Message from Phil Cooper
Secretary-Treasurer
September 2021
Secretary-Treasurer
September 2021
As another summer passes us by and schools are again in session, I want to remind everyone to be on the watch for children in school zones, bus stops and just playing outside. For most of them, they are thrilled to be back in classes with their friends, and their thoughts might be elsewhere and that is why we must keep an eye out for them.
September finds the Local very busy with preparing for two, first time contracts. Back in July, the Union held a successful organizing campaign for 25 warehouse workers at a Reyes Beer facility in Lancaster. We had our initially opening day of negotiations, but our last two sessions were canceled by the company due to illness. We have the 28th of September scheduled for our next negotiating session, and we have several dates scheduled for October. There is a good chance we may have these workers in the High Desert voting on their first contract by the end of October or early November.
Also in July, Local 896 won the organizing campaign for the workers of the Victorville Keurig Dr. Pepper. This was a campaign 9 years in the making! We had lost a close election back in 2013, and with attempts in 2014, 2016, 2017 and finally 2019, we were finally victorious. We are going through the process of requiring information from the company so we can prepare for negotiations that we are hoping to start sometime in October. Most of the workers of the High Desert facility are eager to get this negotiations underway ASAP, for they have been looking forward to working under a Teamster contract for a long time.
The Keurig Victorville negotiations are very important to every Southern California Local that represents a Keurig facility, and much attention will be paid to these negotiations. The High Desert workers have been told many times that their fellow Union workers will have their backs in these negotiations, and that should help them to get a very good first contract.
On August 9th, 1946, Local 896 was given our Certification of Affiliation as a Teamsters Local. General Secretary Treasurer John F English and President Daniel J Tobin signed the certificate that bound us to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers. Our Charter was in support of Brewery, Soda and Mineral Water Bottlers of California, and our Local’s Birthplace was in the City of San Francisco.
Our great Local has now been representing workers in the industry for 75 years, what a great story! Because of this, our September Union Meeting will be a celebration of our 75th anniversary. We will have a combined Union meeting, (Beer and Soft Drink members) with food, gifts, an anniversary pin designed our member, Max Gomez, for those that attend the meeting. The meeting will begin at 10:00 am and shouldn’t last more that 2 hours. I know for many of you, Sunday is the only day off for family time, because of this, please know everyone is invited! We will also be celebrating the third year of our Pasadena location, and after the past 18 months of the pandemic having ability to celebrate with co-workers is long overdue. Please be prepared to wear masks and follow Covid protocols at this meeting.
The Union’s engineer is still in the process of auditing the Coca-Cola facilities and should have them wrapped up by the end of the month. He has found some issues in the Los Angeles and Industry shops and believes his findings will be duplicated in the Downey and Sylmar warehouses. We will present our findings in early October and will also discuss corrective actions, suspensions and terminations that several of our employees have received with the new ELS standards. The Local also sent a demand to bargain letter that will include discipline, ramp up periods, fatigue factors, grandfather clauses for some of our seasoned employees etc. and there will be discussions on why most of the women hired are failing to achieve their unachievable standards!
There could also be help coming the California Senate who voted yes on AB 701 on September 8th to regulate warehouse performance metrics. By approving the first legislations in the nation that will require companies using engineered labor standards to disclose productivity quotas at their facilities, along with other standards to make warehouse work safer. The Bill will face a final “concurrence” vote in the Assembly, usually a procedural step, before heading to Gov. Gain Newsom’s desk for signature. Gavin has stated in the past that he would sign the bill, lets make sure he is still Governor by voting “NO” on the recall attempt!
Congratulations to our recent retirees:
From Anheuser-Busch: Maria Torres, Javaro Glenn, Elise Gonzales, Cristee Bergquist, David Hunt, John Salinas Jr, Eric Phillips, Roy Phillips, Dave Donovan.
From Reyes Coca-Cola: David Gonzales, John Barnes, Tony Ng, Estaban Delgado Gama, Alicia Torres, Barbara Betz, Annie Booker and Richard Munoz.
From Coke USA Syrup: David Mosqueda and Gary Monks.
From MillerCoors: George Diaz
Our deepest condolences to the families of: Estanislao Gecolea of Shasta Beverages.
September finds the Local very busy with preparing for two, first time contracts. Back in July, the Union held a successful organizing campaign for 25 warehouse workers at a Reyes Beer facility in Lancaster. We had our initially opening day of negotiations, but our last two sessions were canceled by the company due to illness. We have the 28th of September scheduled for our next negotiating session, and we have several dates scheduled for October. There is a good chance we may have these workers in the High Desert voting on their first contract by the end of October or early November.
Also in July, Local 896 won the organizing campaign for the workers of the Victorville Keurig Dr. Pepper. This was a campaign 9 years in the making! We had lost a close election back in 2013, and with attempts in 2014, 2016, 2017 and finally 2019, we were finally victorious. We are going through the process of requiring information from the company so we can prepare for negotiations that we are hoping to start sometime in October. Most of the workers of the High Desert facility are eager to get this negotiations underway ASAP, for they have been looking forward to working under a Teamster contract for a long time.
The Keurig Victorville negotiations are very important to every Southern California Local that represents a Keurig facility, and much attention will be paid to these negotiations. The High Desert workers have been told many times that their fellow Union workers will have their backs in these negotiations, and that should help them to get a very good first contract.
On August 9th, 1946, Local 896 was given our Certification of Affiliation as a Teamsters Local. General Secretary Treasurer John F English and President Daniel J Tobin signed the certificate that bound us to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers. Our Charter was in support of Brewery, Soda and Mineral Water Bottlers of California, and our Local’s Birthplace was in the City of San Francisco.
Our great Local has now been representing workers in the industry for 75 years, what a great story! Because of this, our September Union Meeting will be a celebration of our 75th anniversary. We will have a combined Union meeting, (Beer and Soft Drink members) with food, gifts, an anniversary pin designed our member, Max Gomez, for those that attend the meeting. The meeting will begin at 10:00 am and shouldn’t last more that 2 hours. I know for many of you, Sunday is the only day off for family time, because of this, please know everyone is invited! We will also be celebrating the third year of our Pasadena location, and after the past 18 months of the pandemic having ability to celebrate with co-workers is long overdue. Please be prepared to wear masks and follow Covid protocols at this meeting.
The Union’s engineer is still in the process of auditing the Coca-Cola facilities and should have them wrapped up by the end of the month. He has found some issues in the Los Angeles and Industry shops and believes his findings will be duplicated in the Downey and Sylmar warehouses. We will present our findings in early October and will also discuss corrective actions, suspensions and terminations that several of our employees have received with the new ELS standards. The Local also sent a demand to bargain letter that will include discipline, ramp up periods, fatigue factors, grandfather clauses for some of our seasoned employees etc. and there will be discussions on why most of the women hired are failing to achieve their unachievable standards!
There could also be help coming the California Senate who voted yes on AB 701 on September 8th to regulate warehouse performance metrics. By approving the first legislations in the nation that will require companies using engineered labor standards to disclose productivity quotas at their facilities, along with other standards to make warehouse work safer. The Bill will face a final “concurrence” vote in the Assembly, usually a procedural step, before heading to Gov. Gain Newsom’s desk for signature. Gavin has stated in the past that he would sign the bill, lets make sure he is still Governor by voting “NO” on the recall attempt!
Congratulations to our recent retirees:
From Anheuser-Busch: Maria Torres, Javaro Glenn, Elise Gonzales, Cristee Bergquist, David Hunt, John Salinas Jr, Eric Phillips, Roy Phillips, Dave Donovan.
From Reyes Coca-Cola: David Gonzales, John Barnes, Tony Ng, Estaban Delgado Gama, Alicia Torres, Barbara Betz, Annie Booker and Richard Munoz.
From Coke USA Syrup: David Mosqueda and Gary Monks.
From MillerCoors: George Diaz
Our deepest condolences to the families of: Estanislao Gecolea of Shasta Beverages.
