Thursday, August 22, 2013

Teamsters hear from workers: 'Please help us'

The Teamsters Organizing department is deluged with requests for help in forming a union. We expect other unions also hear from workers who very much want to join.

We're sharing with you some comments from workers who've contacted our organizers in the hopes we can help them. All comments are anonymous, of course, because companies will fire workers who breathe the word "union":
Sorry if I seem a little apprehensive but the conditions we work under are that bad. We are constantly told we are replaceable. This company laid-off long-time workers and replaced them with new hires because the maintenance manager is friends/family with the new hires. We were forced to lie to a workers comp hearing or lose our job. ... We desperately need a union but even talking to you will cost me my job. 
Please Help us Get a Union Vote!!!! 
...I have almost 23 years and have been put into a different job and will lose over $10 per hour while people with 5 years -- and some who refuse to do a good job -- kept their positions? I think I might have been selected for demotion based on past efforts I made to unionize! Or I am being singled out for something else, we have no recourse. Our Ombudsman is our Human Resource rep. How impartial is that when they are the problem? We need some help 
Right now the state ...  is depleting funding from education. Teachers have faced pay cuts, no raises for 7 years, and now they are taking away our job security.  I want The Teamsters, the most powerful union in the country, to help the state ... to begin the fight for workers' rights.  We have a chance to make history if we can organize all the teachers in the state to go on strike.  Please help us. 
We are getting poor pay, about 15% less than other companies, and we are forced to work on Saturday and Sunday.... .I believe we need a union and have reason to believe that my co-workers feel the same way. 
Like to do something about the hours we work and pay we make