Northwest Florida IMC: newswire/371

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News :: Labor : Protest Activity
"We're Tired of Being Treated Like Trash"; Pensacola BFI Workers Push for Union	Current rating: 0
by Scott Satterwhite Email: mylxine (nospam) hotmail.com	21 Jul 2004 Modified: 12:34:21 PM
July 20- In front of the BFI offices on Palafox St, a rare sight was seen in Pensacola on this hot July afternoon: a union picket line.
For several years now, the Teamsters have been trying to unionize the garbage collectors of BFI/Allied Waste, one of the nations largest trash collecting company. Standing on the sidewalk in front of BFI, one of the organizers said over a megaphone "What we have here is one of the richest companies in America treating its workers like trash." Talk on the picket line supports that notion. "It's not all about the money," said Nolan Lecoq, a BFI employee who has been with the company for eight years. "It's about being able to come to work without fear of losing your job." Nolan Lecoq told the Northwest FLorida IMC that since Allied had merged with BFI four years ago, treatment of the workers has continuously gotten worse. For example he and others described a policy the company has called "Zero-Back," a term drivers use for zero-tolerance for backing into objects. As the picketers described it, if the driver backs into anything, no matter how long they have worked for the company, they are terminated. "And who do you know who hasn't made a mistake in their lives?" He also described company working conditions for many in the region as intollerable. Lecoq said that the job of a garbage collector is a very hazardous one where the employees are often made to work for several days on without days much time off. Sometimes as long as 12 days straight. Also when there are legitimate grievences in the workplace, the workers are often belittled by management. "You have no rights. That's why we are out here. "They (the union organizers) gave us an analogy. We (the workers) are like a single pencil that can easily be broken. But when there are a lot of pencils, it's a lot harder to break us." Among the demands that the workers are organizing for are more rights in the workplace, better wages, safer working conditions, and a voice. "There's big money in garbage and they need to start sharing it," says Lecoq. "We're tired of being treated like trash." The picket was supported by several unions in Pensacola, including the AFSCME, the Escambia Teacher's Union (which is part of the AFL-CIO), and the Northwest Florida Federation of Labor, and the Teamsters, who the BFI workers are voting to organize under. �We look forward to joining other Allied Waste/BFI workers in the Atlanta area and in the Ohio Valley who have already gained a strong voice at work by joining the Teamsters,� said Thomas Kreutz, a residential driver at BFI in Pensacola on the Teamster's web site. Whether or not the workers go union or stay unorganized is still up in the air. This is the third time that the Teamsters have tried to organize the BFI workers in Pensacola. Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach workers will vote on the July 22 and July 23rd if they say yes or no to the union at BFI. "If we don't go union, I know a lot of people are going to quit the company," Lecoq said. "But we're pretty confident that we will win this one. We've done our homework and think we can do it this time." As of press time, no one at BFI was available for comment. (photos to be posted)
See also: http://www.teamster.org/04news/hn_040630_4.htm http://www.alliedwaste.com
This work is in the public domain

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Re: "We're Tired of Being Treated Like Trash"; Pensacola BFI Workers Push for Union
by Scott Mylxine (No verified email address)	Current rating: 0 29 Jul 2004
This is an addendum to the story above. ************* Allied Waste/BFI Workers in Florida Vote 'Yes' to Union July 23, 2004 (Washington, DC) - On July 23, 64 workers at Allied Waste/BFI in Pensacola/Fort Walton Beach, Florida, voted to join Teamsters Local 991. The unit consists of residential drivers, roll-off drivers, front end drivers, forklift operators, welders, equipment operators and painters. “We are proud to be members of Teamsters Local 991 and look forward to having a strong voice at work, affordable health insurance and seniority rights,” said Neal Zam, residential driver. The Teamsters are conducting a national organizing campaign for the waste industry. The new members in Pensacola and Fort Walton join other new members in Atlanta and the Bay Area in California. Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States and Canada.