Puerto Rican Teamsters Name Auditorium for George Miranda
Teamsters Local 901, which represents workers across Puerto Rico, named its auditorium today in honor of George Miranda, President of Teamsters Joint Council 16 and President of the Teamsters National Hispanic Caucus.
Alexis Rodriguez, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 901, said, “The Board of Directors and the members of Local 901 are proud and honored that our auditorium bears the name of the Teamster brother who gave us a hand when we needed it, a pride of our country, son of our homeland, George Miranda. Puerto Rico will be forever grateful!”
In the months following Hurricane Maria, Miranda has mobilized donations and volunteers to assist Teamsters members in Puerto Rico, and the island as a whole, recover from the devastating storm.
Miranda leads the Teamsters in New York as President of Joint Council 16, a union of 120,000 workers in downstate New York. He grew up in the South Bronx and Puerto Rico, and his connection to the Puerto Rican Teamsters goes back five decades.
As a young worker at Pan American Airlines, Miranda was a leader in a nation-wide organizing campaign that unionized the company with the Teamsters. Pan Am had a presence in the Caribbean and Miranda was assigned to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and St. Croix. Pan Am fought the organizing drive but that did not deter the fledgling Teamsters Airline Division. After two defeats, the Teamsters won the representational election covering 10,000 clerical and related workers.
Jumping on flights from JFK to San Juan was part of the job and, over time, his connections to the Teamster members grew beyond Local 732 to Local 901.
Local 732 was chartered as a result and the Pam Am workers organizing and members domiciled in Puerto Rico were members of Local 901. George was a member of the Pam Am bargaining committee and became a business agent handling member grievances for both locals and building a deep and lasting relationship with Local 901.
Miranda has held numerous positions within the Teamsters in the succeeding decades, from organizer through International Vice President. In addition to his role as Joint Council President, Miranda serves as the principal officer of Local 210, representing employees in the airline, warehouse, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and cosmetic manufacturing industries.