilton is too incompetent or corrupt to run a fair hiring hall, why isn’t he the one being cut loose?