Today I had the honor of meeting George Tedeschi (president GCC/IBT) and found him to be a very charming person.It would have been great to hear our publisher (David Hiller) converse with George Tedeschi, both men are professionals and can agree to disagree without any drama.
On Saturday morning I plan to attend the NLRB counting of the ballots at 10am, the results of the election will be posted almost immediately on my blog.
Results should be posted about 10:35am this Saturday.
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From the Teamsters for a Democratic Union web site.
San Francisco Chronicle
Newspaper Teamsters Told ‘Vote Till You Get it Right’
December 6, 2006. Teamster members of GCC Local 4-N at the San Francisco Chronicle have spent the last few years fighting for a decent contract that upholds industry standards for union pressmen. Despite their united struggle, they were forced to accept concessions by lack of support from the top Teamster leadership.
In an Oct. 13 letter, GCC President (and IBT Vice President-elect) George Tedeschi ordered Local 4-N’s leadership to hold a meeting for Chronicle workers to vote on whether to ratify a concessionary agreement that he had bargained. At that meeting, the contract was narrowly defeated.
When Tedeschi learned that members had rejected his deal, he ordered the local to conduct another vote, this time set in the workplace, on the company’s turf. The contract then passed by a wide margin. The deal includes job cuts, two-tier vacation accrual, mandatory overtime, loss of past practice, and outsourcing of the entire operation in three years.
A Long Struggle
All along, the Chronicle workers have had to fight not only the company, but union leaders who seem to have forgotten the meaning of solidarity. First the officers of Teamster mailers and drivers broke ranks with the bargaining coalition to settle agreements that included a no strike clause. When it looked like the Machinists would go on strike and that the members of 4-N would honor the line, Hoffa’s special assistant Rome Aloise sent a letter to the drivers reminding them that he would order them to cross it. Aloise and Tedeschi publicly undercut Local 4-N, and echoed the company’s claims of poverty even though the company never opened their books to the union.
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