Teamsters Leaflet 'Lady in the Water'

Teamsters Leaflet 'Lady in the Water'

Printing Company Employees Ask Time/Warner Bros. and its Subsidiaries to Demand Safer Working Conditions at Quebecor World

CHICAGO and MEMPHIS, Tenn., July 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Teamsters that work for international printing company Quebecor World, Inc., leafleted an advance showing of the new M. Night Shyamalan film Lady in the Water tonight, a film that was produced by Time/Warners Bros. The workers are represented by the Graphic Communications Conference of the Teamsters Union (GCC/IBT), and are asking Time Warner subsidiary Time Inc. to demand that unsafe working conditions cease at Quebecor, which prints Time magazine and Sports Illustrated.

"Over the past ten years, Quebecor World has racked up twice as many health and safety violations as its largest competitor," said George Tedeschi, President of the GCC/IBT, which represents 7,000 U.S. workers at Quebecor. "American workers are getting maimed, burned and crushed on the job at Quebecor plants. We're asking Time/Warner Bros. and Time Warner's subsidiary Time Inc. to do the right thing and tell Quebecor that they won't stand for Time and Sports Illustrated to be printed in conditions that endanger American workers."

Tedeschi pointed to Quebecor's troubling health and safety record, which includes: two worker deaths from on-the-job accidents in the last four years; workers in Kentucky and Nevada who have lost fingers; two workers burned in a press fire in Memphis; and the citing of Quebecor for serious violations concerning the death of a worker at the Clarksville, Tennessee plant who was pulled into and crushed by a shrink-wrap machine.

"Printing involves running highly dangerous machines at high speeds," Tedeschi said. "Yet instead of improving its dismal safety record, Quebecor is seeking to cut machine crew staffing even more in order to save money. American workers and their families flock to Time/Warner Bros. movies and make Time Inc.'s magazines top sellers. Time Warner and its subsidiaries have clout as key Quebecor customers, and they should use it to speak up for working Americans."

Founded in 1903, the Teamsters Union represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States and Canada.

Source: International Brotherhood of Teamsters

CONTACT: Galen Munroe, of International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
+1-202-624-6904

Web site: http://www.teamster.org/

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