Teamsters ratcheting up at New Era Cap Co.

  The Teamsters union representing newly organized workers at New Era Cap
Co.'s warehouse in Mobile, Ala., is in contract negotiations with the Buffalo-
based company. The Teamsters took the battle to a new level Monday by going
after New Era's most visible client, Major League Baseball. At a press conference,
Teamsters boss Jim Hoffa asked MLB to intervene in the conflict.

  The Teamsters have leveled charges of racism and unfair labor practices at
the Alabama warehouse, charges the company strongly denies. The
Communications Workers of America union at the company's Derby, N.Y.,
plant stands behind the company.

   But as the acrimonious talks continue, the escalating rhetoric risks damaging the
successful company.

-- Samantha Maziarz Christmann

Comments

[Richard]

I think that it is time that these workers in Mobile, Alabama get the justice that they truly deserve. I keep hearing stories about African-American women workers who are treated like second and third-class citizens from this company. I keep hearing about the workers reaching out to the Teamsters to get the representation that they need to silence the overt racial discrimination ... and how the media is not picking up on this is beyond me.

There was one story, in particular, that stood out for me. It is about a black pregnant worker who was told by her manager that if she was to go into labor while on the job, the foreman would bring her a pail and a towel .... WTF? I mean ... WTF?

So, above and beyond the workers treated like crap for wanting to organize a union, beyond the fact that they are treated like crap for not being white, now we can add to the fact that no male worker would probably be treated in the same manner?

Come on guys, enough is enough. We are living in a time when we have a women running for president up against an African-American and a white Southern man who has crossed the racial divide, but here in Mobile we are dealing with crap that resembles 1950?

Come on guys, when is enough enough?

[F]

I for one, believe in knowing the facts first. Take for example the post by "Richard", he has read allegations made by the once mafia affiliated Teamsters, and he believes them to be true. Let's get the facts out on the table and then let public decide.
Yes Richard, enough is enough - we need people like you to realize when you are being spoon fed.

[bobbycat]

If true, the story is outrageous, but talk is cheap. How do we know the story is true or typical? If you can produce a news story from a reliable Mobile newspaper that documents these abuses, your position would gain more traction.

[Richard]

Hello F,
My allegations are mostly based on the findings of the NAACP report that was published yesterday. Here is a link to the one that I read. Maybe you would believe the NAACP if you don't believe me or the Teamsters.
http://www.teamster.org/divisions/Warehouse/NewEra/NAACPNEWERAREPORT.pdf
Here is the link to the YouTube video from the press conference that delivered the study conducted by the NAACP:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjkeIlcG-bc

[F]

I would ask the NAACP how much funding they receive from the Teamsters?
Do I believe the NAACP? Sure, just as much as I believed Mr. Bush for stating Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

[Richard]

Hi F:
It is an outrageous story. And I can understand your reluctance to believe the news because many of us are dumbfounded that this kind of stuff can be taking place today; let alone from a company that is not only very successful, but from a company that has an alternate stream of revenue with their caps being a staple in the Hip-Hop community.

I did a search for some news articles around this case. Here is a link to a blog out of Alabama that you might be interested in reading, especially the comments:
http://www.leftinalabama.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=795

Here is a link to a "Take Action" alert that is being worked on by a group of Students against Sweatshops, who are not affiliated with the union or the NAACP but are taking this up as their own campaign.

This link here: http://www.al.com/business/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/business/1201447168243530.xml&coll=3 goes to AL.com ... a newspaper that claims to be "everything Alabama." One of the things about this recent article that I love is that they highlight the fact that the University of Wisconsin at Madison has canceled its contract with New Era based on the findings of the NAACP report and their past history with a similar charge.

I don't know if this is enough -- but what I did was go to Google.com and just typed in Racial issues at New Era Mobile and up came these responses. There are more, but I thought 3 would be OK for now.

Thanks for this discussion,
-Richard

[J]

As Andre Agessi said in his camera ads, "Image is everything." Buffalo's image has been associated with too many negatives over the years. I hope that the latest flap regarding New Era Cap does not contribute to any further negative associations.

I certainly have no inside information into whether there were, or were not, racial discriminations at the New Era Cap plant in Alabama. However, when the University of Wisconsin-Madison has canceled its contract with New Era it makes news, notably the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Apparently the University had a contract with New Era, as well with as other companies licensed to use its logo, and as part of its code of conduct negotiated in its contracts that it could hire a labor-monitoring group to monitor conditions at plants. Again, according to the University, New Era refused the university hired labor-monitoring group to investigate and gain entry into its Mobile plant. As such, the University claimed that New Era was in breach of its contract and could have taken legal action. It chose however, to simply cancel its contract.

If New Era had a contractual obligation to allow the inspection, for its sake and, I would add Buffalo's, New Era needs to correct this situation as fast as possible. Negative publicity in such widely read papers as the Chronicle can be devastating and certainly does no one any good. I hope that new Era immediately address this issue and restore the contract with the University of Wisconsin before this snowballs and causes significant damage to New Era or any further negative press to our community.

[Colin]

As someone that was involved with the United Students Against Sweatshops support of the 2001 Derby strike, I think it's incredibly important that we remember the reason why workers in have good jobs and are treated with respect by management: an 11 month strike and union recognition. It took a struggle. And, it was a struggle that people from throughout the Buffalo community and across the country came to support.

In fact, this fight, and the broad support it had is the reason why the factory in Derby is still there. So, I'm really pained to see CWA and some of their members take on a position against workers trying to organize a union in another plant. It's understandable that CWA and the Derby local wouldn't want to see many schools cutting contracts, potentially having a negative impact on their situation. But, by siding with management against workers that are facing many of the same problems the Derby workers faced just seven years ago, they only prolong the struggle.

I hope that CWA and Derby workers will think back to their strike, and what the impact would have been if New Era workers throughout the country rallied against them.

[Joanna]

Hi, I'm a student at UB, and I spent my long MLK day weekend in Mobile interviewing both current and fired workers from New Era.

I can vouch that there was racial and gender discrimination. (An 80% Black Female workforce with 12 out of 13 supervisors being white? To me that's completely transparent.) USAS will be putting out a video compilation of the interviews in the next few weeks. It will be up on Youtube. I encourage you all to check that out.

Feel free to e-mail me personally with questions, comments, anything.

[Mr C]

When will all these frivolous claims end? I don't have any ties to New Era, but I think it is completely obvious to me that New Era is not in any way racist. The union is just using the NAACP as a pawn for leverage. I find it absolutely reprehensible. Here we have a great company that does alot of positives for the region and the US. They are the only headware manufacturer left in north america. You wonder why companies move to China so they don't have to deal with smear campaigns from unions and the NAACP.

These days everyone just throws around the word racist like it's nothing. Totally unsubstantiated claims are thrown out there, and people are given the presumption of guilt (NE has already lost a few contracts because of this. Will you people be happy when New Era closes up shop because of this BS lawsuit?

Give me a break.

[Hodge]

Mr. C, companies move to China so they won't have to worry about little annoying things like human rights issues, so they can pay their workers pennies an hour, so they can dispense with other annoying things like health care benefits, etc. etc. I wonder how you can find it "obvious" that New Era is "not in any way racist" when you admit you don't have any ties to the company...no knowledge of the situation either way, apparently. I continue to be amazed at the way people in this country take their work conditions for granted. I guess we should just accept any crap that any company wants to hand out so we can keep the work here, right? Show of hands: Who wants to work for 50 cents an hour? Who wants to work 7 days a week, 18 hrs a day? Who wants to get fired for getting sick on the job? Etc!!

[Chris B]

Dear Hodge,
What you fail to understand is that New Era could, at any moment, completely move operations from the Alabama plant to China. Should this happen, you idiots "raising your hands because you don't want to work for 50 cents an hour...etc. etc." would be completely out of a job, making 0 cents an hour, working 0 hours a week. Which do you find preferably? The fact that New Era is trying at all to come to some sort of agreement shows that they (as a whole, individuals of course can be exceptions) are not this horrible evil corporation you're making them out to be. If you're tired of companies telling you how much you're gonna make and how much you're going to work i say two things: One, its your CHOICE to work at these companies; two, these companies can make more money by outsourcing manufacturing outside the country--so why are they staying here, giving Americans jobs? Frankly, they must just plain be good guys who believe in supporting the American workforce.

[carl]

the idea that new era can simply move its operations to china is false. both major league baseball and most major universities (including UB)have clauses in their contracts with new era that stipulates that they keep their production in the united states. If new era moved production, they would be breaking their their agreements, and would lose almost all of their business, something i do not think the would like to do.

[Belinda]

I have personal ties at New Era,not only are they not racist,but thay embrase each and every race there.We have mixed race couples who met and fell in love at New Era.If race was ever an issue I'm pretty sure we'd have brought that to the publics eye when we went on strike.Unfortunatly teamsters and NAACP know just what to say to fire people up.Its just like labeling someone a pedophile,even if its not true,people are going to listen and believe it with out getting the facts.then you have someones reputation ruined.Its fear THAT IT COULD BE TRUE,NOT THAT IT IS TRUE.I have worked at New Era for 10 years,never ever have I seen or heard anything racist.We are a family here we love every race,nationality,and religion of everyone we work with.And that is from someone with inside info on New Era.I have never been prouder to support New Era as I am today

[usouthjag]

I've seen the NAACP report and the YouTube video from New Era; so what do I think? Well, since I was employed by New Era during the union organization there are many thoughts that go through my mind. First, I would like to ask if New Era ever thought about sending some of the actual workers from Mobile, Demopolis, and Jackson instead of supervisors. Why didn't they hold the rally in Mobile since this is an issue dealing with the Mobile facility? And lastly, just because this issue hasn't affected you yet while employed by New Era, that doesn't mean that you will never be discriminated against. Discrimination comes in different forms and until everyone realizes that we will continue to experience this type of treatment. One of the things that I remember is that the workers in Derby experienced a long drawn out fight with New Era; why is it so hard to believe that the people in Alabama are going through the same thing?

[AM NE]

I am a current employee at New Era Cap in Mobile, AL & have been for years. I'd like to address all those who want to Belittle us for seeking union representation. Just for the record we as employees of NE Mobile went to the Teamsters & NAACP for help, they did not come to us. They are not the ones who created this story, they are just reporting it for us and in my book they are the good guys not bad guys as everyone says. What else do you do when you report discrimination, misconduct, harassment etc to upper management and they tell you numerous times, "oh that's just how they are". That's what happened to me more than once, and I find it unjustifiable that we are being bashed for wanting to be treated with respect & dignity and want a better life for us, our co-workers, & our families.

[Mr C]

Cries of people being racist are the 21st centuries version of a witch hunt. Guilty until proven innocent, and you can levy an irreparable blow to a person's image by merely accusing them.

[RENEE]

I WORK AT THE NEW ERA PLANT IN MOBILE, AND I CAN TELL YOU THAT EVERYTHING THAT THE NAACP REPORTED IS TRUE, THE FACT OF WAGE, BEING PASS OVER FOR A POSITION AND WATCH IT BE GIVEN TO A WHITE PERSON HAPPEN WHEN EVER THERE IS A JOB POSTED. WE HAVE A PLANT MANAGER THE HAS NO DREGEE, AND ASST: THAT CAME INTO THE PLANT LAYING BATHROOM TILE, AND BECAUSE THE EX-PLANT MANAGER WERE DRINKING BUDDY, HE GOT THE JOB,THE PERSON THAT YOU LISTEN TO ON, THE PERSON THAT WAS INTERVIEWED (ETTA SMITH THAMES) IS THE ONLY BLACK SUPERVISOR IN THE PLANT ON
BUFFALO NEWS, DID NOT TALK TO ANY WORKERS FROM THE MOBILE PLANT, AND NOW SHE WALKS THROUGH THE PLANT SAYING SHE IS THE TOKEN, SHE NEVER SAID THAT THERE ARE PROBLEM IN MOBILE, BUT SHE HAS BEEN THERE FOR SEVEN YEARS, SHE FORGOT THAT MANY OF THE WORKERS HAVE BEEN THERE AS LONG AS SHE HAS, WE HAVE LISTEN TO PASS MANAGMENT TALK TO HER LIKE SHE WAS A DOG OR WORST, BUT THEY BEEN GOOD TO HER. THE MANAGMENT TEAM IN BUFFALO, DO NOT HAVE ANY IDEAL HOW WE ARE TREATED IN MOBILE, YES NEW ERA IS A GOOD COMPANY BUT THE TEAM IN MOBILE IS MADE UP OF A UNSKILLED PEOPLE
THEY HAVE NO IDEAL HOW THE TALK TO EMPLOYEE, THEY SAY WE ARE A FAMILY, BUT WHEN IT COME THE YOUR, LEAVE AND GET A POINT AT A BARGIN GET SEVEN
AND YOUR FIRED.

[Guest]

On the subject of union issues I found this interesting site right in our own backyard.

www.7newsunfair.com

[Kennedy-Dodd Waitress Sandwich]

All right, look Buffalo News - it's clear from the comments here on both sides that a reporter should go down to Mobile and interview some workers and management to get both sides of the story first hand.

It can't be properly covered from up here. Just send a reporter down there for a few days. Don't be cheap!

Renee, easy on the caps lock please.

[Gerry]

It's true- we don't promote minorities- we use em up and then fire em. we fire pregnant ladies too. the benefits cost too much. maybe thats why urban sales are down 110 million- we still give money to bush, cheney, rove though- we like the police state and how they can now search brothers without a warrant- we have to do something- our white employees are petrified to work in the buffalo inner city