UNI Swedish Commission of Inquiry Holds U.S. Hearings About Loomis
Joint Council 7 TEAMSTER Volume 57, Number 2 Serving members in Northern California, the Central Valley, and Northern Nevada May/June/July 2012 UNI Swedish Commission Of Inquiry holds U.S. hearings about Loomis In August, 2011, a female guard who rate headquarters, in February, the works for Loomis was shot four times union escalated the fight to the interna- at a Richmond bank where she was tional arena. The Teamsters hosted a emptying an ATM with her back to the Swedish Commission of Inquiry to street and nobody to guard her. Accord- meet with workers at their jobsites and ing to her fellow workers, this terrible to convene hearings—two in California incident occurred because Loomis has and one in Washington, D.C. gone from three-person teams (a driv- The commission, comprised of er, a guard to empty the ATM Swedish union leaders and legal machines, and a guard who’s got the experts, was organized by UNI, the first guard’s back) to two-person teams. global labor federation for services “That’s the whole thing with a sector workers headquartered in union,” says Guard Robert Avolino, Switzerland. The delegation included who’s worked at Loomis since 1997. Alice Dale, Head of the UNI Global “Somebody’s got your back.” But earli- Union Property Services Department; The Commission of Inquiry met to hear from workers and legal and security experts about the er in 2011, Loomis unilaterally ended Stellan Gärde, legal counsel at the impacts on workers when Loomis de-recognized the Teamsters union. its nearly 60-year contractual relation- Swedish LO-TCO Trade Union Con- ship with the Teamsters, and has since federation and Commissioner of Inter- 1984 Wells Fargo legal decision gave when we lost the union,” says Avolino.
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