1 August, 2011
The ICEM-affiliated Teamsters Union (IBT) in the US has mounted a voracious campaign against Germany’s BMW Group to preserve 68 auto-parts warehousing jobs in Southern California. The campaign to stop the outsourcing of family-supporting parts distribution jobs from a BMW warehouse in Ontario, California, has stretched eastward across America and now has gotten very active support from Unite the Union in the UK and IG Metall in Germany.
In early June, the 7,500-member IBT Local 495 of Covina, California, was told by North American BMW that it intended to terminate a collective agreement upon expiration on 31 August and outsource the jobs of Teamster members to an un-named logistics provider. Instead of rolling over and negotiating severance packages, the union and its members fought back.
They began a pressure campaign that has seen trade unionists and supporters handbilling BMW auto dealerships across the US, and Local 495 has zeroed in specifically on the Jackson Lewis LLP law firm. Jackson Lewis is a union-busting legal firm that regrettably BMW North America retained for anti-worker services in industrial relations.
The IBT has gained support and mobilisation of other American unions at BMW’s five parts distribution depots in the US, as well as from trade unionists at BMW workplaces in Europe.
The union has established a lively website entitled “BMW: The Ultimate Misery” and produced a video from a spirited 26 July protest in front of the Jackson Lewis law offices in Los Angeles. (View the video here.)
Earlier, on 21 July, a Day of Action was held in not only BMW’s US warehouses, but also inside BMW facilities in the UK. Workers wore stickers supporting the California Teamsters and passed out leaflets demanding that BMW not destroy California jobs. Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) at an import distribution centre in the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey two years ago successfully fended off outsourcing, as did United Auto Workers (UAW) members at a BMW parts warehouse in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
Both unions now assist the California workers in resisting closure. IBT local unions in America’s eastern states are handbilling BMW dealerships on a daily basis. The Ontario warehouse workers use weekends away from the job to draw attention to BMW’s unfair decision by handbilling dealerships up and down the US West Coast, from Southern California to the state of Washington.
Teamsters handbilling in Seattle
In the UK, Unite Assistant General Secretary and head of Manufacturing, Tony Burke, is now spearheading a petition drive aimed at BMW’s European Works Council (EWC). Unite members are demanding that an extraordinary meeting of the EWC meeting slated for 10 September be moved up to August in order to place the scheduled Ontario closure squarely on the agenda. They want BMW to reverse the North America decision.
“We’ll continue to expand this campaign inside the US and internationally in the weeks to come,” said Local 495 Secretary-Treasurer Bob Lennox. “Working with other US unions and now with unions in Europe, we’re convinced that we’ll get a positive resolution for our members and that means retaining our jobs.”
The Ontario, California, warehouse handles 200,000 auto parts for just-in-time delivery to BMW car dealerships and other auto-supply outlets on the West Coast. The ICEM believes such work is best done by experienced and direct-employed BMW workers and urges the German company to retain loyal Teamster members for the good of its business and to preserve family-sustaining jobs.