Get Updates

History

The History of Teamster Corruption, Rebellion, and Reform

right_to_vote.jpgA 55-minute podcast interview with Ken Paff. Start the broadcast. This fact-filled podcast covers the growth of Teamster power, the parasitic corruption that accompanied it, and the victories, defeats and future of Teamster reform. Ken Paff is a founding member of TDU, and the strategist behind winning the Right to Vote for IBT Officers for all Teamsters.

Click here for a six-part history of TDU.

Click here for a history of changes to the IBT Constitution. 

Video: Reform History at IBT Conventions: 1981-2001. A nine-minute video of highlights and lowlights from past IBT Conventions.

Mother Trucker: The Diana Kilmury Story. A fact-based award-winning movie telling the history and TDU-involvement of the first-ever woman elected to the IBT General Executive Board in 1991. 

Video: Labor's Turning Point. A documentary film on the 1934 Minneapolis strikes that paved the way for Teamster growth in the trucking industry. Strike leader Jack Maloney, featured in the film, was a strong TDU supporter in his later years.

Related Articles

How TDU Won Contract Rights for All Teamsters

March 15, 2013
Membership Rights at Contract Time Teamster members do have power and democratic rights when it comes to voting on their contracts. It was not always this way. But Teamster members united through TDU to win key rights at contract time. TDU won the Right to a Majority Vote on Teamster Contracts Teamster members have the right to vote on their contracts by majority rule. This might seem like a no-brainer. But before 1987, it took...

Teamster History: How the "Club" Changed Our Union

November 26, 2012
The first "$100,000Club" in 1976.(Copies of thishistoric book areavailable from TDU.) November 26, 2012: It started in the mid-1970s, with an organization called PROD, the Professional Drivers Council. PROD collected hundreds of LM-2 financial reports on Teamster locals, joint councils and the International and began to analyze them, tracing all the multiple salaries, family connections, and more. The "$100,000 Club" was born. In 1979 PROD and TDU joined hands in one organization. TDU has published...

Women's History Month

March 14, 2012
March 14, 2012: TDU celebrates the contributions of Teamster women to our union and to labor struggles for social and economic equality. Building strong unions has paid off for women workers—literally. Women in unions earn higher wages, have better health care coverage, more rights to paid sick leave and vacation, pension plans, and more rights and power on the job. Women union members make $2 an hour more than nonunion women workers. The difference for...

1989: Teamsters Win Right to Vote for Top Office

January 24, 2011
When TDU was founded in 1976, Teamster members didn’t have the right to vote for top officers and the union was controlled by organized crime. TDU members turned in over 100,000 signatures demanding the Right to Vote at the 1986 Teamster Convention.TDU set out to change that. In 1985, over a hundred thousand members signed a petition demanding the Right to Vote. Then in 1988, the Justice Department went to court against the union’s leadership...

Candlelight March to Save Collective Bargaining to Highlight King Day Celebration

January 13, 2011
January 13, 2011: More than 400 union and civil rights activists will march to Cincinnati’s City Hall Jan. 14 to condemn the plan recently elected Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio) has to strip Ohio child care and home health care workers of their right to bargain for a better life. The march is part of the annual AFL-CIO King Day celebration Jan. 13-17 in Cincinnati. Through the march and throughout the conference, activists will send a...
Get Advice Join TDU Donate

I am TDU

"At the Black Leadership Conference, I was inspired by the dedication of TDU members who've been fighting for years. I'm learning a lot from my TDU brothers and sisters. I want to make the union stronger. That's what TDU is about and that's why I joined."

Kristen Jefferson, UPS
Local 705, Chicago

Join

Recent News

Yellow's Massive Proposed Change of Operations

October 19, 2022

Yellow has filed the expected massive change of operations documents to consolidate Holland and New Penn into Yellow across the Midwest, East and South. The proposed change would create 998 utility driver positions, and 35 new velocity distribution centers, as well as consolidate and reconfigure various terminals.

New Leadership, New Direction in Major Teamster Local

October 15, 2022

Members overwhelmingly elected new leadership in the 14,000-member Teamsters Local 135. Members turned out to vote for Dustin Roach and the 135 Members First Slate, who won with 68 percent of the vote. The election is a triumph for grassroots action and rank-and-file power, after an intense grassroots member-to-member campaign.

View More News Posts

Members' Rights

Stewards Toolbox