Peggy Browning Los Angeles Virtual Awards Program

About Our Honoree Eric Tate Eric Tate's motto is: Honesty, integrity, education, and hard work lead to success and he lives by his motto. His career as a Teamster began in 1992 when he was hired by Laidlaw Transit as a bus driver. After a year as a driver, he gained the trust of his co-workers and they elected him Shop Steward. After two more years of driving his daily bus route and volunteering as Shop Steward, Eric was named Shop Steward of the Year for Teamsters Local 848. Eric became a Business Representative and Political Coordinator for Teamster Local 848 in the year 2000. As Business Representative, he has increased the wages for his union’s bus drivers from the $8 per hour he earned as a bus driver to today's rate of more than $27 per hour, and increased the number of bus drivers within Local 848 from 350 to more than 2000 today. The contracts he has negotiated with the bus companies have not only increased income, but now pay 100% of the drivers' medical premiums for them and their families and as-much-as $3 per hour towards the Teamsters Pension Plan. As a Political Coordinator he spearheaded Senate Bill 158, with the help of the Teamsters’ state lobbyist, which protects privatized bus drivers’ jobs when new bus companies take over the service within any city in the state of California. Today that bill is known as Labor Code 1070 – 1074. All this was accomplished while Eric was attending night school. He graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree and