December 5, 2007: Rail labor activists from across North America are coming together to form a new cross-craft inter-union caucus that includes all rail workers in North America—Railroad Workers United. by Ron Kaminkow, BLET Division 51Amtrak, Reno., Nev. “We have been divided—craft against craft, union against union, terminal against terminal—for too long,” says Joe Wyman, UTU trainman in Tucson, Ariz. “We will be stronger by including all railroaders in North America.” The RWU will be...

December 5, 2007: Whether or not you attended the TDU Convention, you can help build a stronger union this year and for the future. In the coming year, TDU members will be working to expand our industry networks, recruit to TDU, and get Convoy out to more and more Teamsters. TDU members also elected a new International Steering Committee to guide TDU over the next year. TDU members will continue to build industry networks to...

Local 726: We'll Keep Fighting Thanks for all the support we got at the recent TDU Convention. We narrowly lost our local election, but that fight is far from over. We have filed post election protests and look forward to having our case heard because Local 726 members deserve to have an honest election. Our protest outlines numerous serious violations, including counting over 1,300 challenged ballots without verifying their eligibility. We will see this fight...

December 2, 2007: Ron Burkle says he has an “exclusive” agreement with the Teamsters for concessions at Interstate Bakeries Corp (IBC). But the billionaire investor and our top officials aren’t telling the details. On Nov. 30, a federal bankruptcy judge denied IBC management’s request for the details of Burkle’s secret deal with the Teamsters. Over 9,500 Teamsters deliver Hostess Twinkies, Wonder Bread, and other products for the bakery. The Teamsters agreed to concessions when the...

The International Union has announced that negotiators will return to the bargaining table to bargain over the supplements that were rejected. Click here to read more at MakeUPSDeliver.org. Click here for local-by-local results.

November 21, 2007: Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters ratified by a 65 percent approval rate a new national five-year contract with United Parcel Service that provides wage increases of $4 per hour over term while securing existing benefits, the union announced Nov. 20. However, the rejection of five regional or local supplements to the contract will require renegotiation and re-voting before a settlement can be finalized to cover 240,000 IBT-represented UPS employees nationwide,...

November 21, 2007: Last Thursday, a band of roughly 1,000 demonstrators assembled by the AFL-CIO paraded past the White House, in a driving rain, to the headquarters of the National Labor Relations Board. They asked the board, which was established 72 years ago to protect workers' right to bargain, to cease and desist. No more rulings. And no more new members (the terms of three of the board's five members are due to expire shortly)...

November 20, 2007: Working Teamsters at UPS can’t depend on top union officials to have our backs, and we can’t wait until there’s a crisis to get organized. That’s the lesson of the UPS contract. In spite of its massive concessions, the contract is headed toward passage with 65 percent of the vote nationally. It is not ratified yet, because Teamsters have voted down three supplemental agreements in Pennsylvania and New York. If we want...

November 20, 2007: The Chicago Tribune reports on sham contracts and nepotism in a new article detailing the corruption in Chicago Local 714. Teamster Probe Finds “Sham” Pacts, AbusesBy Stephen Franklin The books show that workers at Granja & Sons, a small printing company in Chicago, joined Teamsters Union Local 714, one of the union's most influential locals, in January 1998. But the reality is a bit more complex. The company's four union members, as...

UPS Teamsters rejected three supplemental agreements in the East, putting the ratification of the UPS national contract on hold. Click here to read the full story at MakeUPSDeliver.org. Click here for local-by-local results.