Truckers fired for attempting to unionize!

[cynatnite]

KINGSPORT — Representatives from the National Labor Relations Board will be in town next week taking statements from employees who were recently laid off from a local trucking company — just as they were trying to organize under the local Teamsters union.

Scott Armstrong, president of Teamsters Local 549, said 33 employees of Tennessee Commercial Warehouse (TCW) in Kingsport were permanently laid off as they tried to join the union.

A TCW official said Tuesday the company has no comment on the matter.

Armstrong said he was contacted in October by TCW employees.

“They were wanting to talk to me about organizing — said they had bad working conditions,” Armstrong said.

He said employees complained that their pay wasn’t consistent, that the company made payroll errors and altered the wage structure with little or no notice to workers, and that TCW offered expensive, insufficient health insurance.

“They just wanted better working conditions,” he said.

http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9004582

This is NE Tennessee where I live.

[Yael]

1. Ouch.

[classykaren]

2. We need a massive blockade

[WillyT]

3. Read This !!!

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-chamber8jan08,1,5346679.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

[cynatnite]

4. Wow! That's one hell of a read!

I'm speechless.

Thanks for the heads up!

[XOKCowboy]

9. Our Governor Ritter here in Colorado

is very pro-union and the business community here is up in arms. I'm sure the CofC has it's hand in there somewhere.

[OhioChick]

5. K&R

:kick:

[I work for workers]

6. Unfortunately, stories like this are altogether too common during the past eight years.

The Bush admin's Labor Board has done more to break the backs of unions then the Pinkertons could have dreamed of.

[readmoreoften]

7. This took courage. I was also fired for fighting for the right to collective bargaining.

These guys deserve respect for having the good faith to stand up for themselves and other workers. I wish them the best and will support them however I can.

[sandnsea]

8. Mark Penn - union buster

I think people are known by the company they keep.

[superkia]

10. If we continue to elect corrupt politicians, we will continue to see...

our brothers and sisters of the country getting shit on. Eventually the corruption will hit each one of us in a very bad way and by then it will be too late.