Transport Topics March 13, 2015 View the original piece UPS is abandoning the slogan "We Love Logistics" in favor of "United Problem Solvers" in a new advertising campaign to highlight its other services. The message, according to UPS, communicates the company’s problem-solving ability for everyone from small businesses to the largest global firms. "Our employees solve customer problems by using the best mix of proven analysis methods, innovative technologies and the company's extensive global transportation...

Alexandra Bradbury Labor Notes March 11, 2015 View the original piece Four thousand union activists rallied in Charleston, West Virginia, March 7 against “right to work.” (Click here to see more photos from the rally.) Local and national labor leaders also spoke against other threats on the agenda of the state’s Republican-controlled legislature: charter schools, mine safety rollbacks, and changes to the prevailing-wage law. Click here to read more at Labor Notes.  

Howard Frank Osha Today March 06, 2015 View the original piece Employees at an open, doorless Tannersville freight facility say they are forced to work in freezing temperatures for eight hours a day with just a 30-minute lunch and 10-minute break. Not true, said Neovia Logistics Services and Management, the Texas-based company that runs the facility. The company says employees can take whatever discretionary breaks they need in the cold. Yet accusations come from a number...

Michael Grabell, ProPublica, and Howard Berkes, NPR Pro Publica March 05, 2015 View the original piece It was getting late that September afternoon in 2012. Whedbee, a 50-year-old derrickhand, was helping another worker remove a pipe fitting on top of the well when it suddenly blew. Oil and sludge pressurized at more than 700 pounds per square inch tore into Whedbee’s body, ripping his left arm off just below the elbow. Coworkers jerry-rigged a tourniquet...

Eugene Mulero Transport Topics March 05, 2015 View the original piece New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker plans to restore a recently suspended hours-of-service rule under review by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the senator told Transport Topics after a Senate hearing March 4. Last year, Booker and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) strongly resisted suspending the rule, finding support from key stakeholders. “I think we have a serious issue, as everybody concludes, about driver fatigue,...

Ted Hart NBC February 24, 2015 View the original piece Whit Wyatt of Washington Court House worked as a teamster truck driver for 33 years. Now Whit and his wife Barb have a comfortable retirement living on Whit's teamster pension and social security. But Wyatt is one of hundreds of thousands of union retirees who may soon see severe cuts to their monthly pension checks. “I've planned my life around my guaranteed pension and it...

Transport Topics February 20, 2015 View the original piece Railway labor troubles are continuing in Canada. Unifor, a labor union that represents about 4,800 workers at Canadian National Railway, said it will begin strike votes next week after five months of talks failed to produce an agreement. Click here to read more at Transport Topics.

Transport Topics February 20, 2015 View the original piece Labor Secretary Tom Perez directed the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to reach a tentative contract deal today or face the prospect of talks next week in Washington’s politically charged environment, news services reported. Perez was dispatched to San Francisco earlier this week by President Obama to resolve the long-running talks, which now are in their 10th month. Negotiations involve 20,000 workers...

David Shepardson The Detroit News February 18, 2015 View the original piece A federal judge late Tuesday approved a landmark settlement that will phase out and end the government’s oversight and 25-year consent decree to keep mob influence out of the 1.4 million-member union. Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska said in a four-page ruling that a “thorough review of the final agreement and order reveals that the settlement must be approved.” She added that...

Ian Austen The New York Times February 17, 2015 View the original piece A strike by about 3,000 locomotive engineers and conductors at the Canadian Pacific Railway unexpectedly ended on Monday, its second day, as both sides agreed to arbitration. The announcement came about half an hour before a bill was to be introduced in Parliament ordering the members of the union, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, back to work. Canadian Pacific said the “ramp-up process” to...