Thursday, November 23, 2006

USF Bestway Workers Choose Local 104

Phoenix Employees Are Latest to Organize



On November 20, approximately 130 USF Bestway workers at the Phoenix terminal became the newest organized USF Bestway workers under the Teamster card-check neutrality agreement with the company, which was ratified in July.

Local 104 in Phoenix sought and received recognition for the drivers and dockworkers. The workers in Phoenix follow their counterparts in San Leandro, Modesto and Sacramento in California, all of whom have organized under the agreement during the past several months.

The dockworkers, line drivers and city drivers in the West will be organized through the Master Bestway Agreement card-check neutrality clause, negotiated in the Southwest and Southeast.

Seventy-nine of the workers in Phoenix signed cards to form a union for increased job security, seniority rights, a way to address favoritism and improved pension benefits. Because a majority of workers signed authorization cards, the company recognized their wish to form a union.

“We’re very excited to be able to provide these workers with the best representation,” said Andy Marshall, Local 104 Secretary-Treasurer. “We’re getting calls from Bestway workers in Tucson who want to receive the same strong representation.”

“This campaign began about two years ago, but it was the card-check neutrality agreement that was the breakthrough for us,” said Kathy Campbell, Local 104’s organizer. “The International Union’s Freight Division did a great job by negotiating this agreement.”

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