Two Local 174 Waste Management members, (D.J.) Thomas (South Sound)and Jeff Michalak (Northest) attended Waste Management's annual Shareholder Meeting in Houston Texas May 3rd to

The fight by Local 174 Teamsters shows that coordination and solidarity can beat back employer demands for healthcare concessions.

April 22, 2006: Feeder driver Henry Gallet could not believe that he was being forced to return to work with less than four hours off-duty by Lenexa feeder manager Steve Mitchell.

April 22, 2006: Members of Local 384 in Philadelphia are telling their local officers in no uncertain terms that a plan by UPS to replace four established full-time

April 22, 2006: UPS reports first-quarter after-tax profits of $975million, up 10.5 percent over last year, and revenue of $11.5 billion, up 16.5 percent. U.S.

After a string of recent profitable quarters, merger mania appears to have caught up with YRC Worldwide. YRC lowered its first quarter profits by 35 percent and saw its stock price drop.

Allied Systems, the largest carhauling corporation, is going to court on April 26 to void the contract covering 4,000 U.S. Teamsters and impose a 10 percent wage cut.

The 2005 financial reports for Teamster affiliates, including the International, are finally public. These LM-2 reports reveal for the first time the astonishing high cost of Hoffa’s PR.

As of Jan. 31, the Hoffa campaign reported raising nearly $1 million. Incredibly, some 96 percent of the money is from Teamster officials, and 30 percent is directly from Hoffa staffers and appointees, with much more from their own appointees and associates. Of $987,000 raised, $784,000 (80 percent) came from donations of over $500, and 61 percent came from donations of over $1,000. Only four percent came from donations under $100, where rank and file Teamsters enter the picture.

$282,000 came directly from persons who get paychecks signed by James Hoffa and Tom Keegel, on the IBT payroll. Many of them in turn collected bundles from their own appointees.

April 22, 2006: Hoffa’s administration recently announced that our union will seek early negotiations with UPS.

You’ve got to give in order to get, at least that’s what some labor leaders say. Local 89 has given UPS a green light to create hundreds more low-paid part-time jobs at the Louisville air facility. The new jobs are part of UPS’ relocation of Menlo/UPS Cartage air operations to Louisville from Dayton.

While the new jobs will be union, as they should be, the agreement does not contain any guarantee that many of the 1,500 positions will be full-time.

The UPS Cartage operation is much more akin to typical freight work with the majority of volume on pallets and handled by fork lift. Through the years the IBT has repeatedly rejected efforts by freight companies to create part-time jobs. Freight members struck in 1994 to stop the “part-timerization” of freight jobs. UPS members struck in 1997 and won the creation of 10,000 full-time jobs at UPS. Local 89 and the IBT appear now to be reversing the trend.

The closing of a Maryland distribution center by C&S Wholesalers will result in the loss of 370 Teamster jobs in the coming months. And in February, Stop and Shop in New Haven, Conn. announced the closing of its distribution center, putting over 500 Teamsters out of work. Where did most of these jobs go? You guessed right: to a non-union facility run by C&S Wholesalers in Massachusetts.

These two recent events are part of a larger and more disturbing trend in a part of the country that was once a union stronghold for grocery warehouse workers.

Shutdowns have hit other area Teamsters, including Local 445 members at Wakefern, N.Y. (400 jobs lost, shifted to a non-union facility in Pennsylvania) and Local 730 and Local 639 members at Giant in the Washington, D.C. area.

April 22, 2006: Supporters of immigration reform have marched by the hundreds of thousands this month, holding rallies in cities across the U.S.

April 22, 2006: Hoffa International Rep Rick Middleton, who also heads Los Angeles Local 572, has a little explaining to do.

April 22, 2006: In June 2006, Teamsters from every local will meet in Las Vegas for the International Union Convention.

Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (a division of the Teamsters Rail Conference) will soon have the opportunity to vote for an important change to their bylaws. On April 19, a ballot was sent to every member to ask if the election of National Officers should be changed to be “one member, one vote.” Currently, national officers are elected by delegates at the BLET Convention, the same way Teamster International officers used to be elected before TDU won the Right to Vote.

One of the architects of this referendum is W. L. Morris, an officer in the small Division 316 with about 60 members who work for the Norfolk Southern in Georgia. Convoy Dispatch spoke with Morris to find out more about this watershed election.

On June 25 some 1,700 delegates and several hundred alternates will assemble at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas for the 27th Convention of the Teamsters Union.

April 22, 2006. Many Teamsters express concern when asked for their reaction to the International Union’s recent statements about early contract talks with UPS.

Broken promises, the benefit cuts, the lack of contract enforcement—these and other concerns are front and center for members.

And if UPS has agreed to the talks, as they most certainly have if the IBT
has floated the idea publicly,what is in it for them? Whatever
else they have up their sleeve, an early contract in 2006 or early 2007 would avoid any potential rancor during UPS’s 100th anniversary in 2007, and would be a major gift to UPS. Member concern may be justified but Teamsters know it won’t bring about change.

We need to be making demands on Hoffa and building pressure for major contract improvements—whether the contract comes around in 2008 or earlier.

Toward that end TDU has asked some veteran UPS Teamsters to speak out on the early contact idea and its ramifications.

Convoy invites you to weigh in on the discussion. Contact tdu@tdu.org or call (313) 842-2600 to share your thoughts on early bargaining.

Waste industry giants have declared a nationwide war on Teamster health benefits.

Local 82 Teamsters in Boston overwhelmingly voted to approve a series of bylaws amendments to give members a stronger voice in the local.

April 22, 2006: Delegate elections continue as Convoy goes to press, but one key outcome has already been decided.

April 22, 2006: Hoffa International Rep Rick Middleton, who also heads Los Angeles Local 572, has a little explaining to do.

April 22, 2006: The closing of a Maryland distribution center by C&S Wholesalers will result in the loss of 370 Teamster jobs in the coming months.

April 22, 2006: A slate of working Teamsters swept the delegate race in Memphis Local 667, defeating Hoffa running mate and International Union Trustee Henry Perry.

April 22, 2006: The United Teamsters Against Hoffa Slate swept all six positions in the convention delegate race in Pontiac, Mich. Local 614—the home local of General President James Hoffa.

April 22, 2006: “Rail engineers and trainmen face vicious attacks from their employers.

Local 82 Teamsters in Boston overwhelmingly voted to approve a series of bylaws amendments to give members a stronger voice in the local. More than 140 members turned out to the local union meeting on March 26 and voted by huge margins in favor of the reforms—an incredible turnout given that the local only has 650 members.

The overwhelming Yes vote came over the strong opposition of Secretary-Treasurer John Perry. It was the second rank-and-file victory for Local 82 members in a week and the second major set back for Perry, a multiple-salaried Teamster official who serves as Hoffa’s Trade Show Director.

April 6, 2006: Corporate executive pay and perks have gotten more out of line than ever, as detailed in a lengthy report in the April 9 New York Times.

The union has been weak at my job for a long time. The shop steward and I have been trying to bring members together to enforce the contract. Now management is cracking down.

February 28, 2006. On February 27, Public Citizen filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals to review the Hours of Service regulations put into effect by the D.O.T. The suit aims to reverse certain parts of the new regulations including the extension of driving time to 11 hours and the 34-hour restart provision.