Updated: Teamsters fall short in Atlanta-area labor vote at Coca-Cola facilities

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.ajc.com/business/updated-teamsters-fall-short-669194.html

By Jeremiah McWilliams

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

After more than a year of campaigning, the Teamsters union fell short Thursday in elections at three Atlanta-area facilities formerly run by bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises. The elections were to decide whether about 330 local employees would be represented by the international union, and were conducted less than a week after Coca-Cola took over the bottling operations.

The union did not receive a majority of valid votes cast in elections in Marietta, College Park and a small warehouse near Six Flags, according to the Atlanta office of the National Labor Relations Board. In the Marietta and College Park vote, the union received 117 votes out of 303 cast. At the small warehouse, it received 5 votes out of 11.

The NLRB said objections or unfair labor practice charges related to the elections may be filed. Until the regional office issues certifications, the results of the elections are not final. Ben Speight, organizing director at Teamsters Local 728, said the union would file a series of new unfair labor practice charges.

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1. Totally bums me out....

..I hate to see the way unions and organized labor in general has been demonized in this country and replaced by admiration for greed and selfishness. It's one thing when corporations are anti-union. But when average working people don't realized what the labor movement has done for the people in this country it just saddens me.