Photos courtesy of IBT

Bert Haft

The GCC/IBT's organizers and staff received a warm welcome at the Teamsters Organizing Conference in March.

GCC/IBT Organizing Director Bert Haft told the Graphic Communicator: "We were overwhelmed at the warmth and sincerity in welcoming our group. It was great to see 350 organizers from the IBT in one room."

Regarding Teamsters organizing, Roger Insprucker, president of the Ohio Conference of Teamsters, advised conference attendees: "Our organizing campaign tools used to be trinkets like t-shirts and hats. Those worked with mom-and-pop operations, but today we're dealing with corporate America."

Insprucker, a 39-year Teamster, pointed out that the Ohio Conference had organized numerous workers in 2004 by sticking to the Organizing Department's multi-step strategy for assisting workers' unionization efforts. "We anticipate at least six more victories at DHL Independent Cartage Contractors (ICCs) by the end of March," Insprucker said.

"To be successful, we need a strategy and someone who can walk us through an organizing campaign, step-by-step," Insprucker said. "That's what's so great about the Organizing Department."

"We are in the midst of an organizing revolution," said Jeff Farmer, director of Organizing for the International union. "In 2004, more than 22,000 workers were organized with your assistance."

The effects of organizing have spread throughout the Teamsters, Farmer reported. "Forty-five locals and joint councils have added organizers within the past year," he said. "And we have conducted more than 50 organizing training sessions across the country."

Local victories

Local and joint council organizers addressed attendees, detailing local victories and the nationwide campaigns in the solid waste, freight, and carhaul industries, as well as DHL Independent Cartage Contractors (ICCs), and Quebecor World facilities.

Numerous local organizers praised the organizing model implemented by the Teamsters Organizing Department. Luz Perez, director of Organizing for IBT Local 601 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, said, "There's nothing like worker-to-worker contact." In 2004, Perez helped organize workers at a DHL ICC and a solid waste facility.

Haft explained the leverage campaign the conference is applying against Quebecor, a printing behemoth that employs more than 37,000 workers in 17 countries. "In two-and-a-half years, with a staff of new organizers, we've made significant progress," Haft told conferees.

The leverage campaign has involved winning public support for unionization and searching for innovative ways of grabbing the company's attention. In 2004, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Senator John Kerry penned letters in support of the workers' unionization effort. The GCC/IBT also brought workers to shareholder meetings, where they informed the chief executive officer of the intimidation and other mistreatment that they must endure. "Most importantly," Haft said, "we've gained the company's attention, and they have joined us at the bargaining table."

IBT Local 769 in Miami, Fla., is also engaged in multiple organizing campaigns. In October, nearly 1,000 Ft. Lauderdale municipal employees voted to become Teamsters. "We utilized contacts with state and local politicians, police officers, anyone who was concerned with standard working conditions," said Josh Zivalich, Local 769's secretary-treasurer. "The community support really helped our campaign."

"We built a volunteer organizing committee of people in different departments, met with workers one-on-one, and we distributed fliers," added Local 769 Organizer John Sherman. "Organizers came in from the International and helped out. The International's program works."

Amy Masciola

Amy Masciola of the GCC/IBT Contracts and Research Department said of the IBT Organizing Conference: "How exciting it was to hear about Teamsters organizing victories around the country and to talk about our Quebecor campaign."

She said the workshops on strategic targeting of organizing targets and organizing campaign communications "were very helpful and informative for me in my own work and also for the GCC/IBT organizers who attended the workshops. They talked about how they will use the new skills they learned at the workshops."

"It was just terrific," she added, "having the opportunity to meet so many Teamsters organizers and staff in one place, and we felt very welcomed."

Haft told the Graphic Communicator: "We found the Teamsters educational program the second day of the conference very informative and very helpful to our staff.

"Everyone we met," he added, "offered their assistance and support for our organizing program.

"I was personally gratified that when Amy Masciola and I presented a slide show presentation on the Quebecor campaign that the IBT organizers gave our organizers and our staff a standing ovation for our accomplishments. It's apparent to me that our organizing programs are parallel to each other–going exactly in the same direction–and we have created a new organizing culture within our union."