It’s been a long haul, but the payoff is sweet. A year and a half after being wrongfully laid off, four Teamsters Local 117 members at the Tacoma-Pierce County Employment and Training Consortium received checks yesterday that included full back pay and benefits with interest for the several months that they were out of work.  

“This victory demonstrates the Union’s resolve to fight on behalf of our members when their rights are violated,” said Local 117 Secretary-Treasurer, Tracey A. Thompson. “We intend to continue to defend our members and step up the fight if necessary until Teamsters at the Consortium have a fair contract.”

The Union’s beef with the Consortium goes back to 2008 when, in the wake of an organizing drive, Consortium management targeted its pro-Union employees for layoffs. Megan Shea, who was one of the first employees to be let go, was stunned. “I had been there eight years and had more seniority than a lot of others. When you look at who got laid off, it was all Union supporters.”

The Union built a three-person legal team to prosecute the case including General Counsel Spencer Thal, Staff Attorney Anna Jancewicz, and outside counsel Robert Lavitt. The team filed Unfair Labor Practice Charges with the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) in the case and a hearing was set for September 2008.

Meanwhile, Local 117 Public Sector Coordinator MaryAnn Brennan and Business Representative Matt House with the help of the Union’s Organizing Department ramped up the pressure on the agency in an effort to make headway at the bargaining table. 

With the Legal, Organizing, and Public Sector teams on board, the Union’s fight for justice at the Consortium became a full court press.

As the Local 117 legal team prepared for the hearing, the employer accelerated its anti-Union crusade. Consortium management “reassigned” two additional Union supporters, announced an overhaul of the organization, which affected another eight bargaining unit employees, and unlawfully laid off Shop Steward Debra Gibson, despite a company policy stating that it must implement layoffs by seniority. 

"Given that the mission of the Consortium is to help displaced workers, it is deeply disturbing that the agency would break the law by displacing its own workers because they formed a union," Thal said. 

In its ruling in the case issued back in January 2009, PERC agreed.  The Consortium, PERC ruled, was directed to reinstate the laid off employees with back pay, restore the employees’ original working conditions, and commence with a new round of good faith bargaining. 

The four pro-Union employees who originally lost their jobs are long since back at work, but it has taken a year since the initial PERC ruling for the members to receive their lost compensation due to a failed appeal effort and continued delay and subterfuge on the part of the employer.

“We needed a Union with the history of strength like the Teamsters to support us,” said Marybeth McCarthy, one of the check recipients. “I don’t think another Union would have been able to handle it.”

 Said Thompson, “This is a consummate example of Union teamwork and perseverance. It shows what the Union can do when members are willing to stand up to an unscrupulous employer. Now maybe Consortium management will come around and give its employees what they deserve – respect and a strong Union contract.”