HOFFA HAILS DESIGNATION OF WILMA LIEBMAN AS CHAIRMAN OF THE NLRB

The following is an official statement from Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa.

“Wilma Liebman served the Teamsters with distinction for nine years prior to embarking on her distinguished career in public service. I am so proud that President Obama designated her to take on this vitally important role as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.

“American workers desperately need the NLRB to restore balance and fairness in the workplace. Wilma is the right person to lead the board on that mission.

“She understands that the NLRB’s role is to protect the rights of employees who want to join a union – a responsibility the Bush-dominated board abandoned during the past eight years. Wilma understands the obstacles that American workers must surmount to join a union. She will bring her sense of fairness and decency to the job.

“President Obama must still nominate three additional members to the board. I am confident that his appointees will restore the board into the honest broker of differences between employees and their employer that it has been for most of the past 75 years.

“The labor movement is looking forward to an NLRB that is no longer stacked against workers.”

JC Penney Drops Oak Harbor Freight Lines as Shipper

Move Is Response To Labor Rights Violations

National retailer JC Penney has stopped using Oak Harbor Freight Lines to ship its merchandise in the western United States. This decision comes on the heels of a report by the International Labor Rights Forum, which found that Oak Harbor Freight Lines has violated international labor rights standards. Teamster members employed by Oak Harbor Freight have been on strike since Sept. 22 because of violations of federal labor laws that protect workers' rights, such as coercing and threatening employees, and making unlawful changes to working conditions.

Oak Harbor is a trucking firm headquartered in Auburn, Wash., and is one of the largest regional freight carriers in the Northwest. The report (http://www.laborrights.org/labor-rights/1863) found that:

-- African-American and female replacement employees working at Oak Harbor have suffered discrimination in their work assignments;

-- Oak Harbor's decision to permanently replace its employees was a tactic to interfere with a legitimate union's attempt to bargain a new collective agreement;

-- Oak Harbor hired a subcontractor, Jim Rexroat, who has used unethical and unlawful business practices, including deceptive hiring practices and failing to pay workers the wages they were promised; and

-- Oak Harbor's decision to eliminate health coverage for its retired employees is incompatible with the ethical principles to which the company claims to adhere.

In response to the workers' strike, now in its 12th week, the company unilaterally stopped paying for health care benefits for current workers and retirees.

Other retailers, after learning of the workers' rights violations, also fired Oak Harbor. The retailers include REI, Urban Outfitters and Gap.

"We are pleased that JC Penney has made the socially responsible decision to cease working with a company that has so blatantly violated workers' rights," said Tyson Johnson, Teamsters International Vice President and Freight Division Director. "We will continue to take our message to Oak Harbor's customers and bankers until they stop these abuses. Oak Harbor should be willing to negotiate with our workers in good faith and allow for a dignified retirement."