Red Cross Collection Specialists and Technicians Vote for Teamsters in Atlanta

A majority of the employees who work as Red Cross collection specialists and technicians in Atlanta have voted to join the Teamsters Union.  This will be the first time a union will represent the 51 workers employed at seven sites throughout Atlanta.

“We had many strong supporters here for Teamster representation.” said Karen Moore, a five-year collection specialist for Red Cross. “It was really good to see everyone so happy after the vote.” Friday’s vote was 36-14.

This union’s organizing victory marks the third such victory in the south in the last three months. In early and mid-October, employees in Charlotte and Wilmington, North Carolina also voted for Teamster representation.

“All of these Red Cross employees demonstrated their unity with the Teamsters by wearing buttons and signing petitions,” said Ben Speight, organizer for Teamsters Local 728 in Atlanta.

“This victory came despite management hiring a very anti-union law firm that conducted numerous captive-audience meetings. Red Cross even promised they would give a flat-screen TV away to the first person who could answer the most questions correctly on an anti-union questionnaire.”

Teamsters Local 728 and the Atlanta Red Cross workers are looking forward to beginning negotiations for a strong Teamster

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Opinion: Workers Who Win the South Change the Nation

Forty-seven years after the 1963 March on Washington, the union movement and our allies are preparing for our own march in October. Under the banner of One Nation Working Together, union members, civil rights activists and other concerned citizens will rally in support of good jobs, a quality education for every child, immigration reform and workers’ freedom to form a union.  Our rallying cry is that we must reverse the dangerous trend toward greater income inequality and finally create an economy that works for all.

To achieve that goal and to become a truly united nation working together, leaders of the One Nation coalition partners—particularly our nation’s labor leaders—could learn a valuable lesson from that earlier march on Washington: The road to justice and equality must go through the South.

During the 1963 march, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. eloquently illustrated this point when he said:

“Let freedom ring from the mountains of New York… Pennsylvania…. Colorado…. California. But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia…. from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee….f rom every hill and molehill of Mississippi….let freedom ring.”

Civil rights leaders knew the only

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