Teamsters 117 joined thousands of community members for the annual MLK Jr. Day March and Rally in Seattle on Monday.

It was a daylong celebration honoring the slain civil rights leader, with workshops in the morning, an 11 A.M. rally, and a noonday march from Garfield High School in Seattle’s Central District to Westlake Park downtown.

The need to address growing income inequality and the effort to raise the minimum wage were central themes of the day. 

Hundreds of marchers filled the streets, carrying $15 Now! signs, and chanting, “What do we want? $15! When do we want it? Now!” 

Farm workers, Farm to Family Coalition members, and their supporters rallied at Darigold Corporate Headquarters in Seattle on Thursday to demand that the company put a stop to the abuse of workers on the farms that supply Darigold’s milk. 

View photos from yesterday's rally.

Dairy workers, who had traveled from eastern Washington to attend the event, described squalid conditions on the farms. They spoke of rest and meal breaks denied by their employers, a lack of access to clean drinking water, and rampant wage theft.

The 2014 legislative session kicked off today in Olympia. We will be posting frequent updates on the website during session to report on the progress of your Union's legislative priorities.  

In addition to getting information from the Local 117 website, there are many ways to stay informed about what our state's lawmakers are up to and how to get involved.

Brothers and Sisters:

The Boeing Machinists are not the only ones seeing their defined benefit pension plans under attack. For the last several years, corporate-backed politicians and the media have been trying to gut the pensions of public employees in the name of "reform."

Typically these proposals favor moving workers from a defined benefit retirement plan to a 401k.

The start of the New Year is a time when your soon-to-graduate (you hope!) high school senior can start combing the Internet for scholarship money for college.  

Your Union is a good place to start for that.  Teamsters Local 117 offers links to a number of scholarships for graduating seniors, including the Local 117 Jeff Alfieri Scholarship, the Hoffa Scholarship, the Union Plus Scholarship, among others.

Thanks to all that turned out last night to make our annual holiday membership meeting a smashing success.  

Check out photos from the meeting here.

Some observations on this year's event after the flip: 

If you are a member of Teamsters 117 and you are covered under the Washington Teamsters Welfare Trust, you can save hundreds of dollars on your 2014 medical expenses with a lower deductible or out-of-pocket maximum.  

Just take your Personal Health Assessment before December 20, 2013.  

In the wake of the decision by workers at Boeing to hold the line on protecting good-paying jobs and strong pensions, one state legislator from Spokane has introduced legislation called “Right to Work.” What exactly is “Right to Work” and how would it impact us?

Big businesses in Washington D.C. and our state have funded efforts in recent years to enact Right To Work (for less) laws, which prohibit Unions and employers from entering into Union security clauses – which require all workers who benefit from a contract to share in the cost of representation.

The new issue of Teamster Talk is now available!  This issue has articles on:

• Our contract win at Darigold
• Teamsters supporting the Machinists
• Right-to-work (for less) laws that would hurt workers
• The fight for $15/hr in SeaTac and Seattle
• Upcoming legislative session
• Our Holiday Membership Meeting on Dec. 19

For print copies, talk to your Business Representative.

Fresh from the Proposition 1 victory in the City of SeaTac that will dramatically improve wages and working conditions for over 6,000 low-wage workers at SeaTac Airport, Teamsters 117, together with a number of other unions, is taking the fight to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour to Seattle.

Workers launched the “Fight for $15” campaign by marching 15 miles, from the airport in SeaTac to downtown Seattle, where they held a rally on the steps of City Hall on December 5.