Disclaimer: This testimonial does not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of any other legal matter. Past results do not guarantee a future legal outcome.
When communities and companies work together for a better future, everyone wins.
Our clients, including Jobs to Move America (JMA), represent working communities facing challenges to their livelihoods. JMA ensures that public taxpayer money intended to create jobs for working people does, in fact, create those jobs, especially high-quality manufacturing jobs.
Manufacturing is the economic lifeblood of working communities in key areas of the country. In partnership with manufacturers like New Flyer of America, JMA pursues transformational solutions that create and protect manufacturing jobs and strengthen communities across the nation.
And we’re proud to stand with them.
When New Flyer of America, an electric bus manufacturer, was awarded a $500 million public contract, the company promised to create well-paying jobs with good benefits in communities where the buses would be manufactured. Jobs to Move America brought legal action when the company allegedly fell short on those promises.
Robbins Geller partner Rachel Jensen served as co-lead trial counsel for JMA. On the eve of trial, the team secured a settlement that would achieve JMA’s goals for job creation, workforce development, and community input.
As part of the settlement, New Flyer signed a multi-state community benefits agreement to create new fair hiring programs, job training, and local hire measures in its facilities in Ontario, California and Anniston, Alabama. Labor and community leaders in Ontario and Anniston called the settlement “a win for all of us” and “transformational.”
“This is a landmark community benefit agreement that will improve the lives of workers in the South, and we are proud to have supported it. Working people, together with the communities they are a part of, must have a voice in shaping regional investments that impact their lives at work and at home. With this agreement, New Flyer commits to high-road practices that the working people who build our buses and transportation systems deserve.”
– Liz Shuler, President, AFL-CIO
The community benefits agreement provides:
- At least 45% of New Flyer’s new hires and 20% of its promotions at each facility to be individuals from groups who have historically had limited access to good jobs in American manufacturing;
- New Flyer will partner with the Center for Military Recruitment, Assessment and Veterans Employment’s “Helmets to Hardhats” program to increase the number of veterans in the manufacturing workforce;
- The Coalition Partners will work with New Flyer to create pre-apprenticeship training and enhanced technical training programs;
- The Coalition Partners will also work with the company to institute a new system for addressing claims of harassment and discrimination to give workers an independent advocate; and
- New Flyer will expand bilingual capacity in training and human resources materials, workplace communications, and outreach.
“As a former worker at New Flyer’s Ontario, CA plant, I can see how important an agreement like this CBA will be for job recruitment, hiring and job advancement at the company. Working with communities and organizations to remove systemic barriers to hiring and promotion is an important commitment, and I am proud of New Flyer’s decision to launch this partnership in multiple states.”
– Debbie Pitts, Acceptance and Delivery Specialist employed from 2012-2017
Whether it’s maximizing recoveries for investors, negotiating corporate governance reforms, or standing alongside workers, we are proud to be a partner in the fight for the future.
To find out how we can help you, email Darren Robbins at DarrenR@rgrdlaw.com or Rachel Jensen at RachelJ@rgrdlaw.com.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Jobs to Move America for their courage, vision, and partnership. We’re especially grateful to Charles Crooms, Community Organizer; Erica Iheme, Co-Executive Director; Héctor Huezo, California Director; Madeline Janis, Esq., Co-Executive Director; Melanie Jamileh Prasad, Esq., Legal Director; and Elizabeth Printup, Operations Specialist, for their leadership.
