May 16, 2008: At hearings on May 12-13, the Teamster Freight Division heard Yellow, Roadway and Holland present proposed changes of operations to take advantage of new freight contract language.

May 14, 2008: The trucking industry is lobbying to allow heavier trucks on our highways.

Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) is an organization of working Teamsters like you. For 30 years, TDU members have worked to win strong contracts and benefits in freight and at UPS.

May 1, 2008: Nearly 10,000 new Teamsters have joined our union this year at UPS Freight. That’s an important step forward for our union’s power in freight and at UPS.

April 23, 2008: Trucking company Arkansas Best Corp.

April 21, 2008: Roadway and Yellow both submitted changes of operations that mark the beginning of the new “utility driver” model.

April 9, 2008: Members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters have ratified by an 89 percent majority a 64-month national UPS Freight agreement to cover an estimated 9,900 truck drivers and dock

April 7, 2008: Our union is now nearly 10,000 members strong at UPS Freight, as members voted this weekend to ratify a new contract that brings them into our union.

March 27, 2008: Before the new contract took effect, and with thousands of Teamsters still laid off, Yellow, Roadway and USF Holland started advertising for $14 per hour casuals.

March 27, 2008: As we go to press, the International Union has reached a tentative agreement for a national contract at UPS Freight.

March 14, 2008: The UPS, freight and carhaul national contracts all have a Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) clause, to help protect against inflation eating away our wages.

February 21, 2008: Conveniently at the end of the voting period for the NMFA, YRC announced the demise of 800 Teamster jobs with the closing of USF Holland and Reddaway terminals in the Southeast a

February 21, 2008: Just before downsizing operations in the U.S., YRC found the money for expansion in China.

February 21, 2008: The next round in the fight over drivers’ hours of service rules is likely to come at the end of 2008 or in January 2009, before the Bush administration leaves office.

February 13, 2008: The Department of Transportation is violating the law and endangering the public's safety in proceeding with a pilot program to allow Mexican trucks to deliver goods throughout t

February 10, 2008: Most of the 39,000 votes on the NMFA have been counted, and the national contract is passing by nearly a 2-1 margin.

The vote count for the national freight contract has completed, and preliminary vote results are available.

January 30, 2008: In good news for DHLers, industry publications report that DHL “vows to stay in the United States” despite calls by some Wall Street analysts to sell its U.S. operations.

January 30, 2008: As expected, ABF management has signed a "me-too" to be bound by the National Master Freight Agreement (NMFA).

January 30, 2008: About two weeks after launching a major nationwide organizing campaign to represent truck drivers and dockworkers at UPS Freight, International Brotherhood of Teamsters has gained

January 30, 2008: The "Vote No" campaign on the freight contract plus the new organizing at UPS Freight could be a one-two punch to protect Teamster standards in freight.

January 29, 2008: In a brief order issued Jan. 23, the U.S.

January 23, 2008: Bargaining at DHL is set to restart in February and the International Union is softening up members in advance for concessions.

January 22, 2008: by Randolph Heaster for the Kansas City Star: Mail ballots on a proposed new contract have reached the hands of nearly 50,000 YRC Worldwide Inc.

January 29, 2008: A majority of workers at terminals employing more than 3,200 UPS Freight employees have signed Teamster cards.

January 18, 2008: As ballots arrive on a concessionary contract, Freight2008.org is answering misleading IBT PR by providing Freight Teamsters with the facts.

January 18, 2008: Freight Teamsters across the country are mobilizing to oppose the proposed concessionary freight contract.

January 10, 2008: The changes in the cost of retiree health care associated with the tentative contract for freight Teamsters in the Central States Health & Welfare Fund are different from thos

January 10, 2008: The power is in the hands of freight Teamsters, who will vote on the tentative agreement and all supplements.

The tentative NMFA contains the dangerous concessions that we have outlined here over the past month.

January 3, 2008: DHL bargaining is moving on to wages and is expected to wrap up soon.

January 5, 2007: The Teamsters Union is about to launch an organizing drive at UPS Freight, which all Teamsters should support and help as much as we can.

December 26, 2007: The trucking industry association is bragging about new concessions in the tentative deal at Yellow/Roadway.

The new freight deal includes $1 an hour to protect our pensions and benefits, but it also contains concessions that severely weaken our contract.

December 19, 2007: Public Citizen filed a motion asking the U.S. Court of Appeals to reinstate the 10-hour driving limit and end the 34-hour restart.

December 19, 2007: The omnibus spending bill (H.R. 2764) passed by the House Dec.

The IBT has reached a tentative deal with Yellow Roadway, but no information about the deal has been released. Click here to read more at Freight2008.

December 11, 2007: The FMCSA today issued an "Interim Final Rule" on drivers’ hours of service regs which retains the 11-hour drive time and the 34-hour reset.

December 5, 2007: As freight talks resume on Dec. 5, the information blackout continues and rumors are flying high. Members are left wondering what our goals are.

December 5, 2007: Thousands of DHL Teamsters are facing a threat to their future jobs and our union’s strength, as their chief negotiator has stated his view that “part-timers will be in the co

December 5, 2007: I am a road driver. Some of the places we bed down are ridiculous. I wouldn’t make my dog lay in them. What rights do I have besides grieve and wait?

November 12, 2007: Brad Slawson, Hoffa’s assistant and the chief negotiator with DHL, has stated that “part timers will be in the contract” because “DHL is demanding them.”

Freight Teamsters and TDU have launched a new website to inform and and update members about freight bargaining: Freight2008.org.

October 17, 2007: The Freight Division is taking two very different strategies from others in the Hoffa administration.

October 1, 2007: The U.S. Court of Appeals has granted a three-month stay of their decision striking down two aspects of the Hours of Service regulations.

September 18, 2007: On September 19, Brad Slawson (co-chair of the DHL negotiating committee) will meet with DHL management to set a schedule and location for bargaining.

August 29, 2007: WASHINGTON, DC - Five groups sued today in federal court to block a Bush administration plan to allow Mexico-domiciled trucks to roam the country’s highways as soon as Saturday.<

August 23, 2007: Freight wages have fallen drastically, measured against the cost of living, in the past ten years.

August 23, 2007: In August, ABF pulled out of Trucking Management Inc. (TMI), which bargains the National Master Freight Agreement, to bargain separately.

August 23, 2007: Brothers and Sisters,

August 23, 2007: Truck drivers will return to the 10-hour maximum driving time on Sept. 14, unless the trucking employers are successful in getting the court to stay its July 24 ruling.  

August 23, 2007: Sometimes, your vote is your voice. But on the issue of splitting UPS from the Central States Pension Fund, you won’t get a vote, unless you work at UPS.

August 18, 2007: From Traffic World: ABF Freight System is seeking its own road toward a new Teamster contract and single employer pension plan.

August 17, 2007: Industry journal Logistics Management reports that the IBT has made "substantial progress on the union’s talks with UPS, its largest employer." But according the to the

August 16, 2007: Teamster master contracts and benefit funds are under attack—at UPS, freight, DHL and Carhaul— and now ABF is moving to break out of the National Master Freight Agreement.

August 12, 2007: Election Appeals Master Kenneth Conboy has issued a decision that could result in a victory for Teamster democracy.

August 10, 2007: In one of James R. Hoffa's last interviews before he disappeared in 1975, he was asked what the priority should be for the Teamsters Union.

August 3, 2007: DHL has a goal: “structural changes in DHL’s labor contracts to more appropriately reflect the fact that DHL is a small package delivery company.”

August 2, 2007: Truck drivers will return to the 10-hour maximum driving time on September 14, unless the trucking employers are successful in getting the court to stay its July 24 ruling.

August 2, 2007: Thanks to a federal appeals court, an administration attempt to allow long-haul truck drivers to add an extra hour to their already long day has been overturned.

August 1, 2007: TDU supplied the ammo, and now Teamsters from coast-to-coast are shooting down the sell-out of DHL Teamsters. And they won’t stop shooting till this monster is dead.

August 1, 2007: Congress has passed new provisions strengthening “whistleblower” protections for truck drivers.

July 25, 2007: DHL Teamsters are uniting to save the national contract. Download the Draft Contract that would gut members’ rights and find out how you can help keep DHL in the NMFA.

July 18, 2007: The International Union has requested all freight Local Unions to hold Contract Proposal Meetings by August 3, and to submit proposals to be received in Washington by August 13.

July 12, 2007: Will the Hoffa administration let DHL undermine our standards under the guise of a new 'master' contract?

July 12, 2007: IBT Election Supervisor Richard Mark has very likely made his final decision of the 2006 IBT Campaign, and done so in a confusing manner.

July 9, 2007: By Randolph Heaster:The Teamsters union has begun contract talks with UPS that could affect the direction of future negotiations with YRC Worldwide Inc.

June 26, 2007: Logistics Management says there is good news for shippers in our union's current round of bargaining with UPS, and in the upcoming NMFA negotiations.

June 18, 2007: By John Gallagher, for Traffic World - Pension benefits are in play as never before in the current round of negotiations between UPS and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters,

June 8, 2007: Where is the Freight Division of our union?

“We believe there is an opportunity in this negotiating cycle to withdraw from some or all of these [Teamster pension plans] and provide benefits directly to our employees…”

June 8, 2007: Freight Teamsters be warned: the Freight Division apparently isn’t considering fighting to restore retiree health coverage where it has been devastated.

June 8, 2007: Thanks to a lawsuit by a Roadway Teamster, workers who are off drawing disability pay and using Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) time should no longer be forced to use up their vacatio

June 8, 2007: There is a glaring weakness in Teamster national contracts—UPS, freight, and carhaul—which should be corrected in this bargaining round.

May 22, 2007: YRC is acquiring trailers with flip-signs that say Roadway on one side, and Yellow on the other.

May 17, 2007:The House passed legislation (H.R.

May 11, 2007: “We believe there is an opportunity in this negotiating cycle to withdraw from some or all of these [Teamster pension plans] and provide benefits directly

May 11, 2007: by John Gallagher in Traffic World Online --Arkansas Best Corp.

May 9, 2007: My freight brothers and sisters, a call to action.

May 9, 2007: Over the past couple years, over 200 new positions have been created at freight carriers in Georgia, thanks to Local 728.

The Transportation Department bowed to congressional pressure Monday and said it would allow more public scrutiny of a proposed demonstration project that would permit Mexican-based trucking compan

April 24, 2007: Public Citizen joined environmental and labor groups late Monday in suing the federal government to challenge an illegal pilot program that will authorize up to 100 trucking compan

April 2, 2007: Mexican truckers may not be running U.S. highways in greater numbers any time soon.

April 2, 2007: Before UPS Freight could change its corporate culture, it had to make sure its truck drivers could change their socks.

February 27, 2007: When President Hoffa announced a card-check and neutrality agreement for UPS Freight at the Teamster Convention last June, I stood to applaud with all my brothers and sisters.

Yellow has abandoned its Change of Operations plan to expand its Premium Service in the East, South and Midwest, after the change was approved by the change of operations panel on Jan. 17.

Our NMFA is up March 31, 2008, and we need Mr. Hoffa and the International Negotiations Committee to stop treating freight Teamsters like second class union members.

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.

Yellow’s proposed Office Change of Operations reared its head again and will be heard just days after this is printed, on Dec. 7 in Kansas City.

February 26, 2007: In this report, Stephens Inc., an investment banking firm, looks at the effect the Bush administration's new policy on Mexico-domiciled trucks will have on truckload carriers

January 26, 2007: In a recent statement on UPS national contract talks, IBT Parcel Division Director Ken Hall announced he would also continue bargaining with UPS Freight on a contract covering 125

October 18, 2006. Yellow-Roadway CEO William Zollars told Traffic World magazine that any deal between the Teamsters and UPS Freight, covering one terminal of 120 workers in Indianapolis, wil

October 18, 2006. The neutrality agreement with UPS Freight, announced by James Hoffa in dramatic fashion in Las Vegas this June is now officially over. UPS Freight spokesman Ira Rosenfeld emphasized to Traffic World that the Teamsters would be bargaining for “one location only” and that the neutrality deal is now void.

October 18, 2006. Tom Griffith was a freight driver before he was elected president of Harrisburg, Pa. Local 776 a little over 20 years ago. He was Eastern Region Freight Director for several years. He knows the Hoffa administration from the inside and talked about the reason he retired. The following is adapted from his address to the TDU Convention.

At the September 21 Multi-Region Change of Operations meeting in Chicago, Yellow Transportation’s VP of Labor Relations announced that the Yellow clerical Change of Operations was “withdrawn wi

Teamster members are not the only ones concerned that Hoffa would undercut the National Master Freight Agreement by negotiating a substandard deal at UPS Freight (Overnite).

July 17, 2006: Hoffa is playing politics with UPS Bargaining and Overnite/UPS Freight.

“We won it—card check, neutrality. UPS Freight. Wow!”

After a string of recent profitable quarters, merger mania appears to have caught up with YRC Worldwide. YRC lowered its first quarter profits by 35 percent and saw its stock price drop.

The May 16 acquisition of Overnite by UPS means that our biggest nonunion competition now has the deepest pockets in the freight industry.

The national freight grievance panel ruled on April 28 that former Red Star employees are entitled to be hired at the new USF Holland terminals in the East.

Yellow has announced that its USF Dugan subsidiary will close. This is after our union spent two years, millions of dollars, and countless hours of Teamster labor to organize Dugan.

January 6, 2006: Greenville's Roadway Express facility is losing a significant number of jobs as the company realigns its business to better reflect traffic patterns and reduce transit times, s

Teamsters and their families demonstrated August 29 outside the federal building in Nashville to protest Yellow’s deployment of fatigued drivers. Inside, attorney Paul Taylor was arguing the case of TDU member Ron Melton, who alleged the company disciplined him when he refused to drive because of fatigue. Yellow had kept Melton waiting by the phone for more than seven hours after his scheduled bid start time. At right, Local 480 Teamster Terry Warren.

Roadway Express has proposed a massive change of operations, which would cause 955 Teamsters to relocate. They are seeking a union hearing on February 9 and implementation by March 12.

Seven million dollars is on the table as the proposed WARN Act settlement to pay off Teamsters put out of work when USF Red Star closed its doors last year.

I would like to thank TDU and Convoy Dispatch for the opportunity to get a very important message out to my Teamster brothers and sisters.

ABF road drivers in Kernersville, N.C. and Orlando, Fla. are contending with a host of problems that stem from poor terminal management. Runarounds are rampant.

In mid January the Eastern Region freight grievance panel awarded over $230,000 to Pittsburgh DHL drivers, but the company continues to defy the decision.

On February 1, Teamsters Union freight representatives agreed to approve Roadway’s major change of operations, which will close some breakbulks and relay points and move approximately one thousand road, dock, yard and office jobs. In return, certain job protections were written into the change agreement.

Click here to read the Change of Operations

March 16, 2006: Local 249 has submitted a request for strike authorization from the IBT in response to DHL’s unwillingness to comply with a September 2005 grievance decision.

On February 21 the National Freight Grievance Committee issued a clarification in a case from Local 776, which protects the right of a freight Teamster to appeal to a third doctor regarding a DOT p

Freight and carhaul Teamsters will make less this year than last due to wages lost to inflation—despite COLA increases which will take affect next month.

Mergers and acquisitions are the name of the game in the new trucking industry as companies scramble to compete against one another in all sectors of the market: LTL freight, parcel delivery and gl

From coast to coast, DHL Teamsters feel the same way: Hoffa did the company’s bidding and didn’t even bother to consult the affected Teamsters.

February 8, 2006. Local 249 has submitted a request for strike authorization from the IBT in response to DHL’s unwillingness to comply with a September 2005 grievance decision.

February 28, 2006. On February 27, Public Citizen filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals to review the Hours of Service regulations put into effect by the D.O.T. The suit aims to reverse certain parts of the new regulations including the extension of driving time to 11 hours and the 34-hour restart provision.

March 8, 2006. Freight and carhaul Teamsters will make less this year than last due to wages lost to inflation—despite COLA increases which will take affect next month.

The National Review Committee (Tyson Johnson for the IBT and Jim Roberts for TMI) ruled Teamster members covered under NMFA Supplements will no longer have the option of requesting a 3rd doctor’s