Eric Tate, Teamsters Local 848 Secretary-Treasurer lives by his career-long motto: Honesty, integrity, education, and hard work lead to success. 

Tate’s 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 was elected Shop Steward. After two more years driving his daily bus route and volunteering as Shop Steward, Tate was  named Local 848’s Shop Steward of the Year.

Tate became a Business Representative and Political Coordinator for Teamster Local 848 in 2000. As Business Representative, Eric Tate negotiated increased wages for Union bus drivers from the $8 per hour he earned to today’s rate of more than $27 per hour and increased the number of bus drivers within Local 848 from 350 drivers 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 members and their families and as-much-as $3 per hour towards the Teamsters Pension Plan.

As a Political Coordinator, Tate spearheaded Senate Bill 158 with the help of the Teamster’s state lobbyist, legislation 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 Tate attended night school, graduating Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree and is a member of The International Honor Society in Business Management and Administration (Sigma Beta Delta).

In October 2009 Eric Tate became Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 848, the first African-American in the Western Region to attain this goal. The members of Teamsters Local 848 have shown their confidence in Tate  by re-electing him to office four times,  twice via white ballot. 

Eric has been married for more than 30 years and has two adult children, a daughter and member of Teamsters Local 848 working at Sealogix; and his son who is a special needs adult who has overcome life threatening health, mental  and physical challenges.