At Sustainable Development Conference, Teamsters Demand Financial Times Sever Ties with AFL Web Printing

NEW YORK, NY (04/24/2012)(readMedia)-- Members of GCC/IBT Local 1-L appeared at the Financial Times-sponsored "Sustainable Development: Road to Rio +20" conference at the Harvard Club in New York City this morning to call on the newspaper to stop doing business with AFL Web Printing, the law breaking company that prints the Financial Times. This conference featured senior Brazilian government officials from the Workers Party who discussed the upcoming United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012.

Teamsters and their supporters handed out fliers and attempted to educate conference attendees about the documented pattern of lawbreaking and workers rights violations committed by AFL Web Printing.

"Protecting workers rights is a cornerstone of sustainable development, as defined by the United Nations. As we prepare for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the Financial Times should uphold these basic standards and stop doing business with AFL Web Printing," said Patrick LoPresti, President of GCC/IBT Local 1-L.

AFL Web Printing's history of illegal conduct is extensive. On March 27th, 2012 a judge of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Westbury Partners' subsidiary AFL Web Printing had violated the National Labor Relations Act by illegally firing six workers in 2010 for organizing to join GCC/IBT Local 1-L. As part of the ruling, the judge ordered the company to reinstate the workers and provide them with back pay and benefits.

AFL Web Printing workers voted to join GCC/IBT Local 1-L in August 2010. To this day the workers have been unable to win a first contract because the company has refused to bargain in good faith, according to the union. Local 1-L has filed NLRB charges against the company for refusing to bargain.

The NLRB is not the only federal agency to cite AFL for illegal activity. In July 2011 the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined AFL Web Printing $170,000 for serious and willful safety violations that put "its workers at risk of serious injury and possible death."

AFL Web Printing is owned by Westbury Partners, a federally-licensed Small Business Investment Corporation (SBIC) whose largest investor is the US Small Business Administration (SBA).

GCC/IBT Local 1-L has been reaching out to AFL's major customers, including leafleting in front of their headquarters, to educate them about the company's illegal conduct and ask them to move their business to a responsible printing company.

AFL's elite customers include the Financial Times, the Village Voice, Women's Wear Daily, Investor's Business Daily, Daily Racing Form, the Washington Square News and other major publications.

For more info visit AFLWebExposed.org.