Visalia VWR Employees Vote To Join Teamsters Union

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Feb 15, 2013, 05:33 ET

Employees Vote Overwhelmingly In Favor of Union Representation

VISALIA, Calif., Feb. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Thursday, February 14th, 68 employees of VWR in Visalia voted affirmatively to join Teamsters Local 948 in an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board. The election punctuates a very high profile and controversial move by the company from the Bay Area to Visalia and continues the Teamsters' struggle with the company.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100127/IBTLOGO )

VWR, which was founded as a local California company, has grown into a global corporation, reporting more than $4.1 billion in sales for 2011. The Teamsters have represented VWR employees at their distribution center in Brisbane for over 50 years. For most of that time, labor-management relations were good. But when Madison Dearborn, a Chicago-based private equity firm, bought the company in 2007 things quickly changed.

In the midst of contract negotiations in 2010, VWR announced plans to close its Brisbane distribution center and move its operations 220 miles south to a new 500,000-square-foot facility in Visalia. The company did not offer their employees the right to transfer.

VWR benefited from federal, state and local subsidies to open its distribution center. The City of Visalia agreed to pay VWR the $1.3 million it needed for road and sewer improvements for the facility and granted VWR a delay in paying more than $500,000 in local impact fees until April 2016.

VWR's move was highlighted in state hearings examining the Enterprise Zone program, which enables the company to secure up to $3 million in "job creation" tax credits from the State. Under the program, the company is not eligible for credits if they allowed their Brisbane employees to transfer.

"The State of California and the City of Visalia have invested millions in VWR to help the company build their new distribution center, but they didn't want to invest it back in their employees," said Rome Aloise, President of Teamsters Joint Council 7.

Despite VWR's long history of providing California workers good wages, pensions and health care, VWR offered starting wages in Visalia of $10/hour – an average $12/hour less than what Bay Area employees earned for doing the same work. With that in mind, Visalia employees contacted the Teamsters and voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Union.

"Visalia VWR employees are telling the company they want equal pay for equal work," said Adam Ochoa, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 948 in Visalia. "We hope that VWR will sit down with us and negotiate a fair contract."

VWR and the City of Visalia still face ongoing environmental litigation in state and federal court, having lost in the 5^th District Court of Appeals last year and more recently when the California Supreme Court denied their motion to appeal. Attorney General Kamala Harris filed an amicus brief in support of the environmental, community, and Labor plaintiffs in the case.

Teamsters Joint Council 7 represents 120,000 working men and women in Northern California, the Central Valley, and Northern Nevada. We are the largest union in the Central Valley, with 40,000 members between Bakersfield and Sacramento.

Our members work in trucking, warehousing/distribution, freight, food processing, dairies, solid waste/recycling, public services, beverages, and more.

SOURCE Teamsters Joint Council 7