|
Teamsters Local 294 has been
active in the labor movement since 1903. That is
more then one hundred and three years of
representing labor in the Capitol District and
surrounding area. Our goal is to bring a living wage,
affordable healthcare, pensions and safe working conditions for all workers.
•Do you Have?
•A
negotiated contract?
•A
negotiated pension?
•A
negotiated health plan?
•A
say in your future?
•You
can have these things
Why
Join A Union?
Job Protection and security
Decent wages and
benefits
Improved working conditions
Who are the
Teamsters?
The Teamsters are
America’s largest, most diverse union. In 1903, the Teamsters
started as a merger of the two leading team driver associations.
These drivers were the backbone of America’s robust economic growth,
but they needed to organize to wrest their fair share from greedy
corporations. Today, the Union’s task is exactly the same.
The Teamsters are
known as the champion of freight drivers and warehouse workers, but
have organized workers in virtually every occupation imaginable,
both professional and non-professional, private sector and public
sector.
Our 1.4 million members are public defenders in
Minnesota; vegetable workers in California; sanitation workers
in New York; brewers in St. Louis; newspaper workers in Seattle;
construction workers in Las Vegas; zoo keepers in Pennsylvania;
healthcare workers in Rhode Island; bakery workers in Maine;
airline pilots, secretaries and police officers. Name the
occupation and chances are we represent those workers somewhere.
There are nearly 1,900 Teamster affiliates throughout the United
States, Canada and Puerto Rico.
Teamsters stand ready to organize workers who want to bargain
collectively. Once a contract is negotiated and signed, the
Union works to enforce it—holding management’s feet to the fire
and invoking contract grievance procedures if management chooses
not to. Wages and benefits under Teamster contracts are markedly
better than those of non-union employees in similar jobs.
Teamster contracts are the guarantors of decent wages, fair
promotion, health coverage, job security, paid time-off and
retirement income.
The Teamsters Union also performs vital tasks in such areas as
pension management, safety & health, community outreach,
governmental affairs and communications. For more than a
century, the Teamsters have been a public voice for the rights
and aspirations of working men and women and a key player in
securing them. |
Why Organize?
In today's political and economic climate, now more than ever workers
need to join together. A union can help create a more level playing
field with your employer. Instead of one person telling management that
wages should be fair, health and safety regulations should be followed
and employees deserve good health care benefits, a union helps you speak
together, in one voice. And that chorus of voices has more power than
one lone voice. A union is the vehicle workers can use to help bring the
chorus together.
United
We Bargain, Divided We Beg
A union is created when employees come together to try to
improve their working conditions and pay. Some outside
“third-party does not impose unions" as anti-union
employers would like you to believe. A union exists only when a
majority of workers vote for it in a secret ballot election.
Our ranks are growing as more and more workers realize the
benefit of being part of a union. Everywhere, according to the
latest reports and statistics, workers and professional
associations are joining large labor unions to help protect
their jobs, their rights and benefits and improve working
conditions.
Employers know that with a union, workers gain the power to make
them heard. That's why an employer will go to great lengths to
try to divide us — by the kind of work we do or who we happen
to know in management. Or by age, gender, race, national origin,
religion, sexual orientation, physical conditions or anything
else they can think of.
Why? Because when we stand united, we have more strength.
Strength to win good contracts, better benefits, and better
working conditions. To fight for better laws, and to gain
dignity and respect on the job.
In fact, the only way to gain a voice on our jobs and gain real,
positive changes in the workplace is to get it in writing - in a
legally binding Teamster contract.
As a member of the Local 294, you are among the ranks of the
largest and most powerful union in the country — with the
strength of 1.4 million Teamster workingmen and women and
400,000 retirees and their families behind you.
 Paul
Engel Jr. is Local 294s organizer. Paul is
skilled and proficient in bringing information and
help to those who wish to better their lives,
income, working conditions, health care, and
pensions by organizing their workplace. If you are
dissatisfied at your workplace and you and your
fellow workers would like to change your lives for
the better, give Paul a call at (518) 489-5436
|
The Union Advantage
If you don’t have a union in your
workplace, you don’t have guaranteed wages, health
benefits or a secure pension. You are an “at-will”
employee. You check your rights at the door, and your
employer can fire you or change your conditions of
employment at any time and for almost any reason.
There are real advantages to having
a union for you as an individual and for society in
general. By forming a union with your co-workers,
together you will have the strength to negotiate a
legally binding contract with your employer that
includes better wages, affordable health care, a secure
retirement and a safer workplace. Consider:
- Better wages: Wages of union
members are, on average, 27% higher than those of
nonunion workers, according to the U.S. Department
of Labor. In 2004, union workers were paid $781 a
week, but nonunion workers only got paid $612 a
week. While all unions workers are better off than
nonunion workers, women and minorities are
especially so:
- Women in unions earn an extra $170 a week –
$9,000 more a year.
- African Americans in unions earn an extra
$150 a week – $8,000 more a year.
- Latinos in unions earn an extra $225 a week
– $11,650 more a year.
|
- Better health care: 81% of union workers
have job-related health coverage, while only 50% of non-union
workers do. Union families pay 43% less for family coverage than
nonunion families – that’s a savings of $1,000 a year.
- Better pensions: 72% of union workers have
a guaranteed, defined benefit pension, compared to only 15% of
nonunion workers.
And the more union members there are in this
country, the better off everyone is. Throughout our history, when
unions are strong, wages go up, health care coverage improves and
pensions are strengthened. When unions are under attack, as they are
today, we are all in danger – our jobs, our communities and our
families.
Help us win the fight to restore the American
Dream for everyone. If you would like to form a union in your
workplace, or you know someone who wants one in theirs, contact the
organizing department of a Change to Win affiliated union today.
Learn more about how a union can help you:
This article from Change to Win web page. To visit their web page
Click Here |
