Arming Teamsters with Information to Fight for Our Pensions
April 2, 2007: The 2008 UPS and Freight contracts are our chance to win the contributions we need to protect and increase our benefits. TDU is bringing together Teamster members and pension experts to talk about what working Teamsters can do to protect our benefits.To succeed, we need to understand the challenges we face and put together a plan that can win the pension protections and improvements we need. That’s why Teamsters for a Democratic...
UPS Feeder Drivers Demand Snow Plan
April 2, 2007: After a late-winter blizzard pounded the Midwest, Feeder Drivers in the Kansas City area are asking UPS management to institute an emergency road plan for winter weather conditions. Road drivers are fed-up with a policy that intimidates and coerces operations in impossible or hazardous winter storm conditions. UPS drivers are routinely forced into winter storms, even blizzard conditions, under threat of firing (for job abandonment). Then, if there is an accident, the...
U.S. Border May Open to Mexican Trucks
April 2, 2007: Mexican truckers may not be running U.S. highways in greater numbers any time soon. Funding for the Department of Transportation pilot program that would monitor this traffic was delayed by a vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The IBT claimed victory after a major lobbying effort to scuttle the program. The Bush administration decision to open up limited cross-border truck traffic raised concerns over drivers with lesser qualifications and potentially unsafe equipment,...
Teamster Corporate Campaign Pressures Coke
April 2, 2007: Coca-Cola has been stepping on Teamsters’ rights—attacking members’ healthcare and pensions and threatening to eliminate union jobs. Now our union is stepping up a corporate campaign against Coke. Teamsters have rallied at NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games through the March Madness playoffs to pressure the NCAA to drop Coke as an advertising partner. Teamsters have leafleted fans to inform them about Coca-Cola’s labor, environmental, and human rights violations here and abroad. Examples...
Chicago Teamsters Want to Elect Their Bargaining Committees
April 2, 2007: On March 21, it was no normal monthly meeting at Chicago Local 726. The hall was packed with hundreds of members, with many people in the hallway. They wanted to change their local union bylaws to have the right to elect working Teamsters to their bargaining committees. Fighting for the Future, the grassroots movement in Local 726, put forward three bylaws changes and encouraged members to attend. The union leadership brought people...
Canadian Trainmen May Leave UTU for Teamsters
April 2, 2007: Last month’s strike on the Canadian National shows why we need to have unity on the rails—and why having a democratic union is so important. Over 2,800 trainmen, members of the United Transportation Union, went out on strike Feb. 10. They stayed out for two weeks, and their strike had a huge impact on the Canadian economy. With support from the UTU International and solidarity from other rail unions, they may have...
Board Nixes Vote, Blocks Local Merger
April 2, 2007: It can be hard for small locals to survive these days—especially when we are going up against big multinational corporations. But when two small GCC locals with the same employer tried to merge, the GCC national leadership stood in the way and instead sent some of the members into an entirely different local—even though the membership of both locals and the GCC National Convention voted to approve their merger. It started in...
Investment Expert Analyzes US/Mexico Border Opening
Click here to read an analysis of the Bush administration's pilot program by investment bankers Stephens Inc.
Rebuild Teamster Power in Freight
“We’ve got to get moving now on our next contract. In TDU, we’re the ones who are going to be asking the tough questions and pushing for stronger standards and better benefits.” Jimmy Rickert, Roadway Local 429, Lancaster, Penn. Contact our rank-and-file network in Freight. Click here to join an email list for news on the 2008 NMFA contract campaign. UPS Freight StickersGet it Straight at UPS Freight TDU members in Freight are launching a...
Funds Have Told Hoffa What We Need to Win in Bargaining to Increase Benefits
April 2, 2007: President James Hoffa has been briefed by the different Teamster benefit funds on what we need to win in the UPS and freight contracts to increase our benefits. This information needs to be shared with Teamster members. In 2002 and 2003, Teamsters were promised that our benefits would be secure for the life of the UPS, freight and carhaul contracts. Later, court documents revealed that the Central States Pension Fund repeatedly warned...