07 Jun Local 85 Members Reinstated with Full Back Pay
Three terminated BCTGM Local 85 (Fresno, Calif.) members have returned to work following a Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) hearing related to a grievance they filed late last year.
Mathew Galicia, Hector Lopez and Luis Herrera are import sales delivery drivers at the Bimbo Sales Center in Fresno, Calif. Their division makes import snacks such as Takis and Marinela Pastries. The Local 85 members were fired last October for logbook procedures they had been practicingโand told to doโfor efficiency.
โThe workers were signing the logbook on different sites in order to move along to the next stop, which was supposed to be done by a supervisor,โ explains Local 85 Financial Secretary Jerry Gil. โThey were basically accused of falsifying signatures. We understood in hindsight that wasnโt the proper thing to do, but we were able to prove that they had been coached to in order to stay on schedule. The mediator saw our case and rightly ruled in favor of the workers,โ Gil concludes.
The members, who returned to their jobs on April 15th with full back pay, expressed deep gratitude to Gil for his diligence. โYou were really motivating and supportive throughout this journey,โ Galicia later wrote to Jerry in a text message. โYou stood by our side when the water was murky and I canโt thank you enough for the amount of hard work and dedication you put into our case.โ