October 3, 2008: Fred Zuckerman and the Carhaul Division are up to their tricks again, as they try to threaten Teamster members to vote Yes on the second offer.

Their pension leaflet on the Central States Pension Fund states, “If a majority votes ‘No,’ then on December 1, 2008, as required by the PPA, the CSPF must impose the Default Schedule and all of its benefit cuts…”

Once again, they are distorting the truth.

In the absence of a signed contract by December 1, the union and employers could simply sign a one page “participation agreement” in the Central States Fund, noting the contribution increases that were already agreed to (in both the first and second offers).

That would solve the problem.

Why didn’t Zuckerman take this simple step long ago? As a condition of recommending the first and second offers, he could have required the employers to sign this statement. He didn’t, because he wanted to have this threat to use against members.

Teamsters deserve better than a leadership that carefully plans threats against the membership about our hard-earned pensions. Meanwhile, Zuckerman accumulates four nice pensions himself.

Something is wrong with this picture, and it needs to be changed.

Rank-and-file carhaulers defeated many of the concessions in offer number one. Now it’s time to decide if the remaining concessions warrant a No vote, or we should accept the offer in these difficult times.

Teamsters should evaluate contracts on their merits, without lies and threats from leaders who seem to work for the employers more often than they do for us.

What do you think? Click here to send a comment or a question to the TDU Carhaul Committee.