Teamsters, Religious Leaders Unite to Continue Martin Luther King Jr.'s Fight for...

Teamsters, Religious Leaders Unite to Continue Martin Luther King Jr.'s Fight
for Worker Rights

National Committee for Sanitation Worker Justice Demands Safe Conditions at
Waste Management

MEMPHIS, Tenn., April 3, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On the eve of the
40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Teamsters and
religious leaders from across the country stood in unity today with waste
workers from 1968 and 2008 to demand Waste Management Inc. (NYSE: WMI) and
other sanitation companies make immediate and substantive improvements in
worker safety.

The Teamsters and religious leaders announced at St. Mary's Episcopal Church
in Memphis, Tennessee, the formation of the National Committee for Sanitation
Worker Justice (NCSWJ). The coalition was formed by Interfaith Worker Justice
(IWJ) in response to the findings of the investigative report, "In Harm's
Way," which was issued last month by the National Commission of Inquiry into
the Worker Health and Safety Crisis in the Solid Waste Industry. The report
shows that waste workers still face very real threats to their health on a
daily basis, threats that have caused an average of more than
80 deaths a year in this industry.

"Forty years ago Dr. King joined with the maligned and abused sanitation
workers of Memphis to insist on human dignity and economic justice," said Rev.
Nelson Johnson, Director of the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, North
Carolina, Co-President of the Board of IWJ and Co-Chair of the NCSWJ. "The
40th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination ought to serve as a clarion call
to faith leaders and people of good will all over the nation to join together
to complete the unfinished work for which Dr. King courageously gave his
life."

"Today's plantation capitalism is as rapacious and cruel as it was in the
sanitation strike 40 years go, which I chaired," said Rev. James Lawson,
pastor emeritus of the Centenary Methodist Church in Memphis and renowned
civil rights leader. "It is past time for this most religious country, this
most religious people, to repudiate the economics of the plantation. Jesus
insisted that without justice you miss the meaning of the Torah and the
prophets."

The family of deceased Waste Management, Inc. (WMI) mechanic Raul Figueroa
from West Palm Beach, Florida, joined SWJC, 1968 strikers, safety advocates
and representatives from the Teamsters Union at the press conference to show
their support for the goals of the committee.

Figueroa was the victim of an accident on January 3, 2008 at the North Broward
Waste Management facility when a hydraulic arm on the truck malfunctioned,
pinning him against the cab and severing his body in half. His family hopes to
enact real change at WMI by partnering with the Teamsters Union and other
concerned advocates like the NCSWJ to prevent Figueroa's fate from befalling
other workers in the sanitation industry.

Figueroa's family was also showed their support at the launch of "In Harm's
Way" in Miami, Florida on March 25, 2008. It is their hope that through
raising awareness of the safety problems that currently plague the solid waste
industry through the report and the efforts of SWJC real change can be made
that will reduce injures and save lives.

"We hope that through our joint and continuous efforts with the Teamsters and
the SWJC we can finally bring about regulations in this industry," said Alina
Miranda, widow of Raul Figueroa. "We hope that Waste Management finally
realizes that their employees are not just numbers, but human beings and as
such they pay attention to their basic needs, needs such as parts, tools or
safety equipment that could be the difference between life and death."

The National Commission of Inquiry into the Worker Health and Safety Crisis in
the Solid Waste Industry launched an investigation into safety issues at WMI
and found systemic problems within the company, characterizing WMI's safety
program as using an "archaic, misguided approach".

The commission conducted a series of in-depth interviews with solid waste
drivers, mechanics and other workers at WMI. With the workers' help, an
anonymous questionnaire was created and distributed to hundreds of sanitation
workers across the country and formed the foundation for the findings in this
report.

The report found that 40 years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life
in an effort to fight for civil and worker rights for striking sanitation
workers in Memphis, the same issues that led to the strike remain prevalent in
the industry even today. The questionnaire revealed that commonplace issues
for workers in the industry that are part of their daily routine include long
hours and the handling of hazardous materials without proper safety equipment.

"When Memphis sanitation workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker died on February
1, 1968 it set in motion a series of events that saw an entire nation swept up
in a battle for basic civil and worker rights," said Teamsters General
President Jim Hoffa. "The issues in this industry that Dr. King died fighting
for, and the 1968 strikers stood united against, still remain at Waste
Management. By working with the National Committee for Sanitation Worker
Justice, our union has gained an invaluable ally in the fight to change the
course of this industry."

The NCSWJ is comprised of religious leaders from across the country and from
many different denominations. The leaders have come together to demand safe
working conditions at WMI and other solid waste companies.

Interfaith Worker Justice is an organization that calls upon religious values
in order to educate, organize, and mobilize the religious community in the
U.S. on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits, and working
conditions for workers, especially low-wage workers.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4
million hardworking men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto
Rico.

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters

Galen Munroe of International Brotherhood of Teamsters, +1-202-439-7427,
gmunroe@teamster.org