In February the Hoffa administration made a tentative deal with Yucaipa, a private investment firm, to impose a 15 percent wage cut on 3,500 U.S. Teamster carhaulers at Allied Holdings. Wages will be frozen for three years. If Yucaipa can take control of Allied’s management, the deal will go to Teamster members for a vote in March.

If this deal is approved, it would be the largest concession ever given in a national Teamster contract. Even worse, it could signal the end of the national contract and a disaster for pattern bargaining in trucking.

Allied is the largest car carrier in North America, and Yucaipa already owns the second-largest, Performance Transportation Services (PTS). Together the two companies haul a majority of all cars and trucks made and imported.

As we go to press, meetings have been held in Detroit, Ft. Wayne and Dayton where Carhaul Director Fred Zuckerman tried to sell members on the deal, but most were not buying. The 300 Teamsters at the Michigan meeting told Zuckerman they don’t want the deal. Drivers from Detroit, owner-operators from Flint, and brothers from Pontiac took the floor to say “No.” Teamsters in Ft. Wayne, Ind. and Dayton, Ohio voiced their objections as well.

St. Louis Local 604 has filed charges under the IBT Constitution Article 12, Section 2(b), for undercutting the existing contract and the contract standards of the members of Local 604.

The IBT is selling fear, which is management’s game. Instead of distributing the actual deal they signed, they passed out a scare sheet showing that the proposed concessions are not as bad as Allied’s outlandish demands.

They say nothing about the key question: How can they sign three years of big concessions and then turn around and negotiate a new contract with the other carriers next year? By the end of May when a two percent raise kicks in, Allied Teamsters would be making 83 percent of what other Teamsters make. Other employers are already saying they will demand the same deal if Allied gets it.

This industry is heavily unionized, more than any other in trucking. There are few shippers— the auto companies—who must move their product. Other carriers, including Jack Cooper and Cassens, would love to take over some of this business. Yucaipa’s own PTS is now buying Allied’s Canadian operation, absorbing 1,200 Teamsters there at union scale.

If the IBT can’t step into this situation and do better than giving up, and help arrange for other union carriers to absorb Allied’s business and workers in the event they shutdown, we have to wonder why we pay them the big bucks.

We can all respect anyone’s fear of losing their job. It’s real. But this union wasn’t built on fear. Instead of scare tactics, our leaders should be leading.

It’s not too late for them to start. Allied Teamsters, and all carhaulers, will unite behind a program to save our contract and good Teamster jobs.

Go to www.tdu.org [1] for updates on this situation, informational leaflets, a full copy of the proposed concessionary deal, and a copy of the charges filed by Local 604.