Teamsters Local 572 Secretary-Treasurer Rick Middleton. He's talking about a worker victory at Star Fisheries in San Pedro, California. A federal district court judge ordered the striking workers reinstated to their jobs. 

Rick Middleton: "Nobody crossed the picket line. Our drivers all, in solidarity, stayed out almost two years.

She's been instructed to put these people back to work. And there will be a trial. That's pending."

An NLRB trial will follow to make the striking workers whole for what they lost due to the violations of labor law.

A union busting attempt against the 33 Teamsters drivers led to a strike in 2015. Middleton says when time came for a new labor contract, company owner Jolene Dimaggio declared she would no longer have a union at Star Fisheries.

Rick Middleton: "And we had conversation that she doesn't get the choice on that. It's the members who say whether there's a union here or not.

She then hired attorneys and they instructed her that well, you have to sit down and negotiate. So we started that process and in that process we learned very quickly that they were not going to negotiate a contract.

They said we're takin' away the health and welfare, we're takin' away the pension. It's going to be a two year contract and you're only going to get 35 cents."

The workers went on strike.

One irony is that Dimaggio's late husband earned a Teamsters pension before he became a company owner and she benefits from it.

Middleton says the court order to reinstate the striking workers demonstrates the staying power of a union and the power of worker solidarity.

Rick Middleton: "The big thing is the solidarity our members kept. They all kept together.

We kept having meetings with them, informin' 'em where we're at at each step of the process. And it works.

They said you told us it was gonna work Rick and we believed ya. I said the only way you know it gonna work is if you stick together. And they did."