April 2, 2010: The 2009 financial reports for Teamster locals, joint councils, conferences and the International Union are now available. The International Union form, which is 432 pages long, shows some big cuts made: Representation spending is down by 15 percent. Political activity is down 43 percent Grants to locals and strike benefit expenditures are down, too. But Hoffa took a raise. Last year his total compensation was $362,869. With members hit by wage cuts...

March 25, 2010: Every local in the South is being forced to pay tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to bankroll big extra pensions for Teamster officials. It’s a case of misusing union members’ money to provide outsized perks to officials, instead of to build our Teamsters Union. The locals are paying about $1.7 million this year to the Southern Region of Teamsters Pension Fund, which covers only the full-time officers and staff of...

February 2, 2010: The IBT has added one new International Vice President and is preparing to lose another, Central Region VP Pat Flynn. Rick Middleton was sworn in as the new Western Region Vice President on Jan. 27. Middleton was appointed to replace Jim Santangelo, of Los Angeles, who retired in disgrace after TDU revealed that the union paid $500,000 to secretly settle a sexual harassment lawsuit involving him. Middleton is the Secretary-Treasurer of Local...