In the News
07/14/2008 - July Teamster 14 Newsarticle
Contract negotiations have been on-going with the City of Henderson, City of North Las Vegas, Mission Industries, and Lincoln County (Roads and Clerical Units). We reached a tentative agreement with the City of North Las Vegas at 1:30 a.m., June 30, after a long day of fruitful negotiations. We have also reached a tentative agreement with Lincoln County Roads Department with a ratification meeting held on July 8, 2008. The Lincoln County Clerical agreement is still open and with a no progress meeting on July 11. The City of Henderson negotiations are progressing well. We are still on the language issues. Also, there was minimal progress all on language issues at Mission Industries’ negotiations on July 2. Ratification meetings for the City of North Las Vegas will be scheduled for each group the first week in August, as we have to put the tentative agreements together and have them distributed to our members for review, then meetings will be held. We have been meeting with our members at the following companies: Johnson Brothers and Coca-Cola to go over their contracts article by article to get ready for our up-coming negotiations. Meetings were held on June 21 and July 12. These preliminary negotiation meetings are extremely productive and it also gives our members a better understanding of the contract language. Included in this edition of the newspaper is the Southern Nevada political endorsements list. As a Board member of the Central Labor Council along with Business Agent, Steve Harney, we spent over 40 hours interviewing candidates for the various offices. We believe that without strong labor supported candidates, labor will continue to battle employers with deep pockets, so please, when you vote, take this endorsement list with you and vote for those people that will give you a better chance in your workplace to keep up with the economy that is already in the “dumpster” with gasoline prices over four dollars a gallon. It is extremely difficult to stay even. Everything is going up but your paycheck. “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” I would like to shine a light on one segment of the endorsement list regarding the races for Clark County School District. Yes, Local 14 has a vested interest in these races since we have been in an organizing campaign since 2001. Also, by having been in this campaign, we have been able to see what really goes on in the School District. I thought it was all about the kids, but that’s wrong. It is all about the bureaucrats. The school district’s mentality is that there is no city outside of the District. They are in their own individual ivory towers. The trustees do not oversee the School District. They gave that away when they passed the policy governance and gave their responsibility to the Superintendent which means a rubber stamp for everything he does. The School District is the largest, most mismanaged bureaucracy in the State of Nevada. It is layered with levels of high paid bureaucrats, yet students are learning less today than they every had, failing math scores, high school seniors not graduating because they can’t pass the required graduating tests. It is time to change that. It’s time to elect those individuals who will take this district back and make changes that will benefit our children not the high paid bureaucrats. On the endorsement list you will find the names of four individuals we believe will improve the situation. They are: Edward Goldman, School District A, Chris Garvey, School District B, Ronan Matthew, School District C, and Caroline Sanchez-Rangen, School District E. We believe these individuals will best serve the issues of our children and bring respect and dignity back to the School District, not embarrassment. Do what really counts and exercise your right and vote, be a voice, be a part of change. In order for this Local Union to be able to get all important information to you, please keep our office informed of your current mailing address and phone number if you have changes.
Al Ghilarducci, Business Agent: I have recently completed negotiation classes sponsored by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, as well as Labor Law and Labor Arbitration sessions. We constantly strive to be better informed so we can better serve our members. Currently, contract proposal meetings are being for Coca-Cola and Johnson Brothers. In addition, we have begun contract negotiations for Kraft Foods/Nabisco. I expect to begin contract proposal meetings for CoreMark International in August. Please check your bulletin boards for meeting dates and times. I would like to thank the following stewards for their help at the recent picnic: John Wehr (Southern Wine and Spirits), Chris Caples (Nevada Beverage Company), Mark Frost, Phil Williams and his daughter, Kendall (Core-Mark) and Tom Lester (Mission Industries). They all pitched in and worked hard so others could enjoy themselves. Nevada Beverage has just recently lost two long-time employees, John McCaster and Pat McGeever retired after a combined sixty plus years of service. They both will be missed. On a more somber note, we lost a long-time member, Don Hamill (Core-Mark) who recently passed away. His sense of humor and presence will be truly missed.
Congratulations to Kevin Orellana (Nevada Beverage) who was married to Viviana on Friday the Thirteenth of June, 2008. Good Luck!