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...

April 2, 2007: Before UPS Freight could change its corporate culture, it had to make sure its truck drivers could change their socks. Read the full story at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

April 2, 2007: Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters March 30 voted to reject a contract offer from Costco Wholesale Corp. to cover about 3,300 East Coast employees, according to an IBT official. Rome Aloise, chairman of the union's Costco contract negotiating committee, said about 89 percent of union members participating in the mail ballot voted against the Costco proposal. About 40 percent of those eligible to vote participated, he said. The current contract...

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April 2, 2007: After three years of working without a national contract, the BLET announced a deal with the National Carriers’ Conference on March 5. The new deal eliminates COLA and allows the carriers to pass along health care costs to Teamster engineers. The BLET has not released the full proposed agreement—only a two-page summary. Here’s what we know so far: Wages: Engineers will get a 3 percent wage increase when the deal goes into...

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April 2, 2007 The Members Come Before Politics I was a delegate to the 2006 Teamster Convention. It was made perfectly clear by Brother Dan Virtue, candidate for Eastern Region VP, of his independence from any candidate during the IBT convention this past June. After listening to this candidate speak, and learning what he stood for, it was simple for me to understand why his members elected him and why Brother Hoffa made him an...

April 2, 2007: This year is shaping up to be a truly exciting time for TDU and the Teamster reform movement. With the Make UPS Deliver campaign, a nation-wide tour of pension workshops, bylaws reform and local union elections, TDU members are hard at work pushing for change in our union (check out page ___ for an exciting bylaws victory in Boston). We need more resources to do it. We rely on Teamsters and retirees...

March 29, 2007: The Justice Department and Allied Holdings Inc.'s shareholders are urging the bankruptcy court not to approve the auto hauler's Chapter 11 plan disclosure statement. Read the full story at Forbes.com.

March 23, 2007: Press operators at the Los Angeles Times won a victory this week when the regional National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles rejected the newspaper’s objections about the workers’ successful election to join the Teamsters. Read the full story at teamsters.org.