A FEW EXERPTS and an informative read from WFAA Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas dated: Friday, January 16, 2009

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=wfaa.story&STORY=/www/story/03-23-2007/0004552410&EDATE=FRI+Mar+23+2007,+05:41+PM

Teamsters Urge NCAA to Drop Coke Sponsorship
Union Cites Labor, Human Rights, and Environmental Abuses
WASHINGTON, March 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Teamsters rallied today at NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis and at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey to urge the NCAA to drop key sponsor Coca-Cola. The union cited concerns about Coca- Cola’s destruction of natural resources in developing countries, its worker and human rights abuses in the U.S. and abroad, and the elimination of good- paying U.S. jobs at Coke bottler and distributor Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE)…..
“The NCAA should stand for what’s best and brightest in college
athletics, including fair play, integrity, and sportsmanship,” said Jack
Cipriani, Director of the Teamsters Brewery and Soft Drink Workers
Conference. “Coke’s record sure doesn’t match those high ethical standards. A company that pollutes, discriminates, destroys good American jobs ….
HERE IN THE UNITED STATES CCE, Coca-Cola’s largest bottler, plans to eliminate and restructure thousands of middle-class jobs in the U.S. under a new business model. Coke and CCE are engaged in a concerted campaign to destroy job security, pension benefits and health care coverage for the workers and their families……..(CHECK THE LINK ABOVE)
NO WONDER THE EMPLOYEES ARE REACHING OUT!
“For us, our members come first,” Cipriani said. “But, with Coca-Cola
and CCE, workers get the short end of the stick. All this while the current CEO of Coca-Cola was given a 2006 salary, bonus, incentives and perks in excess of $20 million. And the former CEO of CCE was awarded $10 million ……..
TEAMSTERS TO THE RESCUE
The Teamsters Union represents more than 14,000 Coca-Cola and CCE employees in the United States and Canada.
Would the Fort Worth CCE plant as well as other CCE plant’s employees benefit if they were with The Teamsters Union as well?
I say yes! But the employees that worked at the CCE Fort Worth plant that were interviewed were afraid of losing their jobs and report that they were even threatened if any contact was made to the Teamsters or other employees on the subject and some employees were given unfair work loads on a regular basis.
TEAMSTERS PROTECT the employees from these very conditions.
Some companies use these tactics in order to keep the union out by threatening jobs and or making the job difficult to unbearable in some cases and employees believe these threats and continue to work under bad conditions and poor management, for low pay. Aren’t these same tactics used in “sweatshops”?!
According to my count of those employees asked, there are enough CCE employees that feel the Teamsters would be the way to go. In fact, all but one of the employees that were asked, were very unhappy and agreed with the above. One said that he agreed with the above but for the record he wasn’t going to say anything that might put his job at risk so he stuck to the sunny side of things like, “I’m thankful that I have a job and I can’t find another one that pays me as well as CCE”. When I asked this middle aged employee, would he leave the company after all these years (over 10 yrs) if I offered him $5.00 more pre hour and better conditions today, he responded with a “yes” and walked away.
Will CCE of Fort Worth go union?

http://teamsterslocal767.com/

Contact: Teamsters Local Union No 997
137 Sycamore School Rd Ste 102
Fort Worth, TX 76134

Technorati Tags: About, Coca, Cola, Employees, Reputable, Treatment, Union, What

Tagged with: • • • • • • •

Filed under: Human Resources Director

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!