James Hoffa removed Michigan Joint Council President Larry Brennan from his International position effective Jan. 1. Brennan lost a $50,000 salary but will continue to head the Michigan Joint Council and Detroit Local 337. The firing, along with that of Brennan’s assistant Dennis Hands, shocked Teamster insiders, because it was Brennan who gave Hoffa a no-show job as an assistant for two years to make him eligible to run for office in the Teamsters Union....

The IBT Freight Division has signed contracts with USF Bestway, a division of Yellow Roadway, in Missouri and Texas that put Teamsters there into the Western Conference Pension Fund. Missouri and Texas are in the heart of the territory of the Central States Fund, so what gives? Apparently the corporation prefers the Western Fund, because it doesn’t have to carry unfunded liability on its books. What about protecting our Central States Fund by putting Teamsters...

They say charity begins at home. But sometimes it begins with your dues. Hundreds of Teamster officials will each put down $1,300 in fees for the James R. Hoffa charity golf tourney in Las Vegas, to be held May 1-3 at the Paiute golf resort.  And now, they can also put down another $1,300 for a poker tournament as well. They golf, gamble and mix with various Teamster employers. That’s some nice charity, but it...

Railroad engineers and trainmen from two unions are out to win greater solidarity and union democracy on the rails. On Jan. 1, Railroad Operating Crafts United (ROCU) officially launched its campaign to unite the two unions: the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the United Transportation Union (UTU). If ROCU is successful in bringing about a merger, it will mean over 100,000 rail workers would be in the same union, a big step...

The rail carriers have dropped their demands for single-person crews in this round of bargaining. But this summer, Union Pacific will begin testing new technology that could allow for train operation with only a single crew person, according to the Omaha World-Herald. Right now union contracts require operation by a two-person crew: a conductor and an engineer. UP will test two new technologies that might reduce the amount of crew control necessary to run a...

Leaders of Teamsters for a Democratic Union met on Sat., Jan. 6 to discuss Teamster reform goals for 2007. Local union reform and winning strong contracts were at the top of their list. At the meeting, TDU’s International Steering Committee (ISC) decided to support the Make UPS Deliver campaign, building a movement of freight Teamsters for a stronger NMFA, and helping groups run for local office on a reform platform.  “UPS wants to keep members...

When your union president writes to you that “it may or may not be that some modifications to the contract are necessary,” then sit on your wallet, because someone may be reaching for it.  On Jan. 9, Teamster President James Hoffa wrote that to 3,700 U.S. carhaulers who work for Allied. Many more Canadian Teamsters work for Allied, where it is not in bankruptcy. Any possible concessions agreed to by the IBT would have to...

March 5, 2007: On Jan. 15, Local 728 proudly joined in the Martin Luther King Day march here in Atlanta, Dr. King’s home and also the headquarters of UPS. It’s time for UPS to recognize the Martin Luther King holiday that our country celebrates, but too many corporations ignore. If we win this at UPS, we can take that win to lots of other Teamster employers. One of UPS’s two big competitors, the Postal Service,...

March 5, 2007: From the LA Times: "On Friday, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court filing in Georgia disclosed plans for Yucaipa to take over Allied Holdings Inc." Click here to read the full article.

Observing Vote Count an Honor I went to Washington to be an observer of the vote count. When I got to the vote count, I walked out into this big open room, filled with tables, chairs, mail bins and lots of noise: people talking, mail bins being moved, votes being counted by the counter. This was really exciting. I was assigned to Remarks and Remakes. Here, ballots that could not be read were either remarked or entirely remade....