856 at delta dental
TEAMSTERs: Lynette Adams, Debbie Krevi, Deirdre Lopez, Kathy newell, Shaune Vaughn
Worksite: Delta Dental of California – Rancho Cordova Campus
Years on the job: 92.5 (collectively)
Job titles: Customer Service Representatives and Dental Auditor
Making technology accessible: "Helping the older folks, especially the retired military and their spouses is rewarding. Most of the time they need help accessing the website, because older people aren't familiar with computers and how to use them. So everything going more electronic is very difficult for them. So helping them navigate that or how to get through is probably one of the bigger challenges we have. But once I help them do that, they're very excited." —Debbie Krevi
High call volume: "On a daily basis I can take anywhere between four and five hundred calls. No call is the same because everybody calls in for different things. One person could be calling about why a claim was not paid, or somebody could be calling because they didn't get an ID card. But I just take one call at a time, every day, call, after call, after call. The best part of my job is actually helping others. I'm a Teamster, so I like being able to assist someone and helping them and when the job is done, I can actually feel good about it." —Lynette Adams
On the importance of doing work in-house: "We have good pay and good benefits, so it makes us want to work harder to do what we need to do to support our customers and work among each other. Having union staff, they're better trained. We've gone through a longer length of training, more thorough training." —Kathy Newell
On being Teamsters:
"Being a Teamster has made me aware of the things that I am actually capable of doing. I've learned a lot about what my rights are and so it enables me to help others to make them aware of their rights. If you don't ask, you don't know, and so that's why I'm trying to teach everyone here to learn their rights. By me being knowledgeable, I can help others." —Lynette Adams
"My husband worked for the Teamsters. My mother was from New York and was in a union, so I grew up never to cross a picket line. My mom was very adamant about that. When I became a Teamster here, I just felt that everybody should be treated fairly, I'm proud of knowing that we're good at what we do and we work hard. We need a union to get good benefits, so that there are guidelines on how we're treated, and how much we're supposed to produce. We have someone that speaks up for us so we're not intimidated by management. We know we're backed by attorneys, and our Local, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as a whole." —Deirdre Lopez
"The best part about my job is being a Teamster. I love to help people. I love to save people's jobs. I love to go up against management when they're wrong. I don't back down easily, I love to stand for what I believe in. I'm vey big on that—treating people fairly. So that's what I like most about my job—making sure things are fair and consistent."
—Shaune Vaughn