Teamsters Launch Web Site About BMW's Mass Layoffs

TEAMSTERS LAUNCH WEBSITE ABOUT BMW'S MASS LAYOFFS: BMWUltimateMisery.com will educate the public about BMW's plans to outsource jobs after taking bailout loans and making record profits

Ontario, CA—July 15, 2011: Today Teamster Local 495 launched the website BMW Ultimate Misery to provide information about BMW's plan to fire nearly 100 American employees next month. Workers at BMW's parts distribution facility in Ontario, Calif. received notice that their jobs are being outsourced to a third-party company in August, despite having loyally served BMW for decades. Many of the workers have been at BMW for 20 to 30 years.

Despite making record profits and receiving over $3.6 billion in taxpayer bailout loans, the German automobile giant will layoff almost all its union and non-union employees in Ontario later this summer and immediately re-open the facility the very next day with a cheaper, inexperienced work force.

Teamsters Local 495 represents 65 workers at the Ontario parts distribution facility. The workers and their families have been protesting outside BMW dealerships in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Arizona on the weekends.

"BMW would never be allowed to get away with this in Germany," said Bob Lennox, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 495. "Many of these employees have worked there for 10, 20, 30 years. BMW got bailed out with nearly $4 billion in top-secret low-interest federal loans and in exchange, they are mocking America's plant closing laws and destroying working families. They are treating their American workers in a way they would never dare to treat their German employees."

In the U.S., BMW has hired the anti-union law firm Jackson Lewis to execute the layoffs. More information about Jackson Lewis is available on the BMW Ultimate Misery website. In Germany the website can be accessed at Keine Freude BMW.

BMW is America's most popular automaker for luxury-class autos and saw the highest earnings ever in its 95-year history last quarter. BMW had global sales of almost $81 billion in 2010, or about $848,000 per employee, ranking it number 82 on Fortune's Global 500 Companies. BMW also received over $3.6 billion in secret low-interest loans during the 2008-2009 U.S. taxpayer bailout.