By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. September 15, 2012 (AP)

A Wisconsin judge on Friday struck down nearly all of the state law championed by Gov. Scott Walker that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for most public workers.

Walker's administration immediately vowed to appeal, while unions, which have vigorously fought the law, declared victory. But what the ruling meant for existing public contracts was murky: Unions claimed the ruling meant they could negotiate again, but Walker could seek to keep the law in effect while the legal drama plays out.

The law, Walker's crowning achievement that made him a national conservative star, took away nearly all collective bargaining rights from most workers and has been in effect for more than a year.

Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas ruled that the law violates both the state and U.S. Constitution and is null and void. He said the law violated the constitutional rights of free speech and association.

The ruling applies to all local public workers affected by the law, including teachers and city and county government employees, but not those who work for the state. They were not a party to the lawsuit, which was brought by a Madison teachers union and a Milwaukee public workers union.

Walker issued a statement accusing the judge of being a "liberal activist" who "wants to go back wards and take away the lawmaking responsibilities of the legislature and the governor. We are confident that the state will ultimately prevail in the appeals process."

Wisconsin Department of Justice spokeswoman Dana Brueck said DOJ believes the law is constitutional.

Lester Pines, an attorney for Madison Teachers Inc., said the ruling means all local governments, including school districts, are now required to bargain with employees covered by unions, just as they did before the law passed. Pines predicted the case would ultimately be resolved by the state Supreme Court. "What's going to happen in the interim is unknown," he said.

The proposal was introduced shortly after Walker took office in February last year. It resulted in a firestorm of opposition and led to huge protests at the state Capitol that lasted for weeks. All 14 Democratic state senators fled the state to Illinois for three weeks in an ultimately failed attempt to stop the law's passage from the Republican-controlled Legislature.

The law required public workers to pay more for their health insurance and pension benefits at the same time it took away their ability to collectively bargain over those issues. Walker argued the changes were needed to help state and local governments save money at a time Wisconsin faced a $3 billion budget shortfall.

"This is a huge victory for Wisconsin workers and a huge victory for free speech," said Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca. "This decision will help re-establish the balance between employees and their employers."

Anger over the law's passage led to an effort to recall Walker from office. More than 930,000 signatures were collected triggering the June recall election. Walker won and became the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall.

A Labor Day Message from General President James P. Hoffa

Article from TeamsterNation

Read the whole article here.

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Related Article: Feds Take on Drayage Misclassification

Organizing Victories at Western Refinery and RTD (Blue Bus)

Western Refinery

Huge news on the organizing front! The NLRB found the drivers and the  warehousemen at Western Refining in Albuquerque to be an appropriate unit for collective bargaining and directed an election for representation. That election was held on June 28, 2012 and the employees voted in favor of being represented by the Teamsters. No objections to the vote were filed and a Certification of Representative was issued by the NLRB on July 6, 2012. The vote was close, however considering the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the company spent on a brutal anti-union campaign this result shows that workers can win and assert their rights if they stand united. 

We want to personally thank all of the organizing committee members at Western Refining as well as all of the Teamster member volunteers, stewards, Local Union staff and IBT organizers who devoted a tremendous amount of time and energy to this campaign. Obviously the party is not over yet. We have scheduled contract proposal meetings with the Albuquerque unit and expect to begin negotiations soon. 

A petition was filed for representation of the El Paso, TX drivers by Local 745 on July 9, 2012. We hope to follow that up with a petition for Gallup, NM very soon. In the meantime the trial regarding the company’s numerous unfair labor practices will resume the week of August 13^th. Continue to talk the Union up whenever you see these Western drivers delivering or run across them up and down the road.

North Central Regional Transit District (Blue Bus) 

We had another organizing victory on May 8th, 2012, in Northern New Mexico. The North Central Regional Transit District Bus drivers (better known as RTD - Blue Bus) voted to join Teamsters Local 492. RTD bus drivers covers Espanola, Los Alamos, Northern Pueblos, Santa Fe & Taos. We have had the contract proposal meetings with the drivers and are scheduled to begin negotiations on their first contract on July 17, 2012.

Today, June 28th, 2012 was a momentous day for the drivers at Western Refinery in Albuquerque as they voted to join Teamsters Local 492!

This has been a long fought battle but the end result is these brave drivers, who have put up with a lot, are now proud Teamsters and will begin to build on this victory in Albuquerque to help their brothers in other cities across New Mexico and Texas, to become Teamsters as well.

The next step will be negotiations with the company to secure a good contract that these drivers absolutely deserve.

Our thanks go out to all of the Western Refinery drivers that helped with this campaign along with our members and the IBT for help with this organizing campaign.

Click Here to Read a related article by President Moises Ortega.

By Harold Meyerson, Published by The Washington Post

In the wake of labor’s defeated effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) last week, both pro- and anti-union pundits have opined that unions are in an all-but-irreversible decline. Privately, a number of my friends and acquaintances in the labor movement have voiced similar sentiments. Most don’t think that decline is irreversible but few have any idea how labor would come back.

What would America look like without a union movement? That’s not a hard question to answer, because we’re almost at that point. The rate of private-sector unionization has fallen below 7 percent, from a post-World War II high of roughly 40 percent. Already, the economic effects of a union-free America are glaringly apparent: an economically stagnant or downwardly mobile middle class, a steady clawing-back of job-related health and retirement benefits and ever-rising economic inequality.

In the three decades after World War II the United States dominated the global economy, but that’s only one of the two reasons our country became the first to have a middle-class majority. The other is that this was the only time in our history when we had a high degree of unionization. From 1947 through 1972 — the peak years of unionization — productivity increased by 102 percent, and median household income also increased by 102 percent. Thereafter, as the rate of unionization relentlessly fell, a gap opened between the economic benefits flowing from a more productive economy and the incomes of ordinary Americans, so much so that in recent decades, all the gains in productivity — as economists Ian Dew-Becker and Robert Gordon have shown — have gone to the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans. When labor was at its numerical apogee in 1955, the wealthiest 10 percent claimed just 33 percent of the nation’s income. By 2007, with the labor movement greatly diminished, the wealthiest 10 percent claimed 50 percent of the nation’s income.

Click Here To Read The Full Article

Community and Civic Leaders Rally at La Michoacana

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The 2012 NM Truck Roadeo held on May 5th was another success story for our Union Brothers that competed in the event taking home a combined total of 15 awards including first place in half of the categories, the Team Trophy (won by ABF) and also Driver of the Year won by Ronald Greenstreet of YRC (pictured). The Teamsters were represented by 4 companies this year; ABF, Sandia National Labs, TDI/UPS (Sara Lee), and YRC.  Teamsters Local 492 would like to thank all 21 Teamster members who competed this year.  

YRC’s other participants: Gilbert Gonzales, Andre Lobato and Matt Beaudet.

Click here to read last years Truck Roadeo Article

Report From Moises Ortega:Business Agent, ORGANIZING:

Just about a year ago, we organized Pat Salmon & Sons, Inc., who is known locally as Elbar. They are a US Mail contract hauler. We were very close to completing negotiations on their first contract when the company closed the Albuquerque facility on April 16^th with less than two weeks notice. We have filed unfair labor practice charges against Pat Salmon and are seeking a 10(j) injunction through the NLRB to force the company to return to the status quo until a determination can be made regarding their motives for the closure. We also are moving forward with a possible lawsuit in Federal District Court for violation of the WARN Act, as they did not give sixty days advance notice of closure. These drivers were patient and held together through the negotiation process, and now to lose their jobs to other mostly non-union terminals of the company is an insult. These drivers deserve better and this Local Union will do all in its power to get some justice for them.

8-09-2011 Update for Salmon&Sons(Elbar):

In other organizing news, we are currently working to organize a group of tanker drivers. We had tried previously to organize this group, without success. However this time, we have strong support especially from the drivers who were around the first time and remember all of the broken promises. With plenty of inside help and strong committees, I feel very sure that we will be successful this time around.
 

We are pleased to announce that the Santa Fe City Council voted on February 29^th, 2012, to approve the proposed Community Workforce Agreement. The vote was 7 to 0, in favor of the agreement, with one councilor abstaining.

This agreement means that all public works projects of $500,000 or more will be constructed by workers represented by our various NM Building and Construction Trades Council affiliates. This is the culmination of an ongoing process that was begun 20 months ago.

The City of Santa Fe's “Business and Quality of Life” committee first issued unanimous support for the Community Workforce Agreement proposal. This paved the way for the vote on February 29^th. It was the third and final committee that has vetted the proposal. This will be virtually the first time a city of this size anywhere in the U.S. has approved a CWA of this type, (the ones before have all been large cities) and will mark the first step in the NM Building Trades overall strategic plan to do more of these around the state with various entities, including, cities, counties, tribes, etc.

Along with all of the people within the BTC who have worked to make this possible, we would like to thank Executive Director of the NMBCTC Ray Baca for all that he did to see this through.

This is the first piece of a strategic path toward making more of these agreements possible around the state with various municipalities, school districts, universities, and tribal entities.

To learn more about PLA's and CWA's, Click Here.