Liberty Tire Recycling workers vote to unionize

Workers at an Atlanta location of Pittsburgh-based Liberty Tire Recycling LLC have voted in favor of joining International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 728. According to that union, drivers and other employees “reached out to the Teamsters in early September seeking improved working conditions, higher wages and better benefits.”

Liberty Tire Recycling is owned by Summit, New Jersey-based ECP Management LP, which purchased it from New York-based investment fund The Carlyle Group in a transaction that was announced this April.

As of October 19, there is no comment or reaction from Liberty Tire Recycling or ECP about the Teamsters campaign or the outcome of the vote. A Teamsters news release says the vote to unionize passed “by a more than 3-1 margin.”

That same news release quotes Luis Herrera, identified as a 25-year driver for Liberty and a member of the facility’s organizing committee, as saying, “This win means a lot to me and my co-workers. We fought hard for this day, and we are very happy to be Teamsters. Now that we have our union, we will continue fighting to address the issues that the company has been ignoring for years. It's time for this company to treat its workers right.”

According to the union, Herrera and his co-workers reached out to the Teamsters after “they had gone more than a decade without a raise.” The vote for union representation in Atlanta marks the first group of workers at Liberty Tire to join the Teamsters, says the union.